You have to love the simplicity of the tomato sandwich come summer time. Fresh sliced tomatoes, a little salt and pepper, a touch of mayonnaise, on toast. That's one of my favorite lunches in the summer.

But if you're looking for a recipe that highlights the great flavor of tomatoes, is easy to put together and has a bit of “wow” factor, the Tomato Stack Salad is it!

I made this last summer for myself and a group of friends after reading that it won first place in The Washington Post's Top Tomato contest. Enjoy! (Photo by James M. Thresher for The Washington Post).

Curious about local cheeses and which wines to pair them with? The May/June issue of North Carolina Wine Press magazine features “North Carolina Cheese Plate,” an article on a variety of local cheesemakers, including market vendor Hillsborough Cheese Co. The article tells the stories of these cheesemakers and also pairs different local wines with the cheeses. Check out the article and a local TV news segment about it.

Ginger Zucchino of The Gardener's Kitchen joined us in the Education Tent on April 24 with samples of two delicious jellies, including her original Lemon Balm Jelly. Ginger holds gardening workshops as well as canning workshops. Contact her to learn how to preserve all those wonderful flavors from the garden and the market.

Lemon Balm Jelly

Copyright © 2009, The Gardener's Kitchen
Makes 3 to 5 pints

• 3 cups water
• 1 lemon thinly sliced
• 2 cups lemon balm leaves, washed and air-dried
• 6 1/2 cups sugar
• 1 bottle liquid pectin
• finely grated peel of lemon

On the night before you plan to make the jelly, slice one lemon thinly and place in 3 cups of water to soak overnight. Next morning, strain the lemon slices from the water, retaining the water.

Bring the lemon water to a boil and add the lemon balm. Steep the lemon balm in lemon water for 10 to 20 minutes. Strain. Bring the lemon balm infusion and sugar to a rolling boil. Add pectin and bring to a boil. Stir for 1 minute. Test for jelly point. Stir in grated lemon peel. Remove from heat, place in jar and seal.

Process the sealed jars in hot water bath for 10 minutes.

Thanks to Herons Executive Chef Scott Crawford and AmyLynn LaFreniere, Chef Tournant (in photo at right) for coming to market earlier this month with his delicious North Carolina Shrimp and Potato Salad for shoppers to taste! Thanks also to him for the recipe below.

NC Shrimp and Potato Salad

Serves 4

• 8 raw shrimp, peeled and deveined, cook and dice
• 6 red bliss potatoes, dice and cook
• ¼ cup fresh peas, shucked, blanched
• 1 TBS bacon, small diced and rendered
• 1 shallot, small diced
• 1 TBS capers chopped
• 1 tsp wholegrain mustard
• 1 TBS roasted red pepper puree
• Duke’s mayonnaise, to taste
• Salt and pepper, to taste
• 1 TBS fresh herbs, cut (dill, parsley, chives)

1. Once the shrimp have been cooked, place in an ice bath to cool, once cool, small dice and place in a mixing bowl.
2. Small dice the red bliss potatoes, bring to a boil on the stove with water and salt, and reduce heat to a simmer, and cook until tender. Remove from water, then place on sheet pan to cool. Once cool add to the mixing bowl with the shrimp.
3. Once the peas have been shucked, blanched and cooled down, also place with the shrimp in the mixing bowl.
4. In the mixing bowl with the shrimp, add the capers, diced shallots, whole grain mustard, red pepper puree, Duke’s mayonnaise. Add mayonnaise, salt and pepper to taste. Thoroughly mix all ingredients together.
5. Once the ingredients are mixed together, put it serving bowl and garnish with bacon and fresh herbs.

Please note: this recipe is better if you mixed the ingredients together the night before. Wait till serving time to garnish.

Leek and Asparagus Quiche
With eggs, leeks and asparagus from the market, you can't go wrong with this dish for breakfast, lunch or even a light dinner. This recipe is from Stacey Snacks, a food blog that has a lot of really tasty recipes--and plenty of pictures to go with them. This recipe calls for gruyere cheese too, but if you want even more local ingredients, check with Hillsborough Cheese Co. on whether they have a substitute they might recommend. (photo by Stacey Snacks)

Beet Tabbouleh with Lemon, Mint and Feta
A lot of people are puzzled about what to do with beets. Thanks to Juliann Zoetmulder for this delicious recipe. Yield: 8 servings (4 cups)

Vinaigrette:
3 TBS lemon juice
2 TBS minced shallots
2 tsp honey
salt and pepper to taste
1 TBS olive oil
1 TBS walnut oil

Tabbouleh:
2 cups presoaked bulgur (1:1 bulgur/water soak one hour)
1 cup diced cooked beets (boil beets until tender)
1/3 cup chopped fresh parsley
1/3 cup chopped mint leaves
¼ cup chopped toasted walnuts
¼ cup crumbled feta cheese

Whisk lemon juice, shallots, honey, salt, and pepper together in a bowl. Add olive and walnut oils and whisk until blended. Add bulgur, beets, parsley, mint, and walnuts. Toss to coat with vinaigrette.

Garnish salad with feta cheese.

I didn't think a discussion on local food could be so entertaining, but last night's panel discussion following the screening of FRESH at Meredith College was just that. I really enjoyed all the panelists, their views, their experiences, their sense of humor and their suggestions for how to keep moving local, sustainable farming forward.

Joel Salatin, a farmer from Virginia who is featured in FRESH and Food, Inc., expresses himself in a way that is so engaging, thought-provoking and entertaining that you simply want to know more. I left the event feeling like I know him a little bit, and that I would really like to get to know him better. In addition to his opinion that hoop houses, which extend growing seasons, are sexy, here are a few key points he made last night:

• “The fact that I'm considered an activist shows how far our food system has removed itself from normalcy. This is not normal. Young people think it's normal, but this is just a blip in history, and pasture-based multi-pasteurization will return.“
  
• You can't learn anything from reading a food label any more.
  
• A quiet revolution has been going on in farming. A revolution in which technology is making real positive changes for farmers, such as composting, electric fences, better mechanical seed placement, UV stabilized plastic, hoop houses and season extenders. If the same amount of creativity, money and energy had gone into this quiet revolution as has gone into industrial agriculture, we would be producing more food without having destroyed the earth.
  
• If you think something is bad, opt out of it. Just quit. You have control over what you eat.

What Can You Do?

Salatin was joined by a panel of local experts who also shared great information on what is happening in our area and what each of us can to do to keep promote local, sustainable farming. Local farmer Harry LeBlanc of Beausol Gardens, a new vendor at our market, encouraged the roughly 600 people attending to let our elected officials know if we don't want them to get in the way of our eating local food. He was referring to national legislation that is pending right now that could seriously impact small-scale family farms.

Chatham County Agricultural Extension Agent Debbie Roos, who works with local farmers on a daily basis, said that regulations are a major concern for local farmers. They are meeting with FDA officials with the hope that its new regulations will be scale-appropriate so that they don't put these farms out of business. Roos also highlighted local farmers' biggest challenges: the cost of labor, getting health insurance, and access to land and capital.

Nancy Creamer, Executive Director of the Center for Environmental Farming Systems and a member of the new NC Local Food Policy Council, discussed a new statewide “Buy Local“ campaign that will soon kick off. Creamer said that if every person in the state spent 10% of their food dollar on local food, it would mean $3.5 billion for the local economy. Stay tuned for details on that campaign!

Katherine Andrew of the Inter-Faith Food Shuttle encouraged attendees to get involved with community gardens as a way to help low-income families who do not have access to healthy foods. The Food Shuttle now has a 3-acre farm in Raleigh and two community gardens, while work will soon begin on two more community gardens. About $2,500 was raised for the Inter-Faith Food Shuttle last night through the screening.

See the Food Movies

If you haven't seen FRESH or Food, Inc., check them out. Food, Inc. is on DVD, and FRESH has screenings around the country on different dates (one in Winston-Salem next week). You can even request a copy for your own screening.

Both films provide an overview of the industrialized food system we are now subject to, but they also show how a number of amazing people around the country are making changes, one farm and one garden at a time, so that we have access to food that is safer and healthier for us, the animals and our land. Plus I think you'll get a flavor of what Joel Salatin's all about, and I bet you might want to know him better too.

• Rule No. 10: “Avoid foods that are pretending to be something they are not.”
• Rule No. 13: “Eat only foods that will eventually rot.”
• Rule No. 39: “Eat all the junk food you want as long as you cook it yourself."
• Rule No. 16: “Buy your snacks at the farmers’ market."

For most of the rules, Pollan provides a short explanation. A few of the rules are so basic to eating well that he doesn't include any information, such as Rule No. 21: “It’s not food if it’s called by the same name in every language. (Think Big Mac, Cheetos, or Pringles.)”

In this short article written by Pollan, he explains that he wrote the book at a doctor’s request as a guide for his patients and touches on the health care problem in our country related to the way we eat. If you have an hour to spare, pick up the book. It’s good food for thought!

Thanks to Market Manager Kim Hunter for sharing this seasonal recipe with market shoppers!

Ingredients

• 1 butternut squash neck (peel neck of squash then thinly slice)
• 2-3 medium sweet potatoes, peeled and sliced (about 2 ½ cups sliced)
• 6 red potatoes, peeled and sliced (about 2 ½ cups sliced)
• 1 ½ tsp salt
• ¾ cup panko-style bread crumbs

Sauce

• 3 TBS flour (plus more for pan)
• 3 TBS butter
• ¼ cup heavy cream
• 2 cups milk
• 6 ounces goat cheese (can replace with another cheese such as cheddar or gruyere)

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter a 9x11” pan. Place squash, sweet potatoes and red potatoes in pan, creating 3 or 4 layers, sprinkling each layer with about ½ tsp salt. Set aside.

To prepare sauce, melt butter in medium saucepan over medium heat. Add flour to melted butter and whisk. Add cream to butter and flour, whisk gently for about one minute, allowing mixture to thicken. Add milk and stir gently. Heat mixture until steaming but not boiling. Stir in cheese and remove from heat.

Pour sauce over the squash and potatoes. Bake in oven for 35-45 minutes, until potatoes are tender and the top is slightly browned. Remove from oven and heat oven to broil setting. Top the dish with panko bread crumbs and broil for 4-5 minutes until browned.

Many thanks to Tony Jenkens of Zero Emissions Transportation for bringing his escooters to market on Nov. 7 and educating us about how electric scooter and bikes can help keep our community “green.”

You can ride 500 miles on one of these scooters instead of your car and keep 480 lbs of carbon out of the environment. Wow! Contact him if you would like more information.

Thanks to Herons Chef Scott Crawford for braving a chilly morning at the market on Oct. 17 to share samples of his delicious Butternut Squash Soup with Coconut & Malt and the recipe with shoppers. If you missed it, here's how you can make it at home.

• 1 large locally grown butternut squash
• 2 6-oz cans coconut milk
• 1 TBS sugar
• 2 TBS malted milk powder
• 2 TBS butter
• 1 TBS maple syrup
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 cinnamon stick
• Pinch fresh nutmeg
• Kosher salt to taste

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cut butternut squash in half and remove seeds. Melt 1 TBS of butter and brush the butternut with butter using a pastry brush. Season the squash with salt and place on a baking sheet. Roast the squash for 45 minutes or until squash is soft and flesh is bright orange in color. Remove from oven and allow squash to cool for 10 minutes. Scoop the squash away from the skin with a spoon and place in a blender.

In a small sauce pan, gently heat the coconut milk, malted milk powder, vanilla, maple syrup, cinnamon and nutmeg. Remove from heat and allow mixture to steep for 5 minutes. Turn on blender and add liquid mixture to butternut squash a little at a time until you achieve the desired consistency (You do not have to use all of the liquid). Add the remaining butter and sugar while blending. Season with salt to taste.

Serves 4.