The chefs at Eno Terra were talking about this great special salad last night made with local candied cranberries, roasted lemons vinaigrette and local cheese. It was just as good as it sounded – sweet and tart, crunchy and creamy.
The recipe itself is a chef’s secret but I recreated it at home and it came out pretty well. I used good quality dried cranberries instead of the candied ones (weeknight, after all).

Green Salad with Candied Cranberries and Cherry Grove Farm Toma

8 cups mixed greens
1 Granny Smith apple, thinly sliced
½ cup candied cranberries
4 ounces Cherry Grove Farm Toma, cut into ½ inch dice
Roasted lemon vinaigrette (recipe bellow)

In a large bowl, mix the greens with just enough vinaigrette to cover. Divide onto 4 plates. Mix the apples and cranberries with some vinaigrette and scatter over the lettuce. Top with the Toma and serve.

Roasted Lemon Vinaigrette
2 lemons
2 prigs of thyme
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon honey
½ teaspoon kosher salt
1 cup olive oil

Preheat oven to 400° F. Halve lemons crosswise and remove the seeds. Drizzle with 1 teaspoon olive oil and honey and place in a non-reactive baking dish with some thyme. Turn cut-side down and roast until the rind is tender and slightly golden, 25 to 45 minutes,  let cool.

Squeeze the juice and pulp into a blender. Add any juice from the baking dish. Process and slowly  add the extra-virgin olive oil until creamy and emulsified.

Nadezhda will also present the current KICKSTARTER initiative to develop a regular Princeton-based Bread House Program through a Mobile Bread House to bring collective bread-making events to the neighborhoods of New York on a retrofitted school bus featuring a traditional wood-fired oven and a green roof!
Please come join us as we make, bake, and break breads of the world together!

PLEASE FEEL FREE TO BRING ALONG YOUR FAVORITE KITCHEN UTENSIL/OBJECT! 

February 24th, Friday, 6:30-8:30

It was a beautiful day with lots of good food and camaraderie, fruit and vegetables, cheeses, bread. Even Llama meat (recipes will follow soon. ) Read Pat Tanner’s lovely report about the market.

See you all at the Princeton Winter Farmers Markets, East Brunswick Farmers Market and other markets in our area.

Wow,
Lots of farmers markets happenings for a “down “ Season: 

Jess from Chickadee Creek Farm at a winter farmers market

Don’t miss Meet the Farmer tonight, 7 pm  at the Princeton Public Library. This program is offered by The Princeton Farmers Market as part of their on-going winter markets and events.

A beautiful market in a beautiful restaurant. The Slow Food Central New Jersey Eat Slow winter market is taking place this Sunday at Tre Piani. Check out this fabulous  list of the vendors:

Terhune Orchards apples, pies, cider and wine; Beech Tree Farm beef, pork and lamb; Cherry Grove Farm cheeses; Davidson’s Exotic Mushrooms; North Slope Farm eggs and tea; Hopewell Valley Vineyards; Woods Edge Wools Farm slow fiber products and honey; Valley Shepherd Creamery sheep cheeses; Village Bakery breads, pastries and baked goods; FunniBonz Barbecue Sauce; Artisan Tree Natural Soaps; HerbNZest rubs and condiments; Rocky Brook Farm organic eggs, dried herbs and flowers, goats’ milk soaps,  Jersey Jams and Jellies, Simply Nic’s short breads.

And there’s also a new and exciting venue in the uncharted territory of East Brunswick, only 30 minutes from Princeton: The Friends of the East Brunswick Environmental Commission is hosting the First Indoor Winter Farmers Market on Saturday, March 10, 2012 from 10 a.m.–2 p.m. at the Community Arts Center located at 721 Cranbury Road, East Brunswick. Free parking and admission–bring your own shopping bags.

Vendors’ products include: beef, cheese, all natural poultry, eggs, pickles, salsa, wine, local honey, bee hive kits and supplies, spring flowers, early spring crop seedlings, lavender products, hand crafted vegetable based soaps, hot pepper sauces, beer making kits, jams, alpaca wool, and pet treats. Additionally, information will be available on Rutgers Gardens, Community Supported Agriculture (CSA), organic produce delivery, permaculture, composting, backyard poultry, beekeeping and more.

During the warm growing season, community members enjoy farm fresh products from the Rutgers Gardens or the Highland Park Farmers’ Markets. The indoor facility at the East Brunswick Community Arts Center provides an outlet that offers protection from the winter cold.

The East Brunswick Winter Farmers Market is sponsored by the Friends of the East Brunswick Environmental Commission, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to local environmental education and conservation.

Email: friends.ebec@gmail.com

For more information about winter markets in our area, please see Pat Tanner’s Suffering from Farmers Market Withdrawal? post.

Chicken are not what they used to be, or, let me rephrase: Chickens are back to what they used to be. A small, happy creatures pecking  dutifully around. “Our birds are pasture raised. We raise mostly Cornish Cross, but are experimenting with Giant Blacks and a couple of other heritage breeds. They eat a diet of feed and whatever bugs and grasses they can scratch up in the pen.” Says Robin McConaughy of Double Brook Farm .

And they taste accordingly. Full flavored, rich, delicious. The farm is temporarily sold out of chickens but you can get local chickens in other places. And better yet, you can go hard-core and learn to process them yourself!

Chicken Pocket Pies (makes about 10 4-inch pocket pies)

Crust:
In food processor, pulse:

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 Tbsp. granulated sugar
1 tsp. salt
2 sticks (1/2 pound) unsalted butter, ICE-COLD and cubed

When butter pieces are the size of small peas, add
4-6 Tbsp. ICE-COLD water

Pulse until combined.  Shape dough into a disk, wrap in plastic, and chill for at least 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, make the
Chicken and Veggie Filling:
Breast from one chicken (2 split breasts), cooked and cubed

1 ½ cups chicken broth

½ cup chopped onion

1 minced clove garlic (optional)

3 oz frozen or fresh peas

½ cup diced carrots

2 Tbsp minced parsley

1/8 tsp dried thyme

¼ c A.P. flour

4 Tbsp. butter

2 Tbsp milk or heavy cream

salt and black pepper to taste

Melt the butter and sauté the onions over medium heat for 5 minutes, then add the carrots and sauté another 5 minutes.  Add the garlic (optional), stir, then immediately add the flour and cook over low heat, stirring, for 2 minutes.  Add the chicken broth and milk or heavy cream.  Allow mixture to come to a boil.  Keep on stirring.  Add herbs, peas, cooked chicken, salt and pepper to taste.  Allow mixture to cool, then refrigerate to cool completely.

Final assembly:
Roll out chilled dough to 1/8-inch thickness.  Cut into 4-inch circles.  With a small ice cream/cookie scoop place a mound of chicken filling in the centers of half of the pastry circles. Brush the outer edge of the crust circles with egg wash and cover with another pie crust circle.  Press and crimp to seal.  Refrigerate 30 minutes, or up to 24 hours.
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Just before baking, cut slits or poke a hole into the center of the top crust to allow steam to escape while baking.  Brush tops of pocket pies with egg wash and sprinkle with coarse sugar.  Bake for 15-25 degrees, or until nicely browned.  Enjoy!

New NJ law encourages nonprofits, associations to help transform
vacant lots into edible gardens

Local Property Tax Urban Gardens — P.L. 2011, c.35,
signed into law on March 1, 2011, and effective immediately, encourages nonprofit corporations and associations to help transform vacant
properties located in older urban areas into gardens for growing fresh
fruits and vegetables. Existing provisions of law authorize municipalities
and counties to lease or sell public property not needed for a public
use to nonprofit entities for them to perform specified laudatory public
purposes thereon. This law affects lands in cities of the first, second,
third, and fourth classes. The cultivation and sale of fresh fruits and vegetables is now among the purposes for which municipalities may lease or sell public land for nominal consideration. Previously, the law allowed for the long-term lease of excess public land, but not the sale thereof, to nonprofits for gardening purposes. Now, the transformation of excess vacant public lands into urban farms is a public purpose and the law  affords these  lands exemptions from property taxation.

http://www.state.nj.us/treasury/taxation/pdf/pubs/stn/spring11.pdf
from: http://www.psgcoop.org/