Time to gather...

I know I say this every year, but wow, this season flew. Seems it was just yesterday that we were welcoming new vendors: Halal Pastures, Thousand Leaf Garden, Mead Orchard and our fabulous new baker,  Elderberry Rd. and not one but THREE new cracker purveyors – all uniquely delicious – among others. 

It’s always fitting that our last day of the “summer” season falls on the busiest shopping day of the year. We love to see our shoppers arrive, looking more determined than usual, waving longer shopping lists and market bags at the ready. Some bring their own “sherpas” with them: grandkids, spouses, stretch red wagons.

This “meal” means a heck of a lot to us as a country and though we’re willing to screw up a lot of other things, there is a tremendous pressure to get everything just right on Thanksgiving. So much free floating pressure in the gathering (and pleasing) of family and friends. This year, in particular, may be extra challenging in this department.

My suggestion to all of you is to keep the food simple this year. Let the ingredients speak for themselves. And let herbs and spices do the rest. For reals. If you got your turkey from R&M Farm, you know it will be flavorful because of how it was raised and fed.

Try this recipe for roast turkey with chestnut-apple stuffing. Since the mushrooms at Tivoli Farm are so enticing and flavorful it behooves you to add them to any stuffing you make, even if the recipe doesn't call for them. 

I know this is considered anathema for many, but I shy away from bread-based stuffings as the bread tends to absorb all the flavors around it.

I prefer wild rice as in this Nancy Harmon Jenkins recipe for wild rice and cranberry stuffing. Again, mushrooms would be a welcome addition here and could even replace the fennel sausage if you wanted to make this vegetarian.

BTW, both Thousand Leaf and the Orchards of Concklin will have cranberries this weekend. So much nicer than buying them in the bag! Buy some to make this David Tanis’ cranberry relish which veers toward pepper instead of the usual citrus. (This will taste delicious in turkey sandwiches next Friday.)

The produce you’ll find on Saturday will have been plucked out of the earth literally hours before the market's opening bell. Those burnished-color carrots from Sun Sprout Farm need only be caramelized and flecked with fresh thyme to shine on your table. For something a bit more unusual or ambitious try these honey-roasted carrots with tahini yogurt. Need more, or a different “orange”?  Try this easy, no peel recipe for caramelized squash with cinnamon-toasted-nuts.

Buy more herbs than you think you’ll need and use more than the recipe requires. Herbs are everything, especially in a meal that can lean toward, well, bland.

A lemony salad will brighten things up nicely so don’t forget salad greens. Sun Sprout’s red leaf lettuce has been divine of late as has the frisée at Thousand Leaf. 

I’m a firm believer in having a “fun” pie at your table and a traditional seasonal fruit pie, be it apple cranberry, or ginger cardamom pear or apple maple ginger.
This NYT recipe for cranberry citrus meringue pie definitely qualifies as fun.

You can buy loaves from your favorite bread vendor and freeze them  OR get a par-baked frozen sourdough boule from Shhh-our-dough to bake as your guests arrive (provided you have room in your oven!).

This month we moved our Gleaning day to the fourth Saturday to coincide with the holiday. So, if you are buying potatoes, onions or carrots, please buy an extra bag or bunch for the Hastings Food Pantry. The basket will be set up by the Morgiewicz Produce tent. And, this is the LAST SATURDAY to bring your extra coats to our coat drive.

A gentle reminder that we will all be taking the Saturday after Thanksgiving off and that our next market is Dec. 7th. 

With gratitude...

See you at the market!