Rosemary Krill tells about her recent finds at the Winterthur farm stand:
Thank you to the Garden staff and to the farmers from Happy Cat Farm and SIW Vegetables for opening the farmstand on some Saturdays from 10:00am to noon. Whenever I visit a farmstand in August, I wish that we could eat this month for the whole year, storing up our annual calorie supply like bears getting ready for hibernation. My eyes and market bags are always bigger than my stomach and refrigerator.
A week ago, I bought some tomatoes from Happy Cat and the biggest cucumber on the SIW table. It was over a foot long, and spiraled. Its attraction was partly the way it looked, in addition to the way it would taste. It came home to an already full fridge, and so it was days before I realized it was ‘use it or lose it.’
It wasn’t at its peak, but it was still crisp and cool. I simply peeled and sliced it and poured a sweet-sour dressing over it, made of equal parts vinegar and sugar, heated and stirred until the sugar melted. Thanks to a friend who grew up in Texas, I had a dried arbol chile in the pantry closet, which, diced finely and added judiciously, made just the right piquancy. Those at my table who routinely think that hot pepper is a food group could add their own dash of Tabasco, if needed. Adding the dressing allows us to enjoy that crisp cucumber texture a bit longer. And leaves a good memory for when we’re eating pickles in March and dreaming of the next harvest.
