A lucky garden: Get started now to have your own garden and market this summer

We asked our favorite farmers for the best tips on prepping the spring garden in February. From the state’s Extension Agent Karen Neill to our own resident farmer Mark Schicker, all were happy to share their best tips with you. And judging by the weather report, things may stay pretty soaked for a little while; plenty of time to sit inside and plan this year’s garden.

Your local county extension office can help you with soil tests, and provides free classes and information – including a monthly planting calendar – to start your own garden. Visit the North Carolina State University Web site, www.ces.ncsu.edu. Offices are listed by county.

Find your local county center
Wake County Extension Office (919) 250-1100
Guilford County, (336) 375-5876 

Karen Neill
Extension Agent, Agriculture – Urban Horticulture at North Carolina State University

Gardeners spend their lives trying to improve their soil — because we know that good soil is the foundation to a productive, prosperous garden. Here in the Piedmont, we tend to have a very high clay content that makes our soil extremely sticky when it rains.

Consider the following soil prep tips:

• Make sure not to work your soil when it is too wet. The soil should crumble in your hand versus rolling in a ball.
• Adding organic matter is key. Compost, well-rotted sawdust, and leaf mold are just a few examples. Add a four to six-inch layer of organic matter to the existing soil and till in thoroughly. Organic matter loosens the tight clay particles allowing air, water and roots to move through the soil.
• A soil test is also extremely important in finding out your pH as well as nutrient levels. Contact your county Extension office for information and assistance on soil testing.
• If the soil is too soggy, consider raised beds. I am a big fan of raised beds for just this very fact. Using raised beds, you can get a jump on the garden season versus your friends trying to garden in the heavy clay of the Piedmont. These beds dry out quickly and are easily accessible.
• Mulching garden beds also preserves soil moisture and keeps down weeds. Vegetable gardens may be mulched with herbicide-free grass clippings, compost, straw, or other easily degradable materials. Use caution with grass clippings or straw, they may harbor weed seed. In fact, it might be best to compost grass clippings first so they don’t mat down preventing water and air from entering as freely.
• It’s not too early to get your vegetable gardens planted. English peas, carrots, leaf lettuce, mustard and radishes should be seeded now.
• Garden centers will also  be bringing in transplants for other cool season vegetables such as cabbage and broccoli, and don’t forget those onion sets or certified seed potatoes.
• Warm season vegetables can start to go in after the last frost which is typically around April 15 in the Piedmont. Season extenders can be used if you wanted to try and cheat mother nature.
• Go green. Enroll in the North Carolina 10% campaign. Through this program you pledge to spend 10% of your food budget to eating local foods. You can do this by growing your own but also shopping where locally grown or raised food is sold and/or eating at restaurants that also serve local foods. This program not only keeps dollars here in North Carolina supporting our local food economy but it also cuts down on carbon emissions when food has to be trucked in from hundreds of miles away.

Check out the Guilford County Extension web site for upcoming gardening classes: www.guilfordgardenaswers.org

Korey Erb
Guilford College’s Rock Star Farmer

• Make plans. This is the time for making plans. Well-considered plans can often be the difference between a profitable farm and one treading water. Aggregating (or compiling) notes from the last two years into an Excel spreadsheet will help determine when and where to plant what in the coming months, especially if doubling one’s acreage under cultivation (from one acre to two).
• Succession Planting. New plants are put in every two weeks, in an attempt to lengthen the growing season and hopefully outwit pests in the fields.
• Clean up the greenhouse to prepare for starting summer crops from seed by the end of the month.
• Decide on supplements. Soil reports are coming back, so deciding what supplements to till into the fields when discing under  winter cover crops in a few weeks (this winter’s wheat, was easier to manage than last winter’s rye) is done now.

Charlie Headington
Bio-diversity expert and gardener profiled in Carolina Gardener, BackHome Magazine and Our State as well as appearing on local TV. Most recently Charlie co-designed, built and directed the first Edible Schoolyard in North Carolina.

• Landscape with edible plants and herbs. Groow dwarf fruit trees and bushes, herbs, and flowers that attract beneficial insects. See Permaculture books and go to www.ediblelandscaping.com.
• Design your own landscape to reflect your values. Be willing to be different whether in the front or backyard.
• Build and plant a culinary herb spiral near your back door. Keep herbs handy and plentiful. See “Gaia’s Garden” for ideas. 
• Start small, close to the house. Plant leafy greens and a few favorites. Plum and fig trees are reliable. 
• Practice “no-till” gardening. Feed the worms and let them do the work of turning and fertilizing the soil.
• Plant or keep a “wild” or “sacred” space for all the other creatures.The Wildlife Federation has a program or design your own. Get a hive of bees!
• Eat from your garden during all four seasons. Grow the best food in the world all year long. Read “Four Season Harvest.“ 
• Supplement your home garden with food from the farmer’s market. Local or “slow” food tastes best and supports your local economy..
• Compost your kitchen waste and even your newspaper. Turn waste into “black gold.” You can even do it indoors with worms.
• Sit back and enjoy the beauty and abundance of nature. Ecological and organic gardening can take less time than you think.

Charlie is hosting an introduction to permaculture class at his home April 27. For more information email Charlie at charlie.headington@gmail.com

Mark Schicker
Lucky 32 Southern Kitchen server and farmer, Shicker’s Acre

• Start Indoors. Garden Peas can be started as early as Valentine’s Day; and by the end of the month, start summer plants indoors, that will be transplanted outdoors.
• Sharpen tools. Now’s the time to get your shovels and shears in good working order.
• Till. Lime and other fertilizers or soil additives need to worked into the soil now.
• Direct seed. Start radishes and kale directly in your garden, in the coming weeks, they can tolerate the temperature swings of winter’s transition into spring.
• Transplant. Weather permitting, transplant winter vegetables that have been started indoors, like cabbage, broccoli, and kohlrabi.

Justin Leonard
Edible Schoolyard Garden Manager and Garden Educator at the Greensboro Children’s Museum

• Have a plan. Look up a planting calendar for our region. There’s a good one here at Southern Exposure.
• Be mindful.  As the season progresses some of your plants might start going to seed/flowering–let them go. This is food and habitat for beneficial insects.
• Involve the whole family in planning, planting, tending, and harvesting.
• Invest in drip irrigation
• Stagger planting dates for extended harvest.
• Enjoy! Have a party in the garden!
• Experiment.  Plant something new to you. Try an heirloom variety–the growers at the local farmer’s market often have older varieties.
• Mulch around plants to retain soil moisture and keep weeds down.

For more about our seasonal recipes, see our current menu at Lucky 32 Southern Kitchen and our Blog Recipe Index:http://lucky32southernkitchen.com/recipes/

Why the slider’s not in Kansas anymore

Four or five years ago, sliders were everywhere. At the time, we said we’ll never do sliders as long as they’re on the menu at Burger King. When it’s ubiquitous, you’ve gotta have a really good reason to do it.

We were more interested in trying to figure out how to feature lamb on the menu. People can be pretty picky about a lot of things — especially lamb.

Secondly, we couldn’t find anyone locally with enough lamb to supply a restaurant on a regular basis. Then we met Craig Rogers of Border Springs Farm. Craig’s lamb is a Katahdin-Texel cross and its taste is incomparable.

The Lambastic Slider is now a permanent pick on the Lucky 32 Southern Kitchen menu. As a starter, pair it with a medium body red wine, like a Cotes du Rhone, or Shiraz. Then choose a new seasonal entrée off the new winter menu.

We first served it like barbecue, smoked and pulled. We felt like it was a good way to present something that looked familiar, tasted familiar, but wasn’t familiar. If the guise, or the plating procedure is too substantially different than what people expect, then it takes more salesmanship.

So what if it had a different rub, and flavor profile, but it looked like pulled pork on johnny cakes? So we offered Pulled Lamb on Johnny Cakes, and christened it Ownesboro, KY barbecue.

Owensboro BBQ is a hyper-regionalized style known as mutton BBQ. The lengthy smoking process includes a constant mopping of the mutton with a salty mixture. Chris Chamberlain in Food Republic has a great story about it.

The lamb here was a modest success, but not overwhelming. But we believed in Craig, his story, and his food, and kept trying to figure out how to feature it.

Around that time Anna Mae Breads was making a believer of us. Shana’s (roller of Anna Mae Breads) personality was infectious and we knew that we wanted to support her business. We tasted five different kinds of bread that she made: Pullman loaves, sandwich rolls, dinner rolls, and slider buns; that was my Eureka! Moment. I knew we would make sliders. With her bread, and Craig’s mutton, we went on this slider kick where we explored all the different ways to construct sliders.

Lambastic Sliders came out of, “How can we feature Craig on this menu?” We made a lamb sausage topped with pepper jelly and goat cheese. Lamb is often served with mint jelly and the pepper jelly gives it a more southern kick, and the goat cheese is from down the road (Goat Lady Dairy).

Chef tips: Create your own slider

• Use a patty meat. Loose meats get a little too sloppy.
• We use Florida Bakery now that Anne Mae Breads has gone out of business. But you can use brown and serve dinner rolls.
• When you’re picking additional flavors, try to create a perfect balance between sweet, sour, salty, and savory. Balance spicy with sour or tartness. If it has a sour component, we like to balance with a little sweetness.
• Think of your favorite sandwich combinations and reference it with other ingredients.

FYI: For your inspiration, consider our previous slider combos

Whistle Bite Slider with slow-cooked Bradds Family pork belly, Pig & Whistle sauce and green tomato chowchow.

A popular incarnation was the Throwback Slider featuring pork sausage, spicy mustard, and caramelized onions. The name is a reference to the original accoutrements of the hamburger.

Next was the Winter BLT Slider: pork belly, tomato jam, and the hearts of romaine. Because tomatoes aren’t good in the winter, we used tomato jam (we make a big deal around here about using good tomatoes). With the crunchy, bitter ribs of the romaine, it was awesome. Some folks were confused by the name, however, and it didn’t go over so well here.

For Thanksgiving, we did Madison Sliders with turkey sausage and cranberry chutney.

This winter we’ve featured Umami Sliders: pickled shiitake mushroom relish and Green Hill camembert cheese, in our first veggie slider.

Lucky 32 Southern Kitchen Hot Pepper Jelly recipe
We use locally grown chiles from the Guilford College Farm

• 1 cup red bell peppers
• 1 cup green bell peppers
• 1 cup Jalapeno peppers
• 3 fl oz white vinegar
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1 tsp kosher salt
• 1 box Sure Jell – 2/3 cup pectin

Wash peppers well and then chop. In a food processor, pulse peppers and 2 tablespoons vinegar three times for 2 seconds each. Do not liquefy. Transfer peppers to a sauce pot. Add remaining vinegar, sugar and salt. Bring to a boil, lower heat and simmer for 5 minutes. Stir in Sure Jell and simmer 1 minute. Pour into a labeled container and cool before using.

Keep refrigerated.

Makes: 1 pint

For more about our seasonal recipes, see our current menu at Lucky 32 Southern Kitchen and our Blog Recipe Index: http://lucky32southernkitchen.com/recipes/

Shaking down persimmon recipes: pie, glaze, and Southern Comfort hard sauce

LOCAVORE’S DELIGHT: The Series #25. Follow us as we explore the bounty of our region’s farms.

There’s a story about persimmons in the new Louvin brothers book. A young Ira couldn’t shake a persimmon off a tree, so he convinced his brother Charlie to get an ax, chop it down, and snag the fruit. Together they ate all the persimmons and tried to prop up the tree again, like nothing happened. Their father’s punishment for chopping that tree down was notoriously severe, but so was the persimmon revenge: the boys got sick.

Around mid October, it’s not uncommon to see tarps and straw beds under persimmon trees, and folks (musicians or not) trying to shake them down. Chef says you don’t pick persimmons, you pick them up off the straw. And local musician Scott Manring says “anything bigger than your thumb with fur on it” will eat a persimmon. He once watched a deer stand on its hind legs to eat persimmons off his tree. Scott himself will climb to the tree tops, shake down a bag’s worth, and bring them to Lucky 32 Southern Kitchen.

The Native American persimmon

The indigenous Native American persimmon is a kind of muted, autumn peach. The fruit is tear-dropped shaped and grows in wonderful, beautiful trees. It’s also so intolerably astringent if it’s under ripe that it will ruin anything you make.

Cooking: The Native American persimmon needs to fully ripen on the tree. The fruit will be soft and mushy and most persimmon recipes require cooking, such as persimmon pudding.

Fuyu persimmon

The fuyu persimmon can be eaten unripe, just like a tomato. Its flavor is sort of a peachy-tomato cross. At the grocery store, look for the persimmon with a flat bottom, that’s a fuyu. The redder it gets, the sweeter it is. There are some wonderful salads with poached shrimp and under ripe fuyu persimmons that are sublime.

Cooking: Slice it thin, or wedge it, and add it to a salad. Or, add to your purée.

Hachiya persimmon

Needs to fully ripen on the tree before being eaten, should be treated just like and indigenous persimmon, yet has a much higher flesh to seed ratio.

In the kitchen: Persimmon BBQ sauce and Persimmon Pudding

The traditional dish for persimmons is persimmon pudding — a very humble mixture of persimmon puree, flour, eggs, and sugar. Most persimmons come our way because people bring them to us. When the fall menu is over, we freeze them and use them for sauces and pudding on New Year’s Eve.

We’ve decided to make teriyaki sauce and fold persimmon purée into it and use it for a quail glaze. It’s a sweet purée and we use it like we would a peach BBQ sauce.

It’s also an integral component of the hard sauce that is served with our bread pudding (with the peach flavor of Southern Comfort to amplify the subtle taste of persimmons).

I don’t know of anyone farming persimmons, but many farms have a persimmon tree, and bring their persimmons to us.

• Bradd’s Family Farm
• Schicker’s Acre
• Scott Manring, one of the featured musician’s at Lucky 32 Southern Kitchen’s “Songs in a Southern Kitchen” series

We recently visited Scott’s persimmon trees in Pleasant Garden to get a few persimmon “pick-up” tips.

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• Persimmon tree wood is among the strongest and used to make the highest quality heads of golf clubs known as the “wood.”
• Hard, unripe persimmons will fall to the ground, and taste terrible, “like putting a piece of cotton in your mouth.”
• Scott puts tarps on the ground, instead of straw. It’s easier to roll persimmons up in a tarp and bag them.
• The tree is getting too thick to shake, so Scott either climbs the tree to shake persimmons down, or uses a rope to pull on it.
• After a hard frost the color of the persimmon gets grapey-looking.
• A ripe persimmon is ooey-gooey, and usually splits a little when it hits the ground.
• Bob Reeves, a local musician and piedmont renaissance man, puts a sweet potato and a little orange zest in his persimmon pie. He uses an old pulp mill to separate the persimmons from dirt and twigs.

Lucky 32 Southern Kitchen Recipes

Lucky 32 Southern Kitchen Persimmon Glaze

• 1 tbsp canola oil
• 1 ½  tbspginger puree
• 2 cups unsweetened pineapple juice
• 1 pound light brown sugar
• ¼ cup apple cider vinegar
• 1 cup Tamari
• ¼ cup chopped green onions
• 2 ½ cups chopped fresh persimmons, hulls removed

Heat oil in a pot over medium heat and sweat ginger. Add remaining ingredients and simmer until thickened, about 35 minutes. Puree with an immersion blender and strain through a fine strainer.

*Quality Identifiers: sauce should be free of skins and seeds and should coat the back of a spoon.

Makes 5 cups

Lucky 32 Southern Comfort Persimmon Hard Sauce

• ¾ cup fresh persimmon pulp
• 2/3 lb butter – room temperature
• 3 ¾ cup confectioners sugar 10X (add more for thicker sauce)
• 5 each egg yolks
• 7 fl ounces Southern Comfort (or your favorite)

Heat persimmons over medium-high heat. Add butter and begin to melt. Add sugar. Cream butter and sugar, and stir until all of the butter is absorbed and a smooth consistency is achieved. Remove from heat. Stir in one egg yolk at a time until all yolks have been incorporated. Gradually pour in Southern Comfort while stirring constantly. Sauce will thicken as it cools.

Makes – 3 ½ cups

Lucky 32 Southern Kitchen Persimmon Pudding

• 2 cups all purpose flour
• ½ tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp salt
• ½ tsp ground cinnamon
• ½ tsp ground nutmeg
• 3 fresh eggs
• 1 ½ cups sugar
• 2 cups pureed fresh persimmon with hull removed
• 1 ½ cups Scuppernong wine
• ¼ cup buttermilk
• 2 ½ tbsp melted unsalted butter
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

Sift together flour, baking soda, salt and spices. Set aside. In a separate bowl, mix eggs and sugar until well combined. Add pureed persimmon, wine and buttermilk and mix to combine. Stir in butter and vanilla. Grease a baking pan with pan spray. Add liquid mixture to flour mixture and combine well by hand. Transfer mixture to greased pan. Bake at 300 degrees for 30-45 minutes or until center is set and sides begin to pull away from pan. Allow to cool completely before slicing.

Makes – 6 portions

For more about our seasonal recipes, see our current menu at Lucky 32 Southern Kitchen and our Blog Recipe Index:http://lucky32southernkitchen.com/recipes/

 

Butternut Squash and the Three Sisters approach to succotash

LOCAVORE’S DELIGHT: The Series #24. Follow us as we explore the bounty of our region’s farms.

In Native American lore, three crops were always planted together: squash, corn, and beans. Legumes would wind their way up the corn and use the stalk as a trellis, and the squash would grow between the rows, under the shade of the corn.

Much of what we do here at Lucky 32 Southern Kitchen is recover traditions that are in danger of being lost. While different people have different opinions about succotash and its contents, we base our recipe on the Ancient Three Sisters  model — and at the heart of our succotash is butternut squash.

This time of year, it’s not uncommon to see a harvested field with the corn stalks cut and butternut squash still curing on the vine. Our fall menu features the nutty-flavored winter cucurbit in the butternut squash soup. You can also find them in the Farmer’s Cart at the restaurant.

Fall for Something New! features Lucky 32 Southern Kitchen’s Butternut Squash soup, October 3–November 13, 2012. Click here to see the new fall menu. 

One tough vegetable

We often joke that only three things are not allowed in this kitchen: Monkfish (we can’t cook it properly), mustard greens, and acorn squash.

Acorn squash doesn’t give you any more flavor than butternut squash, and it’s much harder to clean with its thick ridges. Butternut squash gives you a better meat-to-skin ratio and has a wonderful nutty flavor, and it’s easy to work with.

The cure: Conversations with farmers will teach you things 

Tobacco gets cured. Sweet potatoes get cured, and we’ve known both of those things, but we didn’t know that winter squash gets cured, too.

Curing is a heating process, to encourage the starch to sugar conversion. The process prevents spoilage and allows for longer storage.

The way we’ve heard it it told is that butternut squash needs to be planted at the same time as summer squash. Farmers leave it in the field and the sun heats up the squash. After a certain number of days in the field the vegetable is cured and you can put them in the cellar for the winter.

Take it home: Lucky 32 Southern Kitchen’s Butternut Squash Bisque recipe in Savor NC.

The most popular winter squash

• Acorn
• Butternut
• Pumpkin

Some less popular, but even more tasty 

• Kuri
• Kabocha
• Cushaw

Easy ways to prepare butternut squash:

Roast and finish with butter and cinnamon

• Pick one squash, about two lbs.
• Split the squash from north to south, through the stem; scoop out the seeds.
• Lay it out cut side down on a greased baking tray.
• Roast until it’s tender to a finger poke (at 350 degrees for for 35 minutes-ish).
• Remove the squash from the oven.
• Flip it over.
• If the squash is small enough, put a little butter and cinnamon in the hole and take a scoop and drag it through the hole and eat it.

Braise with a little butter

• Clean and peel entire squash with a vegetable peeler.
• Cut the bell part out of the base.
• Scoop the seeds out.
• Cube it.
• Sauté it with butter and braise with a little water, to steam.

Do you puree?

Once it’s roasted and flipped, scrape all the flesh out of the skin, and puree with butter, sorghum, and call it a day.

Squash the bread 

Substitute butternut squash to change up your favorite sweet potato recipe. Or, substitute equal amount of roasted butternut squash for the main vegetable in any one of your favorite bread or muffin recipes.

• Zucchini
• Banana
• Pumpkin

Pick the perfect squash

Pick up a few butternut squashes and compare the weight. The one that feels heavier for its size is going to have a smaller cavity, fewer seeds and more dense fruit, and generally has a higher sugar content.

• Heavy for its size
• Unblemished skin

A word to the unripe

If you go to peel your squash and it has some green undertones to its skin, then it hasn’t been cured long enough. At this point, it won’t get more ripe. It won’t be as sweet and will taste more like a vegetable.

Give it a try: Lucky 32 Southern Kitchen Autumn Succotash. Tweet this recipe.

Sauté the butternut squash as recommended above. And you can also replace the peanuts with crowder peas or black eyed peas.

Makes 4 cups

• ¼ cup butter
• 1 lb. butternut squash, washed, peeled, and diced
• ½ lb. boiled peanuts
• ½ lb. sweet corn ears, kernels cut from cobs
• ¼ cup water
• ½ tsp. dried thyme
• Salt and pepper to taste

Melt butter in a skillet over medium-high heat. Add butternut squash, and sauté 3 to 4 minutes. Add boiled peanuts, and cook 3 to 4 minutes. Add corn kernels and remaining ingredients. Cook until corn, peanuts, and squash are tender. Cover and cook 6-8 minutes (or until squash is tender).

For more about our seasonal recipes, see our current menu at Lucky 32 Southern Kitchen and our Blog Recipe Index:http://lucky32southernkitchen.com/recipes/

Relish the last of summer vegetables: Granny’s good manners, chowchow, and pickling recipes

LOCAVORE’S DELIGHT: The Series # 22. Follow us all summer long as we explore the bounty of our region’s farms.

In days gone by, when unexpected company popped in or supper was not quite at hand, assorted preserved foods could be pulled out to nourish, sustain, appetize or entertain. The idea was to sample a few preparations, share with friends, and whet the appetite for the meal that lay ahead.

Here at Lucky 32 Southern Kitchen, we’ve embraced the resurgence of this culture of pickling. We make our own pepper vinegar for collard greens; preserve a rare bounty of wild ramps from an earlier spring foraging adventure, and make our own pickled cucumbers that are then fried for an appetizer.

Not only does pickling go well with the food we serve, it delivers the message that we’re rediscovering something our ancestors have already figured out: ways to extend seasonal foods, to balance rich and creamy southern foods with a zesty counterpoint, and to transform the taste of seasonal vegetables.

Sample Granny’s Relish Tray on our Endless Summer Menu (now through Oct 2.) The appetizer features tomato aspic — an heirloom tomato puree, flavored with celery seed, cayenne and green onion, that is set with gelatin and served cold (a Southern tradition you just don’t see anymore); Goat Lady Dairy Crottin; butterbean pate; zucchini pickles; and Nabisco Premium Saltines.

Extend the season

Before kitchen freezers, Interstate transportation and commercial agriculture, the only way you could enjoy okra in the winter was if it were preserved with one of three traditional preservation methods: salting, drying, and pickling.

The advantage pickling brings is that it adds depth of flavor. Pickling discourages bacteria while the natural juices of the vegetable undergo lactic fermentation and become sour.

 

A zesty counterpoint to rich and creamy foods

Our European ancestors pickled foods to balance the palate. In cooler climates like Northern and Eastern Europe, you find more vegetable pickling. In warmer climates, people cut rich foods with acidic wines or citrus fruit.

In addition to being a beneficial part of a macrobiotic diet, which introduces enzymes to improve digestion, pickled foods cleanse the palate and balance the rich, creamy dishes of the south.

Try it at home: Transform your favorites

The great thing about chowchow is that you throw in everything from the garden at the end of summer: unripened tomatoes, bell peppers, onions, cabbage – chop finely, season well and cook away. Scroll down for the recipe below. 

• Chowchow is a wonderful addition to anything that needs a little zing. Use it with anything bound with mayonnaise such as egg salad, chicken salad, or tuna salad.

• Put chowchow in the food processor for your deviled eggs.

• Spicy chow chow or pickles are good chopped finely and folded into pimento cheese. Or bread and butter pickles can be served atop pimento cheese.

Simple salads

One of our favorite suppers at home — if we don’t feel like cooking — is lettuce, tomato, cucumbers, hard boiled eggs, some sort of grated cheese, and whatever we have pickled in the refrigerator: pickled cucumbers, sunchokes, turnips, or chow chow.

Make your own Relish Tray

Don’t contaminate the reagent jar. Don’t use your hands to pull pickles out of the jar, bacteria on your hands will spoil the pickles.

The key to building a relish tray is contrast. Use a variety of pickles, not just sweet pickles: use sweet pickles, sour, and spicy (tell your guests which are which).

Pick a homemade potted meat. Choose devilled ham or pate’.

Pick a creamy side. Deviled eggs, pimento cheese, hummus, or butterbean pate’.

A thick, creamy cheese. A slice of Brie, or Goat Lady Dairy Crottin, a surface-ripened chevre that has begun to mellow.

Barbecue is always a good addition.

Serve with crackers. Nabisco Premium Saltines are my favorite.

For more information, read “Wild Fermentation” by Sandor Ellix Katz. Several of our pickle processes are adapted from his book. The zucchini pickles on the tray are from Judy Rodgers’ book, “The Zuni Cafe Cookbook.”

Lucky 32 Southern Kitchen’s Green Tomato Chowchow

• 1½ cups green tomatoes, seeded and rough chopped
• ½ cup green bell pepper, rough chopped
• ¼ cup red bell pepper, rough chopped
• ½ cup yellow onion, rough chopped
• ¾ tsp mustard seed
• ½ tsp celery seed
• ½ tsp chopped garlic
• ½ tsp turmeric
• ⅓ cup apple cider vinegar
• ⅓ cup sugar
• 1 tsp crushed red pepper

In a food processor, pulse tomatoes until finely chopped, but not pureed. Pulse peppers and onion until finely chopped. Combine all ingredients in a saucepan and simmer on medium heat for 20-30 minutes. Cool and store in a properly labeled container with lid.

Makes – 2 ½ cups

Lucky 32 Southern Kitchen’s Watermelon Rind Pickles
The restaurant uses watermelons from Schicker’s Acre and Guilford College Farms.

• 8 pounds watermelon
• 2 tbsp salt
• 4 cups water
• 1 cup lemon juice
• 1 cup water
• 2 cups granulated sugar
• 2 tbsp ginger puree
• 1 each yellow peel only from one lemon
• 2 tbsp Allspice
• 2 tbsp whole cloves

Remove rind from watermelon and reserve the red part to enjoy at your leisure. Using a vegetable peeler, remove green skin from the rind; discard skin. Cut rind into ½ inch x ½ inch pieces; the yield should be about 8 cups.

In a large bowl combine 2 tablespoons salt and 4 cups of water and allow rind to soak in brine for one hour, then drain.

In a large pot, combine lemon juice, 1 cup water, sugar, ginger puree, lemon peel and spices. Add rind, cover and bring to at boil over high heat. Reduce heat to low and simmer covered over medium low for 40 minutes or until rind is translucent.

Transfer rind with slotted spoon to a plastic container. Strain liquid and pour over rind.

Makes 4 cups

For more about our seasonal recipes, see our current menu at Lucky 32 Southern Kitchen and our Blog Recipe Index: http://lucky32southernkitchen.com/recipes/

 

The locavore’s guide to this season’s apple shortage

LOCAVORE’S DELIGHT: The Series # 21. Follow us all summer long as we explore the bounty of our region’s farms.

On the morning of April 24 of this year, as we were readying for a trip to dig ramps at Foggy Ridge Cider in Dugspur, VA, the temperature in much of the apple-growing part of North Carolina dropped low enough to freeze the nascent apple blooms that were early, as a result of the preceding mild winter.

These irreparably damaged blooms never turned into apples. Because cold air is heavier than warm air, the chill settled in valleys and actually spared orchards at higher elevations. As a result, some in the industry estimate that as much as 80% of the apple harvest in North Carolina was lost that day.

Now that apple harvesting season is upon us, we are feeling the effects of that disastrous day. Each of the varieties that we’ve come to expect at the farmer’s market are present, but in tremendously small quantities. Honeycrisps and Empires seem to be already done, Buckinghams and Galas are going fast.

Because our menu is literally created by local foods and what’s in season, our late summer menu is a little different this year. This menu usually has the apple turnover and bourbon-smothered apples on grilled porkchops. Not this year.

So what did we do instead? More importantly, what do you do instead?

Hold your locavore ground

Mother Nature teaches us moderation. Sometimes we splurge because our tomato bushes were overly prolific, and sometimes we moderate because of a heat wave or a freeze. In boom times, we preserve. In lean times we manage. It’s all part of the challenge of shopping in Mother Nature’s stores. Being a locavore, to me, means celebrating what’s in season. When strawberries are in: celebrate. When apples are in: celebrate.

If you have a bumper crop–like this summer’s tomatoes and squash–pay attention to it. Ask farmers about the season’s boom or bust and make a creative plan of action.

Right now, we’re serving Applesauce, and Apple Cake served with slice pears, because Apple Cake uses fewer apples and we had a good pear crop.

A word about apples
All apples are divided into 2 categories: eating and cooking.

 Apples for eating out of your hand
Favorite eating apple: Honeycrisp

• sweet
• juicy
• no aftertaste
• Honeycrisp, Gala, York, Fuji, Pink Lady

Cooking Apples
Favorite cooking apple: Arkansas black. Its lower moisture content means it doesn’t make great applesauce, but it makes wonderful apple pies and dumplings. This apple is also featured on the side of the Farm to Fork London Taxicab you see us driving around town.

• sour
• starchier
• firmer, holds its shape in the oven
• Fugee, Heirloom. Buckingham, Newton Pippin, Rusty Coat, Limbertwig, Arkansas Black

At the farmer’s market

• The best way to tell the difference between a cooking apple and an eating apple is to ask your vendor or farmer. Courtlands, Jonathans, and Buckinghams are all in the market right now. You’re much better off talking to someone who is buying or selling or growing NC apples. When you buy things in season from local growers you get occasional brilliance.
• Get the farmer’s side of the story. Ask him or her about this this year’s apple harvest. If they’re not aware of a cold snap or an apple shortage, you might not be talking with someone who is as passionate as you are about your apples. Keep in mind, that farmers higher in the mountain regions didn’t lose much this year.
• Ask the farmer’s where the apples came from. We’ll be crossing North Carolina state lines into Virginia to make up for the apple loss. But the closer the apple is to the home and the tree it came from, the better.

At the grocery store

• Check the label. If you go to the grocery store, the apple will have a sticker on it indicating its country of origin. It’s not uncommon for people to make a mistake: to accidentally fill the bin with the wrong apple because of a short supply. Double check: if it says, “locally grown,” check the apple’s sticker.
• Find out how far it has travelled to get to you. If an apple is picked in, say, New Zealand, it’s picked underripe and treated with a gaseous compound (1-MCP) so it can be shipped halfway around the world and arrive ready for stores. The apple never gets an opportunity to develop all those nutrients on the tree. It’s literally in suspended animation.

 Storage tips

• Apples reach their peak of maturity when you store them at room temperature.
• If you go to a Pick Your Own orchard and bring home several apples to store, refrigerate them.

Featured recipes

Lucky 32 Southern Kitchen Apple Sauce

• 5 pounds apples
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1 cup apple cider
• ¼ tsp nutmeg

Wash and core apples, then slice into wedges leaving skin on. Preheat skillet and add apples, sugar and ½ cup apple cider. Cook on low while cover until apples are tender. Remove from heat and process in food processor. Stir in remaining apple cider and nutmeg.

Makes – 6 cups

Lucky 32 Southern Kitchen’s Apple Filling

• 2 1/2 pound apples – peeled, cored and sliced
• ¼ cup apple cider
• 1 1/2 tsp cornstarch
• ½ stick butter (1/8 pound)
• ¼ cup light brown sugar
• ⅛ cup granulated sugar
• 1 pinch ground cinnamon

Peel, core and slice apples. Dissolve cornstarch in apple cider. Melt butter in skillet. Add apples and sauté until coated in butter. Add sugars and cinnamon and cook until syrup is thick. Add cornstarch-cider mixture and simmer for 5 minutes.

Makes – 5 cups

For more about our seasonal recipes, see our current menu at Lucky 32 Southern Kitchen and our Blog Recipe Index: http://lucky32southernkitchen.com/recipes/

 

Late August recipes: Braised Smothered Okra and Eggplant

LOCAVORE’S DELIGHT: The Series # 20. Follow us all summer long as we explore the bounty of our region’s farms.

by MOLLY McGINN

Late August brings okra and eggplant, and with your summer tomatoes either juiced and in the can or too soft to slice, rediscover a little smothered eggplant, which features the oblong vegetable at its best: playing a supporting role.

Watch us make Lucky 32 Southern Kitchen’s Ratatouille recipe, featuring eggplant from Guilford Farm and Schicker’s Acre.

At the farmer’s market

Common eggplant varieties are Japanese and Italian eggplant. The fundamental difference between the two varieties is shape and how they’re used.

Japanese eggplant is smaller than the Italian variety with fewer seeds. Prep can be tasty and quick. Slice an eggplant longways, grill it on both sides, chop it up, and season with salt and pepper and a little bit of vinaigrette.

Italian eggplant takes a different tack. It has a toothsome, meaty quality when it’s cooked right. Undercooked, it’s less pleasant and spongy.

Melon-ology: The not-so-scientific guide to picking watermelons

LOCAVORE’S DELIGHT: The Series # 19. Follow us all summer long as we explore the bounty of our region’s farms.

There are many types of melons in the market this time of year, and the first thing that folks want to know is how to pick out one that is ripe. Regardless of how much conviction someone has when they explain their system for selecting the perfect melon, nothing is fool-proof.

Here are some pointers to keep in mind:

• Visit the farm to buy your melon.
• Barring that option, visit the farmer at a farmers’ market and choose a melon that is heavy for its size.
• If you are inspecting melons outside at a farmers’ market, there should be a delicate aroma.
• Korey Erb of Guilford College likes the Crimson Sweet and the Sangria varieties, and we agree that we like the size to be just a touch larger than a basketball.
• Inspect the belly for some yellowing, as opposed to fish-belly white.
• If none of the melons instill confidence in you of their ripeness, ask the vendor, they’ve usually got an inkling of how the melons have been trending.

A word about a Cantaloupes

Cantaloupes require inspecting the skin beneath the netting to look for more yellow than green, and skin that seems to yield to the pressure of your squeeze. Folks around these parts tend to prefer the Athena variety, but if you come across a Charentais or a Turbeville from the Danville area, scoop them up.

Once you get the melon home, what do you do with it?

• Store it at room temperature for a day or so, to help insure that sweet succulence that you are hoping for. The melon will continue to ripen, if stored outside of the refrigerator.
• Don’t be tricked into eating or serving ice-cold watermelon; you can’t taste it. The frigid temperature numbs your taste buds and is a ploy to get you to accept less flavor in your melon, just like American Lager advertisers attempting to convince you to drink your beer ice-cold; the only thing that achieves is preventing you from tasting it.
• Cut up your melon and taste it. If you’d prefer it a sweeter, try adding a pinch of salt and/or a drizzle of honey.
• If the rind of the watermelon is nice and thick, make some pickles (we’ll post a recipe next month).
• If you’d like something a tad bit different, wrap the melon slices in tissue-thin ham and grill.
• If you want to leave the decisions to us, stop in and order our Whimsical Watermelon appetizer, it might just knock you out of your chair.

Whimsical Watermelon and Backroads Bibb Salad both feature Watermelon in the new Endless Summer Menu, August 22 – October 2 at Lucky 32 Southern Kitchen.

Watch us make Lucky 32 Southern Kitchen’s Whimsical Watermelon on WFMY News Channel 2, and follow the recipe below. 

A southern antipasto–this dish puts a southern spin on the Italian tradition of serving fresh cut cantaloupe with prosciutto. 

• 2 cups diced watermelon
• 1 tsp balsamic vinegar
• 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 2 tsp fresh mint chiffonade
• 1 oz country ham chiffonade
• 1 oz ricotta cheese

Cut watermelon pulp into 1 inch cubes. To a bowl, add watermelon, vinegar, oil and 1 teaspoon mint; mix well. Transfer to a chilled soup bowl. Top with ham, cheese and remaining mint.

Makes – 1 serving

For more about our seasonal recipes, see our current menu at Lucky 32 Southern Kitchen and our Blog Recipe Index:http://lucky32southernkitchen.com/recipes/

 

Eat a Peach: recipes and tips for August peaches

LOCAVORE’S DELIGHT: The Series # 16. Follow us all summer long as we explore the bounty of our region’s farms.

by MOLLY McGINN

Nothing’s better than late summer peaches. It’s the platonic ideal of what a peach should be. Juicy, supple, and free of stones. Most folks think a peach ripens all summer to get to this perfect, late summer state. Not so.

Timing is everything. Of the 200 peach varieties, there are 12 that thrive in North Carolina, according to NC State’s agriculture department. Each variety comes and goes — thrives in its own window of the season. A few varieties are peaking right now with one more to go before the end of summer.

To honor late summer peaches, we offer four recipes for the three stages of a peach: underripe, ripe, and overripe, as well as a few peach-picking tips if you’re picking off a tree, or off the farmer’s cart.

When you buy peaches, odds are they’re not going to be ripe. Most retail markets sell underripe peaches, because a ripe peach needs to be eaten now. Unless you’re planning to make the Peach Chutney (recipe below), let them ripen a few days before enjoying the best way to eat a peach–straight out of your hand.

You want something that will yield to gentle pressure. That’s when the peach will be the sweetest.

Look for the sweetest part. A brown spot on a peach is going to be the sweetest. There’s a difference between a brown spot and a bad spot. Some spots mark a worm or a bird peck–check it out.

Store peaches at room temperature. Don’t refrigerate peaches. It’s too cold and makes them mushy.

Store peaches separately. Not with your apples. Apples release ethylene gas. One quick tip: if you want to make the Peach BBQ Sauce and need the peaches to ripen a little faster, put them in a paper sack with some apples to speed up the process.

Check the stem and look for green spots. If there’s any green, the peach will take longer to ripen.

WHERE TO GO

Lucky 32 Southern Kitchen gets their peaches from the Piedmont Triad Farmers Market in Greensboro, NC. Ask Tim at Cedar Hill Farms for NC Mountain Peaches.

In Cary, visit Pee Dee Orchards at the Western Wake Farmers Market.

• Farmer’s Cart at Lucky 32 Southern Kitchen in Greensboro and Cary
• Piedmont Triad Farmers Market
• Western Wake Farmers Market in Cary

Lucky 32 Southern Kitchen peach recipes

• UNDERRIPE |Peach Chutney
• RIPE | Peaches and Cream (below), Grilled Peaches
• OVERRIPE |Peach BBQ Sauce

Peaches & Cream

• 2 peaches
• ¾ cup Boiled Custard (see recipe below)
• ½ tsp granulated sugar
• ½ tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 sprig fresh mint

Peel peaches, remove pit and slice into 6 wedges. Ladle custard into a serving bowl. Arrange peach wedges around the custard.Combine sugar and cinnamon and sprinkle over peaches.

Makes 1 serving

Boiled Custard

• 1 quart whole milk
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 2 tbsp corn starch
• 5 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 tbsp butter

In a pot, heat milk to a low simmer. In a bowl, whisk together sugar, corn starch and eggs. Slowly temper the eggs by beating in about 2 ounces of warm milk. Repeat process until all milk is combined with the eggs.

Return mixture to the sauce pot and cook over very low heat for 3-5 minuets, or until mixture coats the back of a spoon. Remove from heat and add vanilla, then add butter in small pats, stirring until incorporated. If necessary, strain mixture to remove lumps.

Makes – 6 cups

Disclaimer: All our recipes were originally designed for much larger batch size. This recipe has been reduced – but not tested at this scale. Please adjust as to your taste and portion size.

“I try not to be choosy about most things in life, but with my peaches I am as choosy as can be,” Dori Sanders on peaches in her book, “Country Cooking.”

For more about our seasonal recipes, see our current menu at Lucky 32 Southern Kitchen and our Blog Recipe Index: http://lucky32southernkitchen.com/recipes/

 

Buckets of blueberries, crepes, cakes, and Edna Lewis

LOCAVORE’S DELIGHT: The Series # 8.

Follow us all summer long as we explore the bounty of our region’s farms.

Sunday just concluded our participation in the semi-annual Triangle Restaurant Week and one of the featured desserts was Edna Lewis’ Blueberry Cake from her book, “The Taste of Country Cooking.”

Edna was a spiritual mother in my research of southern foods for Lucky 32 Southern Kitchen. Her recipes call for “fresh, local” foods. And right now, Edna, we’ve got buckets of blueberries on the Farmer’s Cart.

Giant specimens from Bill Stevens in High Point on the cart outside the restaurant in Greensboro. In Cary, we have blueberries from Lewis Farms in Rocky Point. And yes: We have issues (thank you eatocracy.com) and every dollar spent on a blueberry from a local farm is a vote for the local farming economy.

Cast a vote for local blueberries:

• Fresh blueberries are best and frozen are acceptable as substitutes.
• If you must use frozen, freeze your own.
• Place whole, washed blueberries on a parchment lined baking sheet and place in the freezer.
• When they’re frozen, transfer blueberries to a ziptop plastic bag.
• Thaw what you need when you want to make our blueberry crepes (recipe is below).

Also this weekend — in both the Cary and Greensboro locations — is the last opportunity to enjoy Lucky 32 Southern Kitchen’s blueberry crepes, so we’d love to encourage you to pick up some fresh blueberries off the Farmer’s Cart and make your own at home. Also, opportunities are dwindling to take your kids (or yourself) to a pick-your-own blueberry plot. Check this website for more info: pickyourown.org

Lucky 32 Southern Kitchen Blueberry Filling for Crepes

Makes 4.5 cups (18 cups)

• 2 lbs of fresh blueberries (8 lbs)
• 2 tsp orange zest (8 tsp)
• 2 tsp  lemon Zest (8 tsp)
• 2 tbsp juice from orange (½ cup)
• ½ cup granulated sugar (2 cups)
• ¼ cup corn starch (1 cup)

Mix berries, zest, and sugar in a small stock pot. Stir until ingredients are well mixed. Add juice and cook over medium heat until sauce just starts to bubble – approx. 10-15 minutes. Dissolve cornstarch in water. Reduce heat and add cornstarch slurry and blend well. Allow to cool before filling crepe shells.

Place 2 Tbsp filling in each crepe shell and roll up. Calculate three crepes per person and arrange in a casserole dish. Bake in 350 degree Fahrenheit oven until heated though and browned on the edges. Remove to serving plate and garnish with sprinkled powdered sugar and more fresh berries.

Edna Lewis Blueberry Cake

• 2 cups fresh blueberries
• ⅓ cup granulated sugar
• ⅓ cup water
• 1 tsp cornstarch
• ¼ cup water
• 2 cups all purpose flour
• ¼ tsp salt flakes
• 4 tbsp butter
• 1 fresh, local egg
• 1 cup Homeland Creamery Milk
• 2 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 1 tbsp baking powder
• ¼ tsp ground cinnamon
• ⅓ cup granulated sugar

Combine 1/3 cup sugar with 1/3 cup water and blueberries in a medium saucepan; simmer for 3-5 minutes, strain berries and reserve for cake. Return liquid to a pot and return to a simmer. Combine cornstarch and ¼ cup water. Drizzle slurry into simmering juice and cook until syrup consistency is achieved. Set aside.

Sift flour and salt into a mixing bowl. Add butter and blend until mixture resembles cornmeal. Beat egg and mix in milk; add to dough, stirring all the while. Add vanilla, continue stirring; add baking powder, mix well. Spoon into a buttered 2″ half hotel pan. Scatter drained berries over the top. Combine remaining 1/3 cup sugar with cinnamon and sprinkle over the top.

Place in 425 degree Fahrenheit oven and close. Turn oven down to 375 and cook 25 minutes or until center is done. Serve slices of cake with reserved syrup.

For more about our seasonal recipes, see our current menu at Lucky 32 Southern Kitchen and our Blog Recipe Index:http://lucky32southernkitchen.com/recipes/