It’s been a walk down Memory Lane here at the store this week. Remembering our fallen soldiers with Memorial Day at our door step, digging into the history of this store and even turning out favorite warm-weather foods from our shared past, made just for you.
It’s good.
As the warm weather hits we are back outside the store finishing some of little details that we ran out of time for when we screamed full-speed into our opening last fall. There has been a little bit of bandaids and duck tape holding things together behind the scenes. One project we accomplished just in time for Memorial Day was to finally freshen the paint on the front door and reinstall that wonderful old screen door that was put on this place many storekeepers ago.
The door itself was pretty scraped up and upon further sanding, it revealed the layers of color history, applied by the succession of storekeepers, each to his own taste and the style of the times. We decided to keep the window mullions as-is to showcase this color history.
Painting by Jayne Hasting
The reinstalled screen door was not touched at all leaving its color history entirely in place. It’s not terribly functional against flying pests but has just the right slam to take our hearing memories back to bare foot childhood summers and ice cream at the store. If not this store, then the collective country stores we did visit or read about and longed for.
It’s another good thing.
See more photos on the history of this store in our exhibit that is currently hanging in the Feed Loft through June 30, 2024.
Farmer’s Market preparedness.
We tested the tent. Check. We tested the pizza oven. Check. But this week we tested our freshly squeezed lemonade. How puckery should it be? How sweet? Consider ice melting in the cup… We worked it out and it got a thumbs up even though Ruth was hesitant at first! Farmer’s Market opens next Wednesday June 5, and for each Wednesday into fall 4:00 – 6:30pm.
Wanna cook?
This time of year we are all getting very busy in our gardens and, if we are honest, something has to go to be able to fit everything into one day. For me it’s usually my housecleaning to go and while I always cook, it gets more a little more simple.
My go-to easy meal this time of year is what I call a Salad Collage. A salad can be cold or warm, lettuce or not, but the idea is collection of vegetables, left over cooked or fresh, assembled on a plate and crumbled with a protein. Dress it with what ever you have around including as simple as a fresh squeezed citrus and some olive oil. And by using up your left over bits and pieces of cooked food, your “salad” takes on some additional layers of flavor. Just like a long cooked soup, this style of salad is very satisfying.
For this blog post I challenged myself to go to my bare refrigerator (because we eat a lot of store food where I cook) and see what I could come up with for you. In the spirit of quick and easy, here you go…
What I had to work with…
- Fresh greens
- Not so fresh, 2 spears of asparagus
- 1/2 carrot…still crunchy
- 1 slice of left over pizza
- the last bits of crunchy Fava Bean snacks [available at the store]
I layered up the veggies, cubed the pizza (like croutons) and scattered the favas on top. In keeping with the tomato in the pizza, I made a dressing of equal parts ketchup and olive oil. Man was this good!!
Happy eating and have a good week,
Jane and Dave
Friday night pizza, May 31 . Order ahead 12” organic sour dough pizzas to take out or sit down and eat here. $15.95. Call ahead to order and choose a pick-up time slot. 603-783-9933
Choose:
- Pepperoni on red sauce.
- Vegetable choice of mushrooms, green peppers, onions and pepperoncini on red sauce
- Fig with gorgonzola and a honey drizzle over olive oil (no garlic)
- Cheese only on red sauce always by request
- Call in to see what Dave is doing as a special this week!
See our menu for what types of food we are preparing this season by clicking here...
Canterbury Country Store 