NEW GLASGOW – If you want to eat fresh local food, there’s no better time than now.
Fresh produce was a hot commodity Saturday at the New Glasgow Riverfront Farmers Market where local sellers had a wide variety of vegetables straight from the garden.
Susan Langille, farm manager at Ed Lakenman Farm, was busy selling beans, carrots, beets and lettuce. Every bit of it was grown locally.
“Everything here is from Lankenman’s farm,” Langille said.
New potatoes and broccoli seemed to be their top sellers, she said.
“Every week there’s more fresh stuff coming,” she said.
Being able to sell the produce in a setting like the farmers market has many benefits, she said.
“They’re supporting their community for one thing,” she said. “This is a great place to see people come and gather.”
It’s also a way to preserve the area’s agricultural heritage.
“Small farmers are a dying breed,” she said.
Peter Friesen with Friesen Fresh, was another vendor at the farmers market Saturday.
“We have almost everything: beets carrots tomatoes, radishes, cucumbers and tomatoes are coming within a week or two,” he said. “From now until the end of August it’s going to be flat out.”
Buyers seem to be buying the produce as quick as they can grow it.
“We had a couple hundred pounds of beans and we sold out in the first hour, hour and a half,” he said Saturday. “It was unbelievable.”
Along with the vegetables vendors were selling jams and jellies ranging from strawberry-rhubarb jam to gooseberry jelly.
Margie Cameron was one of the ones selling them. Gooseberries and cranberries are out now and blueberries will be starting within the next week or two.
Here are a couple of recipes you can make using local produce
Raspberry muffins
Ingredients
1/2 cup butter or margarine, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg
1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup fresh or frozen raspberries
STREUSEL:
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup quick-cooking oats
3 tablespoons sugar
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons cold butter or margarine
confectioners' sugar
Directions
In a mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy; beat in egg. In a small bowl, mix sour cream, milk and vanilla. Combine dry ingredients; stir into creamed mixture alternately with sour cream mixture just until moistened. Gently fold in raspberries. Fill greased or paper-lined muffin cups two-thirds full. Combine flour, oats, sugar, cinnamon and salt; mix well. Cut in the butter until crumbly. Sprinkle over muffins. Bake at 400 degrees F for 18-22 minutes or until muffins test done. Cool in pan 10 minutes before removing to a wire rack. Dust with confectioners' sugar.
Gooseberry pie
Ingredients
3 cups fresh gooseberries
2 cups white sugar
3 tablespoons quick-cooking tapioca
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 recipe pastry for a 9 inch double crust pie
2 tablespoons milk
1 1/2 tablespoons white sugar
Directions
Stem and rinse berries.
Crush 1/2 cup berries in the bottom of a saucepan. Combine sugar, tapioca, and salt; mix with crushed berries. Cook and stir until mixture boils. Cook for 2 more minutes. Remove from heat, and add in remaining whole berries.
Pour fruit filling into pastry. Adjust top crust, cut slits for escape of steam. Brush with milk and sugar.
Bake at 400 degrees F (205 degrees C) for 35 minutes.
Recipes courtesy of allrecipes.com
