MISC MARKET NOTES

Curry was a bad word in my world for many years. I’m pretty sure it happened because a certain Mr. insisted I try this “delicious curry” once and I spent the rest of my meal in agony and unable to taste anything after that.

Thankfully at some time and some place I learned that not all currys are created equal and do not require suffering. Even better, I learned to like this relatively easy one pot meal. A family favorite for us to this day is a canned version of Green Tomato Curry that makes for yummy quick dinners year round. (This is a recipe I’ll be happy to share with anyone who requests it!)

With so many marvelous vegetables available to us right now I thought it would be a good time to look into this dish as pretty much any meat and any vegetable can be used in curry. Tather than re-invent the wheel, what follows is from Taste of Home. There’s a lot of information in the link including an adaptable recipe

The word “curry”has come to mean many things over the years, as Indian food traveled from the subcontinent to other countries. The spicy, flavorful Indian curry from your favorite takeout joint is most likely a British invention, brought back by soldiers returning from the subcontinent who incorporated the flavors they’d grown to love into a simple one-pot dish. This dish was heavily inspired by the North Indian version of a curry, using similar flavors and meats. Curry spice was invented by the Brittish to capture the flavors of India, however using fresh spices is much tastier when cooking.

Indian curry is one of those dishes that’s easy to make your own! You can customize our recipe with any of the following variations.

Vegetables: Instead of using meat, swap in 6 cups of vegetables, chopped into bite-sized pieces. Our favorite combinations are cubed potatoes and frozen peas, cauliflower and carrots or green beans and eggplant, but feel free to have some fun with it! You can skip the browning step and add them after the initial 5-minute simmer (when you would be adding the browned meat back to the curry). Simmer until the veggies are tender when pierced with a fork but not mushy, from 5 to 15 minutes.

Legumes: Adding legumes (like chickpeas, lentils or beans) is a fantastic way to add plant-based protein to your curry. If you’re using dried beans, you’ll want to cook them ahead of time, but canned beans that have been drained and rinsed work just fine here. Like the veggies, skip the browning step and add the beans after the 5-minute simmer. Cook them until they’re warmed through, about 5 minutes.

Fish or shrimp: Give your curry a coastal flair by swapping in seafood! Cut a pound of firm white fish (like cod or snapper) into bite-sized pieces, or use peeled and deveined shrimp. Since they only need 3 to 5 minutes to cook through, you can add the seafood at the end of the cook time and simmer until it’s just cooked through.

THANK YOU (again) to Wendy for managing Pickup during our last order cycle. And THANK YOU to everyone who was kind and gracious about the few hiccups that arose in your manager’s absence. We think everything (price adjustments, credits issued) has been handled but if something was missed please speak up as we’re all about making sure things are right. Our vendors and customers are the best and we care for of each of you.

Katherine’s Kitchen Can you believe we’re almost nearing the end of June? 

Here’s a throwback to an old-timey saying you might have heard: “Get yourself a bride by June”. Did you ever wonder, “Why by June? Might’nt you just as well have a bride by May, or by September?” The origins of the term you never would have guessed. . . oh, wait, you guessed it? Yep! It has agricultural origins!

Well, first you need the missus free to plant the corn come springtime. No sense getting her distracted with thoughts of weddings at that crucial time! Then at last there’s that little lull just after the rush of planting, when everything slows down and warms up; that’s June. Late summer you need the new bride’s help weeding and canning and harvesting, and that never stops till winter when things finally “chill out”. Now she’ll be getting along towards nine months pregnant with that newlywed baby by March! So you’d better have that baby quick before the springtime weather sets in, because once it’s truly spring you pull out all the stops and throw everything at your soil that you can. Seems crazy by “modern” standards; imagine basing your wedding plans around an expected pregnancy and the seasonal farming work! Yet this was such an ordinary way for people to think back then, it even became a common saying that was shortened down to “bride by June”. Now, with pregnancy an inconvenience, babies an afterthought, and agriculture not a thought at all, modern folks might feel surprised to know how different the “normal” world used to be. . . and maybe realize that modern life is hardly “normal” after all!
~Katherine’s Kitchen

 
Mt. Moriah Farms: Things are starting to fall into a nice routine. Can’t believe our newborn is almost two months old. The day he turns two months old our toddler will turn two! Lately with the lack of time to get everything done I’d like to accomplish in a day, it’s made me truly think about what is the most important tasks and ensure those get done. That thought has led to several others and I just want to say we are so thankful to get to do what we do – raising our boys up on a farm where family is held high and friends are so eager to help. Many of those friends were met while out and about in the community. Thank you for being our community y’all. We appreciate each and every customer we have and hope you feel like a part of our family. 

We look forward to seeing you next Friday at one of our pickup locations. Thank you for your interest and support of our efforts to bring you the healthiest, the freshest and the most delicious locally-produced foods possible!