Canterbury Country Store

the Friday Feeding; VOL. 44

Reset. It’s been a slow hummmm at town center this week; back-to-school shopping, last minute vacations and savoring the pace of summer. For us at the store, it is the end of our first year here and has been a perfect time to reset and refocus what we are all about.

Recycle.

We all talk about it and are consciously trying to do it, all the while trying to be mindful of our foot print in our community. It’s new/old wisdom. Yankee preservation, indigenous cycles of birth and renewal and the universal waste not, want not.

You have heard us talk early on…

…about how our store and our kitchen has a no-waste policy. We reuse and recycle everything we can and save all our food scraps to send to our neighbors and farmers to enrich the diets of the chickens whose eggs we sell and to compost the gardens of those whose produce we are lucky enough to eat. And when you decide you don’t really care for something we have on our shelves, it goes next door to the church pantry to be distributed to those in our community who may be hungry or simply in need of some neighborly comfort through a gift of food. Any left-over fresh prepared food goes to the shelterless or our homes for supper. No waste. Not wanting. Full circle.

When I cleaned out the planter boxes this week I walked my gangly dried out petunias to the library compost bin. Picture this; a warm late-summer morning strolling along with my bright orange garden tote through the verdant pathways of town center, over the misguided hand-print reminders of mischievous children, through green lawns just a hop, skip and a jump away to our library friends & cohorts in this quintessential village center we call home. And then upland across the grassy rise to the back of the store. The B E S T.

We are expanding for the fall season…

Recycle Warm “Salad”

Courtesy of Julie Dewdney. What to do with the abundant fresh juicy tomatoes this time of year? Julie made a layered casserole with some of our croutons that Dave makes by recycling our day-old sour dough bread, adding fresh tomatoes and good cheese.

In an olive oil greased baking dish, layer in this order:

croutons
chopped or sliced tomatoes
feta cheese

Repeat. Top with grated parmesan and bake @ 350º for 30 minutes until tomatoes are juicy and cheese is melted. The croutons soak up the tomato juice and it melds to a make a cheesy scoop-able yum. The seasoning in the croutons seasons the dish but I could also suggest adding some fresh basil and the dish would resemble a warm bruschetta!

We are now carrying cheese and yogurt from our neighbors in Canterbury.

Speaking of Julie, she is the powerhouse behind our local Farmers Market still going through October 2. We will still be there making live pizzas and fresh lemonade.

Don’t miss our next art show in the Feed Loft…it’s only up for ONE WEEK!

Have a great 3 day week-end and hope to see you in the store!

Jane and Dave

Check out our events calendar for so many things happening this fall! Click here

the Friday Feeding; VOL. 43

Can you feel it? It’s coming, it’s soon…Autumn and the one year anniversary of this new store’s opening! We have so much planned to celebrate this wonderful season and to thank you for supporting us this first year of business.

Click here to see all the events coming up through the end of the year.

CLICK HERE to see and perhaps enter (?) one of the art shows coming up.

BUT….

…summer is not quite over yet. Yes, we know our petunias in the planter box out front look like heck from too hot, too rainy, then cool weather. But we can’t quite bring ourselves to replace them with mums before September. Next week-end…it’ll be Labor Day.

And we will have plenty to help you celebrate this last hurrah.

marinated Teriyaki Robie Farm steak tips. We still stock our original red wine and herb marinated tips
New side salads
New sweet treat flavors in the bake case
New grocery surprises!

Let me share with you a post I did many years ago this time of year on my art blog. It is one of my favorites to date. The food tips are good and it is a feast for the eyes.

Color study; Sunday salad

I made a salad Sunday with the gorgeous vegetables I had just acquired from the farmers market. Just thrown together, David and I were both startled by the beauty; what a great play on a complimentary color scheme! When I looked around our home, I was delighted to see the color scheme repeated over and over. Enjoy saturating yourself in the color with the following photos and see the simple recipe at the end.

Cook some green beans then let cool at room temperature.

Here is my fool-proof method for cooking green beans that I learned from an Italian grocer in California. Clean and snap off the stem end of the beans while bringing a salted pot of water to boil. Once boiling, add the beans, bring the water back to boil and turn off the heat. Put the cover on the pot and let it sit for 10 minutes then the beans are done; drain immediately – perfectly cooked through and semi-crisp. Yum!

Shell some fresh (not dried) cranberry beans. Cook the shelled beans in boiling water for 15 minutes or until semi-soft. Drain. Let cool at room temperature.
Slice some “watermelon” radishes into rounds or half rounds.
Finely dice some onions, any kind will do

Put all warm or room temperature veggies in a bowl and toss with the following salad dressing using more or less to your taste. Chill if desired but you can certainly eat it at room temperature too! This salad keeps for days marinating in itself and only gets better. NOTE: warm or room temperature vegetables absorb salad dressing better than cold ones.

Garden Salad dressing

Mix all together in a bottle. Mix the vinegar/water with spices first, shake well then add oil. Shake all together very well.

1/4 cup red wine vinegar
2 T water
1/2 tsp granulated garlic
1/2 tsp granulated onion
1/4 tsp salt
several grounds of coarse black pepper
a pinch of red pepper flakes
a pinch of sugar
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil

I’ll end this week with a little video of our own pizza master Dave at the Farmers Market this week. Pizza made to order every Wednesday 4-6:30 in the library parking lot till October.

Dave showing off.

Have a great week-end…we appreciate you!

Jane and Dave

the Friday Feeding; VOL. 42

What…perfect…weather. It has made Canterbury the quintessential summer destination. And we live here; how lucky are we.

We had a conversation over the sales counter with Charlie a few weeks back—he and Erica were planning a getaway—but couldn’t quite decide where. They couldn’t find anything as nice as here. We all agreed we would pay good money to vacation r i g h t here.

You may have noticed I took a week off from writing last week because we have had our own vacation guests; my sister Niña and Nick, so we took some time off.

We pretty much ate our way through the visit, cooking at home and sampling from the store’s cooking.

New fun at the store…

A new pizza variation for you to try at home; Hackleboro apricots roasted first then put on a plain frozen pizza. Add feta cheese.

Our organic garden is really producing right now and it’s bounty is making its way into some of the salads and kabobs…a new Street Corn* salad featuring Glines corn and our roasted peppers. We roasted and stuffed peppers for one of our meals this week and I thought you might enjoy knowing how to do it yourself.

Roasted Stuffed Poblano Peppers

Prepare the peppers.

Roast 4 poblano peppers then steam off their peels. METHOD: place on a vegetable steamer over a gas flame or under a broiler in the oven, char all sides of the peppers until they are blackened. Immediately place inside of a covered bowl or in a paper bag and let “steam” for 10 minutes after which time the peels will pull right off. I run them under cold water and let the peels rinse off.
Slice open the peppers on one side and remove the seeds. NOTE: you are seeing red peppers here because we let our poblanos redden on the bush. They are sweeter this way but greens one work just great too.

Make the filling.

In 2 T clarified butter [called ghee; butter with the fats removed] plus 2 T olive oil, saute on low heat one red bell pepper diced and half of an onion diced. After 10 minutes add 1/3 cup raw sunflower seeds and cook stirring for another 5 minutes until the seeds just start to brown.
Add to pan: 1 cup raw quinoa, 2 cups vegetable broth. Bring to a boil then reduce heat to low, cover pan and simmer for about 20 minutes until the quinoa is tender.
Toss into cooled simmered mixture: 1/2 cup drained canned cannellini beans and 1/2 cup coarsely grated parmesano reggiano cheese.

Assemble.

Fill the peppers with the pilaf mixture and place them cut side down in a baking pan that has been oiled with a little olive oil.
Cover the peppers with cashew gravy. To make: Soak 3/4 cup of raw cashews in 2 cups of water for 30 minutes. Meanwhile sauté 2 finely chopped shallots in 2T olive oil. Add 2T nutritional yeast. Add this mixture and the cashews with water into a food processor or VitaminMix or use an emersion blender to purée until smooth.
Add some herbed sauce to the center of the peppers. To make: In a sauce pan, heat up 1 tsp of olive oil and turn off heat. Add 1T dried/crushed tarragon leaves plus 1/4 tsp cinnamon and let them “marry” into the warm oil by sitting for a few minutes. (NOTE: to release the volatile flavor oils in herbs, they must be heated in oil) To this add one 8oz can of tomato sauce and heat through; add salt and pepper to taste.
Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes or until heated through and slightly browned on top.

*Street Corn is a Mexican fast-food called Elote that is sold in street stalls or carts. Corn cobs are skewered then grilled until slightly charred then spread with a creamy garlicy lime sauce, sprinkled with chili powder then rolled in traditional Cojita cheese. Our salad contains all these flavors plus a few more to make our own tasty version to eat with a fork!

DON”T FORGET: Farmers Market pizza 4pm – 6:30pm each Wednesday where Dave is doing pizza live made to order. We suggest calling ahead to reserve a pizza…we have had a line and could not take any further orders past 6:00. We have plenty of room for the 4:00 to 5:00 time range. Fresh squeezed lemonade too!

Get ready for our next art show. Its only a week long so don’t miss the fun! And click here to see all the other shows coming for the rest of the year!

Have a great week,

Jane and Dave

the Friday Feeding; VOL. 41

It’s been a L I T T L E humid around here with the storms and the heat. Steam, drip, evaporate, repeat. The plants love it; it’s a jungle out there. But it is no wonder we all just want to eat salads and sandwiches. Although our freezers are full of meals to take home and reheat, Dinner Lite it is.

Our famous Smashed Potato salad, Three (mystery) Bean Salad, Asian Sesame Rice Noodle Salad, Artisan Pasta Salad with chokes and S.D. tomatoes topped with a farm fresh local egg. Fresh local greens with blueberries, sliced long sweet peppers from our garden and our summer creamy dressing specialty; fresh herbs from our gardens emulsified with vinegars and oil.

And Daves sandwiches continue to sell out each day…fresh made daily, interesting bread and all the colors to eat from for a total meal. Our house-made rhubarb bar-b-Que sauce & chicken wrap, house-made focaccia bread with burrata mozzarella and heirloom tomatoes with 18 year old balsamic drizzle; and all the favorites of local egg salad, chicken salad, turkey, Italian, roast beef.

And Daves pizza; in the freezer to bake at home or live on Wednesdays either at the Farmers Market or in store 4-6:30. Order ahead to assure you get one!

In groceries…

New from our friends that we partner with right here…

New from our old stomping grounds…partnering with their local farmers back there. All organic.

New from where Dave went to school and where my sister lived (till she got burned out in one of those terrible fires!)…these organic tomato farmers made it through. Mary Ellen and Ollie visited here most years with family.

Making a classic vinegarette

The simplest of salad dressings–that also dubs as a marinade–is the vinegarette. Simple to make yet scientifically speaking complex, the addition of mustard creates a chemical reaction to hold the emulsification together. Try it with a variety of vinegars and mustards to have your own unique dressing each time. I have made it here with our hard-to-find Sherry Wine vinegar; a white wine vinegar with a lovely aged flavor that is not synthetic. Beware of some grocery vinegars; they are simply acetic acid with flavor additions.

In a small bowl combine:

2T Sherry wine vinegar
1-2T purified water to cut the acidity of the vinegar
1T mustard of any kind
1/2 cup good olive oil
1/2 tsp white sugar
1/2 tsp kosher salt
ground pepper if desired but the mustard already adds a peppery taste.

Whisk all these together until they form a a smooth “sauce”. Use immediately or refrigerate for later use. NOTE: the olive oil will solidify a bit in the refrigerator so it may be necessary to let the dressing sit out for 15 minutes or so before using once chilled.

Have a great week,

Jane and Dave

the Friday Feeding; VOL. 40

It’s Fair week-end! And the store is in the center of it.

A fair in the center of town is as quintessential Canterbury as the store itself is. Originally, like the picture above, the fair was presented by the Canterbury Farmers and Mechanics Association as a way for residents to exhibit their livestock and farmstead products, as well as to showcase their traditional craft skills such as blacksmithing, cooperage, rug weaving and needlework. That fair continued from 1871-1883.

In the 1940’s the Ladies Benevolent Society of our town center church sponsored a series of fund raising events around a “mid summer lawn party” that evolved to include a chicken bar-b-que. From these early beginnings the fair was reformed in 1959 to once again include traditional craft and livestock like the earlier Farmers and Mechanics fair.

Today, the fair includes all of the above with craftspeople, demonstrations, the chicken bar-b-que and the famous LBS bake sale. Operating expenses are withheld from the proceeds with remaining funds donated to The Canterbury Fund, a fund seeded by one of our founding Canterburians, Sam Lake (who used to operate our store), to aid town folks in need and act as a loan fund.

In honor of the intent of the fair, our baking will subside this Saturday hoping you all will get your treats from the bake sale to support the cause. The one exception is our coconut cream pie that will be in the refrigerator for Saturday and beyond. And of course, if you don’t eat outside, our coolers are full of our sandwiches, salads and meals because that is what we do. Our featured sandwich this week-end is heirloom tomato, burrata cheese, our own organic basil with a balsamic drizzle on house-made focaccia bread.

If you want to stop in and aren’t attending the fair, come to us the back way. The roads are closed off for the festivities 8AM to 4PM. See some driving instructions at the end of this post.

Many of the artisans that the store represents will have their own booth at the fair. Stop by to meet them. But many of our artisans won’t be there so you will have to stop in the store to see their wares.

Our beloved Ken Williams photographer stopped off some of his original historic photos yesterday, framed nicely to hang and remember our Shaker heritage.

G. Edward Hudson has dropped off some note cards of his paintings depicting our historic town center sights, Eric Baker has dropped off new Shaker boxes replicated authentically by hand with no machine and Lori Rollason’s sgraffito Shaker Tree of Life mugs made exclusively for us completes this theme.

We are busy busy getting ready for tomorrow so no recipe this week. Check our recipe archives by entering what you are looking for in the search button on our home page. Check back later for next weeks specials which we will add to this post and always on our front page.

Remember to come see Dave at the Farmers Market for a live made-on-the-spot pizza and some fresh squeezed lemonade. Wednesdays in the library parking lot 4-6:30pm. Consider preordering your pizza cuz there are only so many cooking slots available.

Have a great week-end and we will see ’round town!

Jane and Dave

DRIVING INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE “BACK WAY” to the store:

From I93 exit 18 veer left up the hill at the fork in the road. Turn onto rt. 132 going north to Randall Road. Turn right there to dead-end onto Old Tilton Road. Turn right and follow that to the bend near town center making a hairpin turn left onto Lamprey Road. At the end turn right onto Hackleboro to the backside of the store.

From 106 Shaker Road drive towards town center and Baptist Road. If you go all the way down, folks with direct you to parking and a shuttle will take you to the center. If you go just as far as Baptist HILL Road, take a right there and follow to Hackleboro Road (old cemetery or the right) where you will take a left. This will lead you to the back of the store as above.

the Friday Feeding; VOL. 39

The store is the place to be right now. Air conditioning, good food, a great art show a n d puzzles. Thank you for coming in all week.

What’s happening in the store right now…

Pulled pork with mayocoba beans & pickled carrots.

Click here for next weeks food specials…

Herbs

Your gardens may be lush with herbs ‘bout now, but do you really do anything with them?

You know how that early January lust for all things green leads to purchasing those herb seeds just KNOWING we will have the best garden e v e r. And in early spring, like a kid in a candy store, we stuff our senses and shopping cart with all the herb plants hauling them home to sit for a while, and a while, eventually making it into the ground. AND NOW…we have so much lushness so that unless we plan a week-end of industrious kitchening, they may go by the way side.

Since I have always had 3 or 4 projects going at once I have taught myself some herb preserving speed tricks that might help you too.

Drying herbs for later use:

Herbs taste best picked first thing in the morning before the sun hits them. They are fully hydrated so their flavor chemicals are more evenly distributed in the leaves making their flavor more delicate.

I cut them by the stem-full, run them under cool water to rinse off any dirt or bugs and immediately put them to dry. Don’t wait long because once they are wet they start deteriorating.

~~NO.~~I have found that my dehydrator is a pain in the butt, takes too long, uses electricity, requires watching over and I hate the constant background sound of the whirling fan.

~~NO.~~ I have found that oven drying, like all the above reasons, is also a pain in the butt. And, because the oven temperature doesn’t get low enough, the herbs have a slightly cooked flavor to them.

YES. Drying in your attic! I got this idea from the Shakers who did this. I have a clothes line strung up with clothes pins and hang my stemmed branches of herbs over the line and pin them in place. Drape some cheese cloth over them if you are worried about flies landing on them. They will be crispy dry in a few days up to a week. Come back with a basket and gather them.

YES. Drying in your car! Our cars get so hot this time of year you can place your herbs onto a towel or garden center flat tray to dry them on. The flavor will be better if they are not in the direct sun. Keep them in place until they are crispy dry.

YES. At the end of the season when your house is not air conditioned you can hang your last-of-the-season herbs in the warmest room of the house to dry. This is the old fashioned way to dry them over a cooking stove, near the fireplace or above your wood stove. I dry my sage at the end of the season hanging branches in the kitchen then pick from them for our Thanksgiving stuffing.

The herbs crumble easily off the stems once dried, then store in a zip lock bag or jar.

Preserving herbs in the freezer for later use.

Yes, you can knit-pickily pull every tiny bloomin’ leaf off the stem and freeze them as-is, but who has the time for that?! Preserved herbs end up in a sauce or stew as a flavoring anyway—unlike summer fresh herbs that we eat like lettuce—so preserving them in oil as a pesto works beautifully.

Cut branches of what ever herbs you prefer or use a mix of them. I rinse them as above then shake off that water like crazy or roll in a towel momentarily or hit them with a blow dryer. Immediately pick the leaves off. Mix in the following proportions in a food processor or Nutri-Bullet or blender and whirl until smooth. Freeze in ice cube trays then pop them out once frozen to a zip lock bag for storage. 1 cube = 2T of flavor to any soup, stew, dip, spread or sandwich.

1 cup packed herb leaves to 1/4 cup good oil like olive or sunflower

Since we have them now…

Fresh herb cheese spread.

Take a good cheese and make it even better…this is so simple and so very good.

Soften to room temperature [not hard to do these summer days]:

one 4oz wedge of Jasper Hill Farm’s Moses Sleeper cheese. We have it. Mash it up rind and all.

Mix in:

1T heavy cream

Add:

1T sliced very thin (chiffonade) basil leaves. I used purple basil for the color.
1/4 cup diced (little 1/4” cubes) summer sweet cherries

Mix together. Eat as-is or deposit into a pool of aged balsamic vinegar. Serve with crackers.

No Friday night pizza until fall. Instead go to our Farmers Market 4pm – 6:30pm where Dave is doing pizza live made to order. We suggest calling ahead to reserve a pizza…we have had a line and could not take any further orders past 6:00. We have plenty of room for the 4:00 to 5:00 time range. Fresh squeezed lemonade too!

Calling all quilters in Canterbury…

Our next show in the Feed Loft is a Community Share Project. We invite anyone who quilts to show their handiwork. Click here and scroll down to read more about it and to download and entry form.

We hope you have a great week-end,

Jane and Dave!

the Friday Feeding; VOL. 38

It’s too hot to cook. But cook we do here at the store so you don’t have to. Pizza, salads, meals and little bits and bites. In the cases right now…

Click here for this coming weeks food specials…

Warm weather recipe hacks

I think we all like recipes that can do dual purpose; start with one meal and turn it into a second. And with the heat of summer, when we might not want to be in our kitchen, this is especially desirous when we might instead want to be sipping and dripping near some water or under a shady tree.

Consider these…

Take a moment to make this quick low-fat meat loaf that dubs as a cold cut on crackers. I developed this recipe for Dave’s and my wedding. We served it cold on a buffet table.

Turkey Piñon Loaf

Squish together (hands are best) in a medium sized bowl:

1lb ground turkey. Try the Vermont Stonewood Farm brand we carry…it stays firm and is not watery like store brands.
1 egg
1/3 cup cream of wheat cereal uncooked (OR, as I did with these photos, use Masa Harina corn meal for a gluten-free option. NOTE: the Cream of Wheat makes for a more firm slice)
1/4 tsp granulated garlic
1/4 tsp granulated onion
a pinch of ground black pepper
3 dashes of Worcestershire sauce
2T pine nuts

Press into a 6 cup loaf pan—my grandmothers shown here—that has been oiled or sprayed with cooking spray. Bake 350º 40 minutes. Turn out of pan immediately from oven to serve or cool on a rack. Chill completely before slicing as a cold cut. Serve with mustard on crackers or rye bread. Check out our selection of artisan crackers and tangy or sweet mustards.

Danielle Krautman called in to ask about how convert my granola recipe into bars. She shares her hack here:

“Thanks for talking it through with me this AM. It worked!

Here’s what I ended up doing…

Added All the ingredients from your recipe. [Get it here in this post]

Plus:

Added 2 eggs

1/2 cup almond flour

1/4 cup honey (so 1/2 cup total)

2tbs chia seeds

2tbs ground flax

1/2 tsp salt

I mixed it all together, pressed it into a parchment-lined Pyrex and baked at 350 for 50 mins.

I recommend cooling completely before cutting them up. It gets more firm during the cooling.

Then I cut them into bars that are almost gone now. So I’ll make more tomorrow. Big hit in my house. The nice thing about making granola bars at home is that it’s easy and you know what ingredients are going into it. These are Definitely tastier than any store-bought granola or energy bar I have had so far”.

Thank you for sharing Danielle!

And a final warm weather hack…

Stir fried left overs

We pay good money in an asian restaurant for a stir fry. Do it better at home with what you have for nicer flavor in only 15 minutes on the stove top.

Heat in a large fry pan over medium heat until hot:

2T toasted sesame oil

When oil is hot, add the following in this order letting each layer cook for a couple minutes or so to crisp up, then stirring after each addition..

1 cup left over rice or our barley/rice salad or some cooked pasta
2 cups left over green salad with all the additions; tomatoes, peppers, seeds, cheese (what ever, even if it has dressing on it) Cook until wilted. NOTE: lettuce is wonderful cooked just like any kind of cooking green. It is finer in texture than kale, for example, so wilts more easily, which in this case is to your advantage.
2 beaten eggs drizzled over. Cook stirring until eggs are white and the lower layers are crispy.

Serve with hot sauce and drizzle with more toasted sesame oil.

Did you know that this Spicy Shark brand of hot sauce is made in Portsmouth, NH? They have won many many awards for their sauces.

No Friday night pizza until fall since we are doing it live at the Farmers Market, in the library parking lot Wednesdays from 4 to 6:30pm.

Have a great week,

Jane and Dave

PS Please share this blog with your friends. The more readers, the more fun!

the Friday Feeding; VOL. 37

Happy birthday America! We continue to be happy to contribute to your celebrations all this week-end…

And more celebrations to come this week-end …

We are OPEN til 8PM Saturday July 6

Check out our marinated steak tips and steak tip kabobs. Our own all natural recipe with red wine, herbs and spices, no MSG, no dextrose filler. We use Robie Farm’s all natural beef from Piermont, NH.

And celebrating our amazing community…

One of our artisan’s that consigns his craft to the store–Jon Soto–is planning a raffle of one of his really incredible knives to benefit our own Elkins Library. We are acting as his host to display the knife and collect your raffle donation. We will draw the winner the day after the Canterbury Fair, Sunday July 28.

This knife is hand forged carbon steel (8ØCRV2). What we like about his work is that he leaves some of the forge marks giving the blade a rustic feel. The handle is hand-formed rosewood & olive wood with a brass spacer and a hidden tang for stability and longevity in the Santoku style. Dave commissioned one and uses it on a daily basis in our kitchen making sandwiches.

Purchase a chance to win this knife for $10, cash only, now at the store. Or you can purchase your chance directly through Jon’s instagram waxandwheatforge. 100% of the proceeds go directly to our library. Value of knife is $250.

While you are out and about this week-end stop in the store to see our newest art show in the Feed Loft.

Pizza update: since Dave’s pizzas are so popular at the Wednesday night Farmers Market we will be discontinuing our Friday night live pizzas until fall when the market closes. We will continue to have pizzas in our freezer…grab a plain cheese one and get creative with your own toppings.

fresh blueberries, fresh basil and bacon?
red onion slices, thin eggplant slices and fresh garlic?
chopped kale, cooked pork sausage and chopped red peppers?
bar-b-que sauce, left over burger/steak OR left over-green salad?

Click here for our weekly food specials.

Have a wonderful week-end,

Jane and Dave

the Friday Feeding; VOL. 36

Celebrate! In this coming week it is the birthday of our nation and no matter how you feel about it, its cause for celebration. And we are having one right outside the store but the center of ALL celebration is food! Read on for easy celebration recipes and get the low-down on town fireworks…

And new in the store this week for your gatherings, little food celebrations of land and the animals that graze them, of plants grown by our neighbors and of little finds to wet our appetites.

We are proud of these farms that we represent.

Robie Farms NATURAL MEATS; Piermont, NH

Robie Farms has been in operation since 1870 and the 7th generation of the Robie family still operates the farm land today. Dedicated to sustaining the land for future generations, they practice land renewal and organic methods which in turn makes for excellent beef and pork.

Beef: Angus and Hereford-cross bred for tenderness and flavor. Grass fed. No hormones. HGAL standards.

Pork: Yorkshire, Duroc and Berkshire breeds for lean, juicy and deeper flavors. Hoop house raised with fresh air and sunshine. No hormones. Fed fresh grass clipping & soy-free grain. HGAL standards.

HGAL = humanely raised, growth hormone-free, all natural, locally grown

Sloping Acres Farm; Canterbury, NH

Operated by the Glines family who settled Canterbury, this multi-generational farm has fed Canterbury for decades. Delicious ground beef by the pound.

And from our creative hands to your tummies…

Click here for next week’s specials menu

Click here for our new summer seasonal menu with a few new items starting next week.

Celebration picnic fare…

the BEST guacamole

Mash with a fork:

2 ripe avocados. What is a ripe avocado? It is still firm to the touch but gives slightly. The skin should be black. If it squishes it is over-ripe and the flavor is entirely different. A perfectly ripe avocado should be able to be sliced and hold it’s shape not bending over. We purchase green avocados and ripen them to perfection here, then put them in the cooler ready for you. They sell out fast.

To this smashed greenness add:

1/2 cup diced tomatoes
2T finely chopped red onions
1/2 tsp mayonnaise (yes mayonnaise. The vinegar in it keeps the avocado green and makes the guac creamy)
1/2 tsp granulated garlic
1/2 tsp kosher salt
6 shakes of tabasco sauce (you can omit this if you do not care for the heat)

Dip and scoop up with tortilla chips.

If you have not yet tried the Green Mountain Gringo brand of tortilla chips we sell YOU SHOULD. OMG, tender layers of corn bubbling & lifting upward as they are fried makes for crunchy, salty bits that seem to melt in the mouth. Great for scooping or just plain eating.

Pickled Cherries Makes one 16 oz jar.

Rinse and dry a heaping 2 cups of cherries, sweet or sour. Jim at the Farmers Markets had them this week. Immediately pit them and cut them into quarters. NOTE: once they are rinsed they will begin to deteriorate so work quickly.
Measure 2 cups worth and place in refrigerator bowl or 16 oz. jar. (If you want to preserve them by canning, see alterations below.)

In a stainless steel sauce pan combine the following:

3/4 cup apple cider vinegar
3/4 cup white cane sugar
1 1/2 tsp mustard seeds
1/4 tsp ground allspice
1/2 tsp kosher salt (Note: iodized salt will darken your pickles.)
1 T finely chopped red or orange bell pepper
1 T finely sliced or chopped red onion

Bring all ingredients to a boil then simmer for 10 minutes. Pour over cherries and refrigerate. They are good in 12 hours, great in 24 hours and awesome the longer they sit. They will keep refrigerated four weeks or longer.

Add them to potato salad, dress a hot dog, or serve as a side to grilled meats and vegetables. Use them any way you would use pickle relish.

*If you wish to can these to preserve for later, sterilize your jar and canning lids with hot soapy water then pour boiling water over them. Fill with cherries and hot liquid into a hot, dry jar. Wipe jar rim clean then screw on lids tightly. Process in a boiling water bath for 15 minutes. Remove to a rack to cool.

In addition to Farmers Market, we are still doing Friday Night Pizza Live. Friday night pizza, June 28 . 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

Have a great week,

Jane and Dave

We are OPEN til 8PM Saturday July 6

PS Please let me know if you enjoy this blog. It helps me keep writing. Thank you!

the Friday Feeding; VOL. 35

Its been a warm week! But here in the store it is cool and comfortable. Come hang out; we’ve got a pitcher of ice water out for you.

It been a week for familiar faces–welcome back for the summer Barbara, Megan and Luke– and lots of new folks traveling through…on roaring bikes, on thoughtful drives from the Shaker Village and neighbors just out for one of Dave’s great sandwiches.

A few things new at the store this week…

Playing with sorbet

In one of her TV episodes years ago, Ina Garten gave us the food-hack of using a good vanilla ice cream, thawed, as a Creme Anglaise custard sauce. Voila; a creamy sauce to pour baked items like a crumble or some fresh berries from Apple Hill Farm, Brookford Farm or Clough Tavern Farm, or from our Farmers Market.

Her suggestion really got me thinking all that time ago about how frozen substances started as a liquid and how those liquids could be useable in other ways. Case in point; sorbet.

Sorbet, unlike sherbet, is completely dairy free and only lightly sweetened. Thawed, it becomes a thin syrup full of intense flavor and very fresh taste. With all this hot weather we have been having I decided to play around with the two sorbets we carry to see how many ways I could use them. Following are some recipes…

Warm Weather salad

I have always loved a scoop of cold over a bed of salad of greens in the summer; so easy, so refreshing. Here is a new version I tried. It was really, really good.

Make a bed of greens – these are Turning Mill Farm’s lettuce we carry.
Add some sweeter vegetables over that. I used fresh peas (not cooked), cucumbers and canned beets
Put a scoop of Cold Fusion Mango sorbet in the center
Sprinkle with toasted cashews if desired.
Dress your salad with the following dressing…

Lime Sorbet salad dressing

This is amazingly good! Whisk well together in measuring cup:

1/2 cup thawed Cold Fusion Lime Sorbet. Leave your quarter cup scoop out at room temperature and it will be ready in 10 minutes; still cold with a few bits.
2T seasoned rice vinegar
1/4 cup olive oil
2 pinches of kosher salt

Dresses two portions of salad. NOTE: fresh salad dressings like this separate. Whisk them well each time before you pour them.

Cool Down Mango cocktail

Put in a blender or Nutribullet:

one half cucumber, peeled
1/2 cup Cold Fusion Mango Sorbet, frozen
4oz vodka

Blend until smooth, Pour over ice and add a twist of mint. Serves two. MAN THIS IS GOOD! We have some free mint in the cooler at the store if you don’t have any in your garden. Come on by…

For more eating inspiration, click here to see our prepared food specials coming up next week.

Click here for our seasonal menu.

In addition to Farmers Market, we are still doing Friday Night Pizza Live. Friday night pizza, June 21 . 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:

SPECIAL: Buffalo ground turkey & blue cheese over olive oil.

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

Have a great week,

Jane and Dave

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