Enjoying Local Produce in the Winter

Summer is in full swing and the Bryn Mawr Farmer's Market will be overloaded with produce the next few weeks. The New York Times food writer, Marc Bittman, wrote a great piece a while back on how to best freeze produce - this takes advantage of summer's bounty and makes it last into fall and winter. Another idea - buy bags of tomatoes, onions, peppers and basil, and make up batches of tomato sauce to freeze for later. Or, if you are planning to bake a pie, bake two instead and freeze one. Freezing is a fantastic way to support our local farmers even if you are heading out of town. We don't want all this delicious food going into the compost pile!

Looking for more ways to use up those tomatoes? Try this delicious, tangy Tomato Salad:

Heirloom Tomato Salad
4 Cucumbers, chopped
12 Juliet Tomatoes, sliced in half
6 Sun Gold Tomatoes, quartered
10 leaves Basil
6 oz Feta or Goat Cheese
2 or 4 Shallots, thinly sliced
4 oz Balsamic Reduction

1. In a sauce pan over medium heat, reduce to about half 1 cup of balsamic vinegar. Add the sliced shallots to the reduction.
2. Mix all ingredients together, drizzle with the reduction and shallots, season with salt and pepper to taste.

Shellbark Hollow will be back this Saturday, hope to see you at the market!