By Joe Dennis, Nostalgia Farms, Walcott, IA
The Farmers Market is in full swing on Saturdays with an ever-increasing array of vegetables showing up on Tuesday evenings as well. Ed and the farm crew have been busy getting in the last of the summer squashes, pickles and tomatoes. We’re still planting a few late beds of lettuce. Jerico Romaine, and Black Seeded Simpson seem to hold up best in the heat of July better than most. It was a tough year on outside spinach due to the early heat of May and lack of spring rains. We’ll wait until the end of August to plant beds of spinach because production is too low in the heat of summer. There are so many other choices in summer’s peak that the lack of spinach is hardly noticeable.
June is also traditionally the month for berries, strawberries, gooseberries, currants, cherries, blueberries and rhubarb, all bringing in summer with a variety of sweet and sour taste choices. Rhubarb and gooseberries are both nostalgic choices, popular among daughters shopping for an unusual gift for their fathers during Fathers Day. Usually destined for pies, they are great by themselves
or combined for a truly tart Gooseberry-Rhubarb Pie. A cup and a half of sugar, 2 tablespoons of flour, 1 tablespoon cornstarch and a teaspoon of ginger and nutmeg all mixed with 4 cups of fruit. Bake in a double pie crust at 450 for 10 minutes, then drop the temperature to 350 for and additional 40-50 minutes. Easy as. . . well, you know. . . pie.
One of the great things about opening the new Deli in the
Freight House complex has been the amount of recipe sharing from our customers. Our willingness to work with different diets has come up with a few new favorites. One I have already added to our daily choices is a whole wheat apple-raisin muffin. I have tried many over the years and never been happy with the results until new customer Jerry shared his wife’s recipe with me. As far as recipes go it has a lot of ingredients, all which any one looking to live a healthier lifestyle will have in their pantry.
Father’s Day Whole Wheat Apple-Raisin Muffins
 |
Joe Dennis is a farmer at Nostalgia Farms in Walcott, Iowa. Together with his partner, Ed Kraklio, they sell locally-grown, organic produce at the Freight House Farmer’s Market in downtown Davenport, IA near LeClaire Park, every Tuesday (3-6 pm) and Saturday (8 am -1 pm). You can visit the farm’s website at: www.nostalgiafarms.com. Read more of Farmer Joe’s blog posts on MVHNews, or try any of the Nostalgia Farms recipes on this website. |
