BLTs, Blistered Padrons and Smoky Eggplant Salad

At the Sunday at the Fairmount Neighborhood Farmers Market this week you'll find pastured meats and eggs from Fair Valley Farm and Fog Hollow Farm and fresh produce from Camas Swale Farm, including plenty of tomatoes and a selection of spicy peppers: jalapenos, padrons, and shishitos.

Don't let the summer go by without savoring a classic BLT. And as a few accompaniments, I can recommend some cool cucumbers, some blistered padron peppers, and a smoky grilled eggplant salad. 

Quick Smokey Eggplant Salad

1 small eggplant
1 tsp tahini
1/2 tsp balsamic vinegar
1 Tbsp olive oil
pinch of salt

1. Hold the eggplant with tongs directly over a stove burner until it is scorched on all sides and softened to collapsing (for a bigger eggplant, you can start it over the burner and finish it in the oven. Or you can cook it whole in a grill).

2. Mix together the dressing of tahini, vinegar, olive oil, and salt.

3. When the eggplant is cool enough to handle, remove the top and the blistered peel (you don't have to be a perfectionist about this, some lingering char is nice). Cut into approximately 1/2 inch dice and fold into the dressing. Serve warm or at room temperature. 

Parsley Tahini and Crispy Chickpea Crostini

The Fairmount Neighborhood Farmers Market will start up in just over two weeks. Now that summer weather has finally arrived, everyone in our household is craving farm fresh fruits and vegetables. Even the dog has been grazing on grass during her walks and the cat has resumed his afternoon naps in the garden among the herbs.

Although these crostini were just made with grocery store ingredients, the tangy and bright green tahini spread topped with crunchy chickpeas fit the bill for a summery snack. They should help tide us over until the start of the market on June 4.

Parsley Tahini and Crispy Chickpea Crostini

parsley tahini spread 
1 large bunch Italian parsley
juice from one lemon
2 Tbsp tahini
1 Tbsp olive oil
salt to taste

crispy chickpeas
2 cup cooked chickpeas (or one 15 ounce can, drained and rinsed)
2 cloves garlic
peel from one lemon
1 tsp cumin seeds
2 Tbsp olive oil
salt to taste

1 baguette

1. Pluck and wash the parsley leaves and place them in the bowl of a food processor or blender, or you can use a wide mouthed pint sized mason jar with an immersion blender. Using a vegetable peeler, remove the peel from a small lemon and reserve. Juice the lemon into the food processor. Add the tahini and olive oil and a generous pinch of salt. Process until smooth. Taste and add more salt, lemon juice, tahini, or olive oil to suit your taste.

2. Rinse and dry the chickpeas. Peel the garlic cloves and cut them into thin slices. Slice the reserved lemon peel strips into matchsticks. Heat a large skillet over high heat. Add the oil and when it shimmers, add all of the remaining ingredients. Spread the chickpeas in a single layer and allow to fry over high heat, resisting the urge to stir very frequently so that they can crisp up. Cook until most of the chickpeas and garlic slices have acquired some deep color. Taste and add more salt to taste.

3. Slice the baguette into ovals and toast lightly. Spread with the parsley tahini sauce and top with the crispy chickpeas. Enjoy.

Sweet and Spicy Kabocha Squash

This week at the Fairmount Neighborhood Farmers Market, Fair Valley Farm will be selling their pastured meats along with Camas Swale Farm's gorgeous fall produce. Camas Swale Farm plans to continue the market through October and possibly into November, so you can look forward to more winter squash, like these beautiful kabochas,

and storage vegetables like parsnips and colorful carrots.

I was curious to try a sweet and sour roasted squash recipe from Melissa Clark (and our new resident cat was curious to inspect the opened squash).

Clark's recipe combines roasted squash with broiled tofu, which sounds delicious, but I was already preparing caramelized tofu for banh mi, so I just roasted the squash. Coated in cooking oil whisked with soy sauce, sriracha sauce, and honey, they blister up in a hot oven into delectably crispy squash slabs.

With the colorful carrots I made a quick pickled garnish for the banh mi, a family favorite meal that every member assembles differently with varying ratios of tofu, paté, mayonnaise, butter, and hot chiles. The squash slices added extra color and crunch to the meal.

Sweet and Spicy Kabocha Squash

adapted from Melissa Clark

1 small kabocha squash
1 ½ tablespoons soy sauce
½ teaspoon sriracha or other hot sauce or to taste
Kosher salt, and black pepper
¼ cup peanut or canola oil
1 tablespoon honey
1 tablespoon toasted sesame seeds

1. Heat oven to 425 degrees. Halve the squash and remove the seeds and pulp. Cut squash into 1/2-inch-thick half-moons. Cut each slice in half again.

2. In a small bowl, whisk together soy sauce, sriracha and a pinch of salt. Whisk in peanut or canola oil and honey. Spread squash out on a large baking sheet and pour honey-soy mixture over it. Sprinkle squash lightly with salt and pepper and toss well. Roast until bottoms are golden brown, about 20 minutes. Flip and roast until uniformly golden and soft, about 10 minutes more. Sprinkle with toasted sesame seeds and serve.

One Egg Omelette with Radish Microgreens

The official first day of spring has arrived after many spring-like winter days. Among our spring treats in our Good Food Easy CSA, we've been enjoying their various microgreens.  I've found that these delicate bites of spring are especially tasty in micro-omelettes: a single beaten egg cooked like a crepe, with some sharp cheese to complement the slightly spicy greens.

These make a perfect weekend lunch, individualized to each person's taste. I like to eat mine on a toasted, buttered multigrain bagel, with a dollop of harissa.

One Egg Omelette with Radish Microgreens

1 egg
1 pad butter
salt and pepper
1 slice sharp cheese
1 handful radish microgreens

1. Beat the egg and season with salt and pepper. 

2. Heat a 9 inch crepe pan or cast iron skillet over medium low heat. Put in a pad of butter and let it melt. Off the heat, pour in the beaten egg and tip the pan around so that the egg coats the bottom of the pan. Return the pan to a low heat and cover the egg "crepe" with cheese pieces. Allow the cheese to melt for a minute. Then place the radish greens in the center of the pan and fold over the edges of the omelette to make a square.

3. Serve the omelette immediately. It's very tasty sandwiched between the halves of a toasted, buttered bagel with a dollop of harissa. 

HLTs

This Sunday at at the Fairmount Neighborhood Farmers Market, you can look forward to a selection of pastured chicken, lamb, and pork cuts from Fair Valley Farm and handcrafted vegan hazelnut cheese from Avellana Creamery. Good Food Easy at Sweetwater Farm will have the following offerings: 

Fresh
lots of tomatoes, including cherries and flats of roams (try roasted tomato fish soup)
sweet and hot peppers of all kinds  peppers and tomatillos (delicious pan seared in salsa)
Shiro plums and Gravenstein apples from SLO farm (make apple-topped teff pancakes) 
NW peaches and blackberries
fennel and eggplants (make fennel and sardine pasta)
baby beets and new potatoes
carrots and kohlrabi  (try this kohlrabi salad with lemon and capers)
crookneck squash, summer squash, and cucumbers
radicchio, chard, kale, and lettuce, including bagged mix (try corn and chard pudding)
garlic and fresh herbs (basil, oregano, sage, thyme) and home-grown lemon grass

Preserves, Beans, and Grains
From Sweet Creek Foods:
Dill Pickles, Chili Dill Pickles, Bread 'N Butter Pickles, Pickle Relish
Blueberry, Strawberry, Blackberry, and Raspberry Fruit Spreads
Enchilada Sauce and Salsa
From SLO Farm: Applesauce
Assorted beans and grains from Camas Country Mill

This past few months, I've been experimenting with bread making, culminating with a trip last month to the Bread Lab, where my co-instructors and I got to see the multitude of different wheat strains being bred by wheat geneticist Steven Jones,

a lab full of amazing devices for studying the physical properties of bread dough, like this bubble blowing machine,

and we were tutored by baker Jonathan McDowell, 

producing the most delicious loaves of bread I've ever tasted.

Back home, my next attempt at high hydration, naturally fermented, whole wheat dough was pretty much a disaster, and I had to resort to a loaf pan to bake it, but it was still delicious. This sour, complex whole grain bread I've been baking goes nicely with the smooth, mild creaminess of Avellana Creamery's vegan hazelnut cheese. Continuing in the spirit of experimentation, for my latest loaf I invented a new version of the BLT, which is a true classic but infinitely malleable. The HLT consists of whole wheat bread spread with hazelnut cheese, dotted with sweet cherry tomatoes, and topped with a tender leaf of lettuce.

Mushroom Meatloaf with Sun Dried Tomato Glaze

The polar vortex has reached Eugene. Snow days, icy roads, and chilly temperatures call for staying put and cooking up comfort food. This meatloaf fits the bill, flavored with pungent mushrooms and fresh herbs, 
 

and topped with a homemade ketchup from sun dried tomatoes.

With cold winds howling outside, nothing could feel cozier than this classic American supper of meatloaf with mashed potatoes and mushroom gravy. 

But polar vortex or not, the day after baking meatloaf I am always reminded that its best justification is in sandwiches, piled high with spicy greens, or layered like pâté into decadent tofu banh mi.

Mushroom Meatloaf with Sun Dried Tomato Glaze

for the meatloaf
1/2 cup dried mushrooms
3/4 cup boiling water
1 medium shallot, peeled and finely chopped
1 small carrot, grated
1 Tbsp butter
1/2 lb ground pork
1/2 lb ground beef
1 egg
several springs of fresh oregano, thyme, and sage
1 cup bread crumbs
plenty of salt and black pepper

glaze
1/4 cup sun dried tomatoes (not in oil)
1/4 cup water
1 Tbsp brown sugar
1/4 tsp chipotle chili powder or to taste
1 Tbsp cider vinegar
pinch of salt

1. Place the dried mushrooms in the boiling water to soften for at least 15 minutes. Heat a small skillet over medium low heat. Melt the butter and add the shallots. Cook until glassy, then add the grated carrot, and cook for another few minutes until the aromatics are soft. Reserve. Once the mushrooms are softened, chop them very finely and reserve the mushroom-flavored water. 

2. Preheat the oven to 300 degrees. Prepare a loaf pan by greasing its bottom and sides with olive oil. Put the ground meat in a large bowl and add a generous amount of salt and freshly ground black pepper. Use your hands to mix. Combine in the egg. Then mix in the shallots and mushrooms. Pluck the fresh herb leaves from their stems and tear them into the mixture. Add the breadcrumbs and gently mix to combine. Now pour in the reserved mushroom-flavored water and gently incorporate into the mixture. Dump the meat mixture into the prepared loaf pan and gently pat down to even the top.

3. To prepare the glaze, combine the sun dried tomatoes and water in a small saucepan and simmer for about 5 minutes. Add the sugar and chili powder, vinegar, and salt and simmer another minute until the sugar is dissolved. Remove from heat and allow the sauce to cool and the tomatoes to continue to soften for another 10 minutes or so. In a mini mixer, food processor, or blender, process the ingredients into a paste. Reserve.

3. Bake the meatloaf for 20 minutes at 300 degrees, rotating halfway through. Remove the meatloaf and spread over the glaze. Check the internal temperature, which should be about 100 degrees at this point. Return to the oven and bake for another 10 minutes until the internal temperature is 140.  Cool for at least 10 minutes before slicing.

Tofu Banh Mi

When the clocks fall back and darkness descends well before dinnertime, I always feel an enhanced sense of urgency about preparing our evening meal. And no longer can one rely on fresh tomatoes or basil to drive the show. Instead we need to hope for inspiration from root vegetables and greens. One recent favorite solution is these tofu banh mi sandwiches. 

The tofu, from a Mark Bittman recipe, is braised in a concoction of caramelized sugar and soy or fish sauce that produces addictively flavorful slabs. The sugar caramelizing step seems a bit tricky, but every time I've made these, the unpromising sugar crystals at the beginning have dissolved during the braising step and all has turned out well. The Slate banh mi recipe adds a step of pre-freezing the tofu to give it a firmer texture. I've taken to keeping a stash of sliced tofu in my freezer at all times so that we can make these sandwiches on demand (just pull them out in the morning, or thaw in a microwave).

The classic garnish for these sandwiches is the Vietnamese quick pickle of julienned carrots and daikon radish called dau chua. On a family trip to San Francisco last spring, my son discovered a passion for these pickles, so I've been making them quite frequently based on a recipe from Hot, Sour, Salty, Sweet: A Culinary Journey Through Southeast Asia. They can be made ahead, but are also easy to whip up along with the tofu. Once you have the pickles and tofu prepared, then all you need to do is slather some good baguette with butter or mayonnaise (if you like, mix in some sriracha sauce), then layer on the tofu and dau chua, and add some cucumber and jalapeno slices and springs of cilantro, if you have them. Even if it's the end of the week and your supplies are low, I suspect that you've got carrots in the crisper and with that tofu in the freezer, you can make a simplified version of these sandwiches. Heck, you could even put them in a tortilla. No matter what, be sure to eat with plenty of napkins.

Tofu Banh Mi

based on a recipe from L.V. Anderson of Slate

Caramelized tofu
1 14 ounce package of firm tofu, sliced into 8 slabs, frozen, and thawed
1/3 cup sugar
1 Tbsp water
1/3 cup fish sauce or soy sauce
1 large shallot, minced
plenty of freshly ground pepper
1 Tbsp rice wine vinegar

Dau chua
2 large carrots
Equivalent amount of daikon radish
1/2 tsp salt
1 Tbsp sugar
1/4 cup rice wine vinegar
3/4 cup water

For the sandwiches
1 baguette
butter or mayonnaise, mixed with some sriracha sauce if you like
cilantro leaves
1 small cucumber, thinly sliced
1 or 2 jalapenos, thinly sliced

1. First prepare the pickled carrots and daikon. Scrub the carrots and peel the daikon. Trim and julienne them or coarsely grate them (I use a food processor for this and it goes very quickly). Toss with the salt, place in a strainer, and allow to drain for 10-30 minutes (depending on your time schedule).

2. Meanwhile prepare the pickling sauce. In a small saucepan, combine the sugar, rice wine vinegar, and water and warm just until the sugar dissolves. Allow to cool completely (you do not want to cook the vegetables).

3. Quickly rinse the drained carrots and daikon and squeeze well. Combine with the vinegar sauce and allow to marinate until you are ready to serve, or refrigerate and store for a few days. Taste before serving and add a little more salt if desired.

4. To make the caramelized tofu, thaw your pre-frozen tofu slices and drain off any liquid they release. Warm a large skillet over medium-low heat. Put 1/3 cup sugar and 1 tablespoon water in a large skillet, stir to mix, and then put your spoon down because you should not stir the sugar as it melts or it will crystalize. Instead, let the sugar warm and bubble and gradually turn a golden brown while you shake and swirl the pan occasionally, about 10 minutes. Now take the pan off the heat. Slowly drizzle in the soy sauce or fish sauce, then add the shallot. Return to the heat and cook, stirring often, until the onion is tender, about 4 minutes. Add the thawed tofu and the black pepper and cook, turning the tofu occasionally, until it has absorbed most of the sauce, about 15 minutes. Stir in 1 tablespoon rice vinegar and remove from the heat.

5. Prepare the sandwiches. Cut the baguette into lengths a bit longer than the tofu slabs and cut horizontally. Slather the bread with butter or mayonnaise (mixed with a bit of sriracha sauce if you like). Layer on a tofu slab, a spoonful of drained pickled carrot and daikon radish, cilantro leaves, cucumber and jalapeno slices. Enjoy. 

Sundry Uses for Easter Eggs

Here are the Easter eggs we colored with natural dyes. I think my favorites are the sauerkraut speckled ones on the right, but I also like the beet and turmeric one in front with flower petal patterns. If you are looking for inspiration for using up hard boiled eggs,

try a salad with these lentils on sauteed greens with ham,

or use them as garnish for this Moroccan beef and chickpea stew,

or enjoy a perfect egg salad sandwich with arugula and a sprinkle of dukkah, a nutty Egyptian spice mix. 

Egg Salad Sandwich

makes 2 modest or 1 heaping sandwich

2 hardboiled eggs
1 Tbsp mayonnaise
1 tsp dijon mustard
salt and pepper to taste
pinch of dukkah
good sandwich bread, lightly toasted
arugula leaves

In a wide bowl, combine the mayonnaise and mustard. Peel the eggs, season with salt and pepper, and mash them into the mayonnaise mixture with an potato masher or fork, until there are just small pieces of egg white. Spread the egg salad on a toasted piece of bread, top with a generous sprinkle of dukkah, plenty of arugula leaves, and a second piece of toasted bread, and enjoy.

Note about dukkah: I was inspired to try it on egg salad by this recipe from AntoniaJames of food52. She provides a recipe for dukkah, as does Heide Swanson of 101 Cookbooks. I picked some up at Trader Joe's, but I think I'll try making some of my own next with less fennel.

Sundry Uses for Homemade Sauerkraut

After attending the standing room only sauerkraut class by John Karlik from Sweetwater Farm, packed with eager hipsters taking copious notes, I recently tried my hand at sauerkraut making. At his demonstration, John had an impressive handmade mandolin about the size of a fruit crate that easily shredded a dozen cabbages in a matter of minutes, which got pounded down in a large tub by a couple of enthusiastic aughts using a large wooden paddle resembling a cricket bat. I started smaller scale with a single head of cabbage, a kitchen knife, and a five year old wielding a meat tenderizer. It worked.

After about twenty-four hours, the pounded, salted cabbage released enough of its own liquid to become submerged underneath the weight of a clean plate and gallon bag of water, allowing the inoculum of cabbage-associated Lactobacilli bacteria to flourish in the salty, oxygen-depleted brine and get busy fermenting. The recipe I followed from Karlik is essentially the same as this detailed one from Sandor Katz. The one difference is that rather than checking on it every couple of days, I left my crock rather neglected in the basement for about six weeks. When I finally remembered to take a peek, it had developed a skim of mold (Karlik had explained that he has a dedicated shop-vac for this), but once that was scraped off, the underlying kraut was delicious. One large cabbage produced two quarts. 

"What are those hipsters going to do with all that sauerkraut?" my sister wondered after I told her about Karlik's demo. I can highly recommend Karlik's vegetarian reuben sandwich with kraut piled on melted cheese and a generous slather of mustard. A less conventional use presented itself when it occurred to me that red cabbage sauerkraut is packed with pigments and lightly acidified: perfect for dying Easter eggs. 

Vegetarian Reuben with Homemade Sauerkraut

2 slices of sandwich bread 
several slices of sharp cheddar or swiss cheese 
homemade sauerkraut (follow this recipe from Sandor Katz)
dijon mustard

In a toaster oven or skillet, toast the bread lightly. Then layer on the cheese on one slice and continue toasting until the cheese is melted. Slather mustard on the other slice, heap on some sauerkraut, slap the two slices together, and enjoy.

Dyeing Easter eggs

For a lovely mottled blue pattern, submerge hard boiled white eggs in some red cabbage sauerkraut and wait a couple of hours. For a more even blue color, decant some sauerkraut juice into a small bowl and submerge your eggs in this. If you don't have red sauerkraut on hand, you can boil some red cabbage leaves in water and put in a splash of vinegar. Other natural dyes can be made with turmeric (yellow) and beets (pink).

Chicken Liver Pate and Sunchoke Pickles

Chicken liver pate is a dish I remember fondly from my childhood as a fancy indulgence, rich and boozy, prepared for special occasions. Then at some point the combined threats of concentrated environmental toxins and artery-clogging cholesterol seemed to banish this dish from our family table and restaurant menus. Fair Valley Farm's conscientious animal husbandry alleviates the first concern, and  the cholesterol hysteria has wained a bit. So I decided to try my hand at this dish with a pound of Fair Valley Farm's chicken livers. However, the three sticks of butter that Jacque Pepin's classic French recipe would require did give me pause. After a little searching around, I came across this Tuscan chicken liver pate from food52 contributor gluttonforlife, flavored with capers, anchovies, lemon zest and Parmesan. The resulting spread was as rich and creamy as I remembered, and a splash of sherry rounded out the flavor. 

The final touch, a stroke of genius I would say, was to layer on some sunchoke pickles. These had been made in a frenzy with Open Oak Farm tubers that needed my attention before I left on a short trip. Sunchokes (also known as Jerusalem artichokes) resemble potatoes in appearance, but have a distinctive sweet, almost citrus flavor, and bright crunch due to their high inulin content instead of potatoes' starch. A less accessible complex sugar (appropriate for diabetics), inulin is considered a "prebiotic" that promotes healthy gut bacteria. This is all well and good, but a pile of gnarly sunchokes can be intimidating.

Confronted with these unfamiliar vegetables, I turned, as I often do in such situations, to The Victory Garden Cookbook by Marian Morash. Her last entry for Jerusalem artichokes was a pickle recipe, which called for a day of soaking in salty water, before being plunged in a vinegary bath. While picked fennel was a revelation last summer, these sunchokes are my new favorite. Their distinctive flavor shines through the vinegar and they made the perfect complement to the creamy pate slathered on Eugene City Bakery polenta baguette. There may even be a scientific basis for this complementarity, as inulin has been shown to have cholesterol-lowering properties: guilt-free pate sandwiches.

Tuscan Chicken Liver Pate

1 pound (preferably) organic chicken livers
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
2 large shallots, thinly sliced
1 large garlic clove, smashed
3 anchovy fillets (or 1 tablespoon anchovy paste), chopped
1 tablespoon capers, minced
4 to 6 sage leaves, chopped
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
2/3 cup dry white wine
1/2 teaspoon grated lemon zest
1/2 cup grated Parmesan

1. In a large skillet, melt the butter and olive oil over medium-high heat. Saute the shallots, garlic, anchovies, capers and sage until the shallots are lightly browned, 6 minutes or so.

2. Season the chicken livers with salt and pepper and add them to the pan. Cook over high heat until browned, then add 1/3 cup of the wine and keep stirring with a wooden spoon, breaking up the livers as they start to cook through. When the wine is absorbed, add the remaining 1/3 cup and repeat the process.

3. Remove from the heat and transfer the mixture to a food processor. Process until quite smooth, then add the lemon zest and Parmesan and process again. Taste and add salt or pepper as needed. Serve warm or at room temperature, spread on good bread.

Note 1: for a looser, more mousse-like spread, don't let all the liquid evaporate from the pan. You can always adjust the consistency as you buzz it in the food processor by drizzling in olive oil, water or even wine as you mix in the food processor. I added a splash of sherry during the processing for a nice alcohol note.

Note 2: a pound a chicken liver pate may seem like a lot of a good thing. You can proceed with making this recipe prior to the point of adding the Parmesan cheese, then freeze half of it to finish later.

Sunchoke Pickles 

inspired by The Victory Garden Cookbook

About 20 sunchokes
juice of one lemon

kosher salt for brining

1/2  cup water


3 cups apple cider vinegar


1/2 cup rice wine vinegar

1/4 cup sugar

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp fennel seed


1 tsp mustard seed

1/2  tsp turmeric powder


1/4 teaspoon chili flakes


1. Scrub the sunchokes very well with a vegetable brush and remove any stringy bits. Prepare a bowl of salty cold water with lemon juice for brining the sunchokes, with 1 Tbsp kosher salt for each cup of water (you will need about 4 cups).

2. Slice the sunchokes into thin slices (about 1/8 inch thick) and submerge the slices into the brine. Cover and let soak for about 24 hours. 

3. The next day, prepare the pickling vinegar by combining in a small sauce pan the water, vinegar, sugar, salt, and spcies. Bring to a simmer and cook until the sugar dissolves, about five minutes. 

4. Let the vinegar cool for a moment while you rinse the sunchoke slices and pack them into clean glass jars. 2 pint jars or one quart jar should work. Now pour the vinegar solution over the sunchoke slices and press them down to submerge them. Seal the jars loosely, let them cool and then refrigerate. The pickles will be good to eat in a day and will keep for a few weeks.

Last of the Summer's BLTs

This Sunday at the Fairmount Neighborhood Farmers Market you can expect to find:

• apples:  Liberty, Melrose, Honey Crisp
• prune plums: Brooks and Stanley
• pie pumpkins!
• tomatoes: heirlooms, cherries, and San Marzano romas
• cucumbers, zucchini, eggplants, string beans
• peppers including bell peppers, poblano, and mariachi (mild red peppers) 
• root vegetables including beets, turnips, potatoes, and kohlrabi
• curly kale, chard, basil 
• onions, leeks, garlic
• eggs, honey

This will be the last Sunday for the Salmon People, so be sure to stock up on frozen fresh salmon. The Southern Willamette Bean and Grain stand has finished sales for the season, but you can plan to purchase their local beans and grains at the Holiday Market starting November 19 (these make great gifts).

With the autumn arriving in full force, it's time to start thinking about stocking your winter larder. Make up a couple batches of pesto and tomato sauce to freeze, cook up some plum preserves or apple chutney, and set aside some heads of garlic in your cellar.

But don't let the summer slip away without enjoying one last taste of ripe, fresh tomatoes. Make yourself a BLT with these golden beauties from Songbird Farm, lettuce leaves (and a few leaves of basil for good measure), crisp bacon, and slices of Eugene City Bakery bread spread with mayonnaise. And enjoy the sunshine while it lasts.

Smoked Salmon Tartine

This Sunday at the Fairmount Neighborhood Farmers Market you can look forward to the following products from SLO Farm, Sweetwater Farm, and Songbird Farm:

• fruit including plums, apples, and berries
• cherry tomatoes, heirloom tomatoes, assorted peppers, cucumbers, pickling cucumbers
• eggplants, zucchini, green beans, red & chiogga Italian beets with tops
• curly kale, rainbow Swiss chard, and other greens
• leeks, parsley, basil, garlic
• eggs, honey, sauerkraut, kimchi

You will also find local grains and beans from the Southern Willamette Bean and Grain Project and the Salmon People will back back with their fresh and smoked salmon.

A delicious post-market lunch is smoke salmon and goat cheese tartines.

On a slice of fresh bread, such as Eugene City Bakery polenta bread, spread a layer of mild goat cheese, add a layer of smoked salmon, and top with cucumber and tomato slices.