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20 most beautiful weather woman7/29/2023 Riggs pioneered an innovative tenting system with fine-mesh netting and double-doors to enter and exit that covers the farm’s entire blueberry and raspberry plantings. On Riggs’ Berry Patch farm, which she runs with her husband, Don Miles, the berries are grown pesticide-free. You never know what Mother Nature might have left on your crop,” she said. “Even pesticide-free blueberries should be washed for food safety reasons. Like the rest of us, she freezes them, too, washing and drying them first (for her technique, see See Q & A with Abra Berens). Her book is filled with innovative recipes for savory and sweet dishes featuring fruit, including blueberries. Once you get your berries home, “the less you handle them, the better in terms of longevity,” said Abra Berens, the author of “Pulp: A Practical Guide to Cooking with Fruit.” Berens is a fan of roasting, baking, and preserving berries by pickling them, or making vinegar (see box, Preserving Blueberries). Others, like 94-year-old Ken Abrams, arrive at the farmstand by car and bring along their own bowls or containers to place on the scale to get tare weighed and filled. Like Aronstamm, many customers are pick-your-own loyalists who start early in the morning and pick quarts and quarts. Winney’s is a blueberry institution, sporting more than 40,000 bushes that produce dozens of varieties throughout the season. Once you’ve had fresh berries it’s kind of hard to eat the kind you see at the supermarket in the off-season,” she said. “I try to freeze enough for the whole year but if we run out, we run out. For Judy Aronstamm of Saratoga Springs, that means heading out to Winney’s in Bacon Hill, just north of Schuylerville, as early in the season as possible, “when the berries are huge and juicy and beautiful.” Aronstamm has been picking her own for 25 years, to make freezer jam, blueberry sauce (for pancakes, pound cake, ice cream), cornmeal blueberry muffins, and to freeze so she can use the after the season ends. “I’m known around the Co-op as ‘The Blueberry Lady,’” Riggs said. “The cooler weather puts our pick-your-own crop starting the second week of July.” You can find blueberries from The Berry Patch at the Troy Farmer’s Market and Honest Weight Food Co-op in Albany, as well as at their family farm. “This year they’re coming a little later than last,” said Dale-Ila Riggs of the Berry Patch in Columbia County’s Stephentown. Reprinted with permission from "Pulp: A Practical Guide to Cooking with Fruit" by Abra Berens, © 2023. Once frozen, scoop up and package into a freezer bag and use at will. Lay the blueberries out on a baking sheet to individually freeze. You can't ask for an easier fruit to preserve. It is also a great vinaigrette base, which I like most on spinach salads. Just sake 2 ounces gin with 1/2 ounce blueberry shrub with ice and garnish with a lime wedge or wheel. Uses: Blueberry shrub makes a nice spritzer just with soda water or a really pretty gin gimlet. Add two bay leaves and infuse for at least 10 minutes and up to 2 months. Puree in a blender until smooth and pour through a fine-mesh sieve into a wide-mouth jar. VINEGARīlueberries turn a lovely purple when blended into vinegars, and make one of my favorite shrubs.Ĭombine 1 cup brown sugar with 1 1/2 cups apple cider vinegar and 1 cup blueberries (fresh or frozen). I really like rye bread smeared with a triple-cream bloomy-rind cheese (like brie or Saint Andre) and then topped with a spoonful of pickled berries. Uses: Pickled blueberries go well with any sort of game meat or higher-fat cheese. This is one of the few times I'll use red wine or sherry vinegar in the pickle liquid. I like blueberries pickled with the Basic Fruit Pickle Brine (from "Pulp"). The jam sets up quickly, so it tastes fresh, especially with a squeeze of lemon added at the last minute. Blueberries make great jam because they are so high in pectin.
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