Shop Farmers' Market and Buy Straight from the Work-hardened Hands of a Local Farmer

Shop Farmers Market and Buy Straight from the Work-hardened Hands of a Local Farmer

                Cool weather is upon us this week and it is really starting to feel like fall.  Pumpkins, Indian corn, gourds, corn shocks and other autumn harvest items are now appearing at Farmers Market as shoppers start to look for the perfect decorations to adorn their porches and stoops. 

            Picking pumpkins, digging sweet potatoes and other similar tasks are jobs for which most people would choose to wear work gloves in order to protect their hands.  However, I hardly ever find myself wearing a pair.  Usually, it is because of one of the following reasons:  I have forgotten to put them on, I can’t find them, or can only find one half of a pair.  If I do start a project with them on I often get frustrated.  I find that I am fumbling around and/or they hinder my speed so I end up taking them off.

So, of course, as I finished digging my sweet potatoes this week, I was not wearing any gloves.  Something in the vines must have stained my hands, because scrub as I might, my hands looked dirty for several days afterward.  My hands are so worn from the summer’s work that it never crosses my mind how bad they must look until someone points it out.  A friend commented on them when I ran into her at the grocery store the other night, not in a negative or condescending way, but seemingly more in awe of the job I must have been doing to make them look so bad. 

I can only imagine, however, what people who don’t know what I do for a living, must think when they see me.  Perhaps I should get my grandma to crochet a string between my work gloves and wear them around my neck as she did my mittens when I was a child.  That way I might actually be able to keep track of them and put them to good use.

Cooler weather also puts me in the mood to cook heartier meals.  The following recipe is from Farmhouse Cooking, by Kathy Blake.  The recipe calls for turkey, so don’t forget that in addition to meat vendors that specialize in beef and pork products, we are also fortunate to have local turkey available at our market.

Turkey and Sweet Potato Pie

·         ¼ cup butter

·         1 med. yellow onion, peeled and chopped

·         1/3 cup flour

·         1 cup milk

·         2 cups chicken stock

·         1 tablespoon chopped parsley

·         ½ tsp. chopped rosemary

·         ½ tsp. chopped sage

·         1 tsp. salt

·         3 cups bite size pieces cooked turkey

·         2 cups bite size pieces cooked sweet potatoes

·         2 cups cooked green beans or peas

·         12 biscuits

Heat oven to 425º.  Lightly grease a shallow 2 ½ quart baking dish.  In a large skillet or pan, melt butter and sauté onion until transparent; add flour and stir until bubbly.  Add milk, stock, parsley, rosemary, sage, and salt; stir until thickened; let simmer 5 min.  Add turkey, sweet potatoes, and beans or peas.  Pour into baking dish and arrange biscuits on top.  Bake 30-40 min. or until bubbly and biscuits are golden.  Makes 6-8 servings.