Heritage Farmers Market

A few days ago I stopped in at the Heritage Nursery year round farmers market in Rapid City where Dee Holmberg and Black Hills Milk sell their products and noticed that Trudy Draskovik is now selling dried tomatoes, eggplant, and chili peppers there. I invited her to tell us more about them, and here is what she wrote:

Just some info about this ancient practice of preserving foods from before the days of refrigeration, canning, and freezing. The practice of drying foods was used by many indigenous peoples and our ancestors to insure food would be available in the leaner times when the ground was covered with snow and the availability of fresh produce was non-existent.

Dried tomatoes or eggplant can be reconstituted by boiling water and soaking for about 10 minutes. Then chop them up or add them whole to pasta dishes, homemade artisan breads, grain dishes, stews, cheese dips, lasagna, minestrone, cream cheese (for that bagel in the morning!) or almost any food that your imagination can think of!

To use the chili peppers–I crumble them between my fingers and flavor my olive oils with them before adding my foods to the oil, or crumble them into soups, meats, potatoes, or anything that needs a little heat. (Warning) They are hot so don’t rub your eyes after crushing!

My plans are to offer many more dried foods this summer at the Farmers Market, if the state rules will allow that.

Check back tomorrow for Trudy’s recipe for penne pasta with sun dried tomato spinach pine nut sauce. Mmmm.

A New York Times article published back in November contains multiple ideas for cooking in a time saving and sustainable, such as baking a big bird alongside vegetables and pies, thus creating a fridge full of easy-to-nuke leftovers and a carcass to be recycled into body-warming soup. We know how to do this on the holidays but seem to forget the rest of the year.

The article by Tamara Adler shows how to expand holiday-style cooking throughout the year and save money without sacrificing taste. French and Italian cooking evolved in the countryside where every leftover food item found its way into something easy and economical and seasoned with herbs, not chemicals. It’s all a matter of perspective, Adler says, thinking long term instead of hurriedly putting together every meal.

Adler wrote the book on this subject: “An Everlasting Meal: Cooking with Economy and Grace.”

Community Education of the Black Hills offers affordable classes on multiple topics. Among their winter/spring offerings related to local food, the following classes are still open:

Rapid City (Cuisine)

Dutch Oven Cooking

Eating in the Raw

Gluten—to Eat or Not to Eat?

Rapid City (Home and Garden)

Creating a Culinary Herb Garden

Beekeeping

Seed propagation

Spearfish

Fly-fishing Basics

For more information and to register, click here.

If you have venison in your freezer, this might be the time to try Chef Scott’s venison tacos. This recipe was created when Scott, who resides in Arizona, visited South Dakota and was given some venison by a hunter friend. Always ready to create a new recipe, Scott came up with this:

Put a well-thawed venison roast in the crock-pot in the evening. Add tomatoes, garlic, cumin, some peeled diced potato, salt and pepper. Cook on low overnight. In the morning refrigerate.

Reheat in the evening. Serve in crunchy taco shells and top with diced tomatoes, queso fresco, and chopped lettuce. For a tasty side dish add some cilantro to a can of black beans.

This comes from gardener/blogger Cathie Draine. “Here is the recipe for the Cream of Pumpkin Curry Soup. It is absolutely splendid! It was brought to our Thanksgiving by Kelli McCormick, a good friend.”

Saute 1 cup of chopped onion and 1 glove of garlic (peeled and finely chopped) in 3 T butter. Saute for 3-5 minutes until it is soft. Stir in 1 t. curry powder, 1./2 t. salt and 1/8 to 1/4 t. ground coriander and 1/8 t. crushed red pepper flakes and let it cook for about a minute. Add 3 c. water and 3 vegetarian vegetable bouillon cubes and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and cook gently, stirring occasionally for 15-20 minutes. Stir in 1 3/4 c (15 or 16 oz. can) of solid pack pumpkin and 1 c half and half. Cook on low heat about 5 minutes. Makes 4-6 servings. It is fabulous.