Food – Page 42 – Into the Woods

Southern style tomato sandwiches

Ken’s first taste of Bunny bread

Once upon a time, when you grew up in the South, tomato sandwiches were what you had for lunch. For a proper Southern tomato sandwich, the whitest, fluffiest bread you can find is in order. Here at the abbey, I bake all the bread, whether it’s biscuits, sourdough loaves, rolls, pizza crusts or whatever. But, ever since I moved back to North Carolina from California, once a summer I buy a loaf of Bunny bread, the whitest, fluffiest bread that can be bought around here. I also leave my high-end organic mayonnaises bought at Whole Foods in the fridge and use a common grocery store mayonnaise. Of these low-end mayonnaises, Duke’s is my favorite.

Tomato sandwiches are an important tradition. That’s a recipe I’d never mess with.

What you need

Farmer's market, etc.

Tomatoes are not yet plentiful. When they are, the price will come down.

Ken and I went to the Danbury Farmer’s Market today. Ken took some photos along the way. Here are today’s photos, along with a couple of older catch-up photos.

As for the rainfall, one farmer said they got about half an inch last night. Another farmer got almost an inch of rain.

This is the stand of the farmer couple that this summer we’ve been calling our favorite farmers.

The vines at Oak Valley Vineyards, not far from Priddy’s General Store and about five miles from Acorn Abbey

The tobacco crop seems to have handled the hot, dry weather very well.

Ken built a firepit down at the edge of the woods. We had our first fire in it last Friday evening, a rare cool evening.

Ken with his last supper before starting a three-day fast. He’ll end the fast at dinner tonight, for which he has requested pizza and apple pie.

Basil season

One of the compensations for the heat spells of July is the fresh basil for pesto. Now if the tomatoes would just get ripe.

Apple pie from Levering apples

Here’s an apple pie from the Lodi apples we picked yesterday at Levering Orchard. I like simple, classic pies, so, as with this summer’s blackberry pies, I used one of the classic recipes from the 1943 edition of Irma Rombauer’s Joy of Cooking.

Levering Orchard

Ken climbs a cherry tree.

Today we drove to Levering Orchard in Ararat, Virginia, hoping to pick some cherries. Unfortunately we were a week or so too late for this year’s cherry crop, but we did pick some peaches and some Lodi apples.

Levering Orchard has been operated by the Levering family for three generations. Frank Levering now runs the orchard. Frank has written several books on rural living. He and his wife, Wanda Urbanska, produced the PBS television series Simple Living. I first met Frank more than 30 years ago, so we had a chance today to talk about old times and old friends.

I’ll probably make a pie from some of the apples. Most of the peaches probably will go into peach smoothies.

Ken Ilgunas and Frank Levering

Levering peaches

Best pie I ever made

My lattice is a little free form, isn’t it? But it tastes just the same as a geometrically perfect lattice.

In my family, the reference and standard for good cooking — a standard that is almost impossible to meet — is the standard set by one of our grandmothers. She made amazing pies. Today I made a pie that comes awfully close to meeting that standard. Ken and a friend of his visiting from New York picked half a gallon of wild blackberries out in the 96-degree heat. With the berries brought absolutely fresh into a cool kitchen, I baked a pie using Irma Rombauer’s recipe from the 1943 edition of The Joy of Cooking. I made a simple crust — unbleached flour, olive oil, and ice water — from Rosalie Hurd’s Ten Talents cookbook.

It’s the best pie I’ve ever made, and it just may be the best blackberry pie I’ve ever had — perfect berries and a perfect crust, served warm. It was dessert to a homemade pizza dressed with roasted green tomatoes.

Euell Gibbons

My photo of Euell Gibbons, foraging on a North Carolina strawberry farm around 1973. Seeing an opportunity to add a nice detail to the photo, I remember sprinting up from behind Mr. Gibbons to get a photo with the ducks in the background.

Most of us who are interested in simple living and growing food also are interested in foraging. Here at the abbey, I have a growing collection of books on foraging. One classic that belongs in everyone’s library is Euell Gibbons‘ Stalking the Wild Asparagus. This book was first published in 1962. It became a best seller and has remained in print all these years.

It was my good luck to get to go foraging with Euell Gibbons many years ago. He was in North Carolina at the time, and a friend of mine, a reporter, was writing a newspaper story about him. She invited me along to take pictures. After some early morning foraging on a winter day, we cooked breakfast using what we’d gathered.

The straw bale experiment is under way

Ken and I planted some tomatoes and basil in the straw bales yesterday. We’ll see how it goes. The vegetable garden is going to be very limited this year. The fence-building project got in the way. Not to mention that to start a garden before the fence was up would be to take chances with the deer (again). Last year, for example, the deer pretty much wiped out all my tomato plants in one night.

This year, however, there will be a weekly farmer’s market in Walnut Cove, and a farmer’s market every other week at Danbury. I’m hoping those two farmer’s markets will make up for the smallness of the vegetable garden.

Sardines?

I had never eaten sardines until yesterday. But lately sardines have been showing up on such lists as “the top 10 healthiest foods that you aren’t eating.” I bought a can at Whole Foods.

How do they taste? Not all that bad. Kind of like canned tuna, but with a stronger flavor.

Strawberry preserves

The sign marks the spot on Brook Cove Road.

It had been 20 years since I’d made strawberry preserves. Ken was eager to make preserves for the first time. Monday, May 10, was an unusually cool day, perfect for picking strawberries. So off to Mabe’s Berry Farm we went. Mabe’s Berry Farm is on Brook Cove Road near Walnut Cove.

A strawberry field worker loads berries to be sold already picked.

The berries are cheaper if you pick them yourself. Here’s Ken with the three gallons of strawberries we picked.

Our berries are transferred to boxes for the ride home.

Back at home, the jars and berries are almost ready to start. The jars will go into the dishwasher to get them clean and hot.

Ken caps strawberries.

Washed and capped and ready to cook

The strawberries are boiled with sugar. The preserves use a lot of sugar — five cups of sugar for each quart and a half of strawberries. The lids are boiling in the pot to the right.

All done.