Monday, August 26, 2013

Broad Ripple Farmer's Market 8/24

We really enjoy seeing our regular customers weekly and meeting all kinds of new ones also! 

This week we rolled out Mollie's Delicious and Ida Red to add to our already growing list of varieties for this year.

Stop by on Saturday morning and we'll share with you the subtle differences in texture and flavor of each and point you towards some great uses for all of them!


 


See you next week!  (I'll post the recipe for the apple pie pictured above this week)

Friday, August 23, 2013

Shortcake!

I'm sad to say that this week will most likely be our last picking of peaches for the year. Luckily Josh and I cut and froze about 25 pounds of this lovely fruit last week.  All the same, I felt it was only appropriate to share a good transitional recipe that can be used with a variety of fruit.

First, I should probably say that I prefer my shortcake not to be overly sweet.  I want the fruit to be the star of the dessert and its sweetness to shine.  With that, my go-to shortcake recipe is far more subtle and more biscuit-like with a creamy texture rather than a sugar-laden bouncy cake.



Before starting your shortcake:   skin, trim, hull, slice fruit (about 2 cups sliced) and sprinkle with granulated sugar.  Set aside at room temperature while preparing biscuits. 

Shortcake
makes 8-10 biscuits

1 3/4 cups flour
1/4 cup cornstarch
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon baking powder
2 teaspoons sugar
1 to 1 1/4 cups heavy cream
1 to 2 tablespoons melted butter


Sift together the flour, cornstarch, salt, baking powder and sugar. Stir in enough heavy cream to moisten the dough thoroughly.  The goal is to gather the dough, squeeze it, and have it hang together, without dry bits falling off.

Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface, and very gently pat it into an 8" circle about 3/4" thick. Using a biscuit cutter, cut out rounds.  Dip each into melted butter and place them on a lightly greased baking sheet. I like to sprinkle coarse sugar over them before baking, but that's a personal preference.

Bake at 425°F oven for 15 to 18 minutes, till they're golden brown. Brush any remaining melted butter over biscuits immediately after removing them from the oven. 


Serve with your choice of fruit  (Peach Shortcake pictured), ice cream and/or homemade whipped cream!

Whipped Cream

Beat 1 cup of heavy cream with 1 Tablespoon of powdered sugar and 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract until it forms stiff peaks.  If available, I split & scrape an entire vanilla bean into mine in lieu of the extract.

ENJOY!
-Cassie

Monday, August 12, 2013

Early Apples and What's on Deck...

Ginger Gold.
Mild with a tart finish.  These are great for eating in hand or in pies.
 
 
 

Red Free.
Crisp, sweet and juicy, these apples have a natural waxy and smooth skin.

 
A couple more weeks and we'll have these JonaGold.  Juicy & Sweet!
 
 
Granny Smith.  Already getting some good size!

 

Thursday, August 1, 2013

Best Days.

Completely random, but I think one of the best (and probably most amusing) parts of the Farmer's Almanac is the 'Best Days Calendar.'  It shares with us the presumably best days of the year to do certain things.  So here you have it...I share with you what you should being checking off of your 'Honey-Do' this today.  You should probably get hitched today.
 
 
As any farmer will tell you, it's been a very productive season compared to last year and the Orchard is no exception.  We've been very blessed with our yields, thus far, this year and hope of that trend to continue. 
 
With that, we wanted to share some photos of other produce we have and offer (when we, ourselves, don't consume it!) on occasion.  The colors this season are truly phenomenal!
 
Squash, Peppers & Tomatoes.  Oh MY!
 

 
Blackberries. 



Willa with her beautiful Dinner Plate Hibiscus!