High summer means there is an abundance of fresh local produce around, both in my garden and the local farmer’s stands and markets. I took a drive around in the morning, to see what was available, and found so much. So our all local meal this week featured our own chicken, butchered over the weekend, refrigerator pickles from cucumbers from our garden, corn on the cob, picked that day, roasted new red potatoes with mint from the garden, and red cabbage slaw, with blueberry ice cream for dessert. It just doesn’t get any better than this.
The chicken was great. I marinated it all day in Sam Adams beer, which I am calling local, since Boston is only two hours away. I wanted to keep it really simple, so we could taste the actual chicken and see how different it was than store bought, and the verdict is that it is fantastic. I’m going to let the other five chill in the icebox until Thursday before freezing, which will supposedly make them even more tender. But wow. Yum. I cooked it on the grill, on each side on high for five minutes, then on low for thirty.
The potato salad is a recipe from a friend who I haven’t seen in a decade, but she used to bring it to parties all the time. I roasted new red potatoes on the grill. Frank found me a cup’s worth of mint from the garden. I tossed it with some olive oil and kosher salt. It’s really simple, but really nice. The mint isn’t overpowering, but is very tasty, and there were none left over, so it must have been yummy.
I shredded the red cabbage early in the day, and mixed it with some apple cider vinegar and our own honey, some sea salt, fresh ground pepper and some minced garlic and let it sit all day. It stayed crisp and flavorful, really yummy. Frank said that the inadvertent mixing with the mint from the potato salad was really good as well, so I might just add some to it next time.
Corn on the cob picked that day — just a few minutes on the grill made it perfect. I like the roasted corn flavor. I couldn’t stop there, though, as we needed a green veg too, but decided that the refridgerator pickles from our own cucumbers would be enough. They’ve been sitting for a few days, and are really getting flavorful.
We finished the feast with homemade raw milk blueberry ice cream. The raw milk is from Stonewall Farm in Keene, the eggs are from our chickens, the maple syrup from here in Marlow, the blueberries from Green Wagon Farm. I have to confess, though, that I soaked the blueberries in a little dark Bermuda rum. The ice cream is just fantastic — sort of like blueberry pancakes, but better. I think I want to come up with some sort of crunchy topping to serve it with. We barely waited long enough for it to freeze before digging in, and I bet it just keeps getting better as it ages a bit.
[Documented for One Local Summer.]