Cheese Tasting with Evergreen Lane Farm & Creamery

In general it can be difficult to refuse a sampling of cheese but when it is an Evergreen Lane chevre it is impossible. This past Saturday the cheese maker, Ms. Halinski debuted her new pleasantly sweet fig and honey chevre cheese with the Summertime community. Simply presented in a paper cup the creamy cheese left your taste buds in a quandary believing they had just had a spoon full of ice cream. The Fig and Honey Chevre is now available at the Market. View more images from the event on our Facebook.

In addition to debuting her new cheese, Ms Halinski used some of the products at the Market to pile up a chevre bruschetta with wild chard, pickled beats and fennel. Bellow you will find the recipe for how to cook and prepare the seasonally perfect snack and in the Market you can find all the ingredients needed to try it yourself at home. Enjoy!


Chevre Bruschetta with Wilted Chard, Pickled Beets, and Fennel
1 baguette
Chevre
Wilted Chard (see recipe below)
Pickled Beets (see recipe below)
Chard
3 quarts Swiss Chard (about a dozen leaves)
2-3 tbsp olive oil
Dash of sea salt, to taste
Remove stems and slice into thin ribbons “chiffonade” style—roll a few leaves at a time together lengthwise and slice. Place ribbons into a tall heavy-bottom pot and toss with 2-3 tbsp of olive oil and a dash of sea salt. Cook on medium heat for a few minutes, just until steaming, stirring gently. Remove from heat, cover, and let sit for 1-2 minutes. Remove from pot to cool. Use at room temperature to assemble bruschetta, or cook ahead of time and store in fridge for later.
Beets
1 LB beets
1 medium onion, Vidalia or red
1 cup apple cider vinegar
½ cup water
1/3 cup sugar
Trim stems to ½ inch and wash whole beets to remove soil. Boil whole beets for 15 minutes, let sit for 5. Rinse in cold water and slip skins. Slice boiled beets and set aside in a large bowl. Slice onion in thin rings. Toss onion rings with beets slices. Mix vinegar and water in a saucepan, stir in sugar, and bring to a boil. Immediately pour over beets and onions to cover, cover the bowl with a plate and let sit overnight—refrigerate after everything has cooled to room temperature.
Assembling
Slice baguette to ½ inch pieces, toast in oven or use fresh. Top with a large spoonful of greens, spread on a tablespoon of fresh chevre then top with beet and onion slices. Garnish with fennel sprigs.

Fresh Cherry Reduction Sauce

Cherries are usually reserved for eating by the pit spitting contest and eating by the hand full, however, they can be used dress up a nice piece of meat. Featured here is a grilled grass fed pork chop lightly covered in a fresh cherry reduction sauce. With cherries just coming into season this is an exciting option for dressing up a weekly dinner.

Ingredients
1lb fresh pitted cherries
1 cup ruby red port
1/2 cup of sugar
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
1 tablespoon honey
Preparation
Place cherries in saucepan and add port, sugar vinegar and honey. Cook over high heat, stirring slowly, until the sugar dissolves. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for approximately 12-15 minutes, or until the cherries are soft but still retain their shape.

Don’t forget to tell us how you liked it, enjoy!

Alan Greene’s article “Brown vs. White Rice: a fork in the road” reminds us of the importance of developmental lessons in young children with regards to nutrition. What will allow children to make positive food choices in the future will stem from their understanding of the parallels of their own uniqueness and the food they put in their body. Early awareness and appreciation for foods full sensory experience will instinctively create a gravitation to foods that can be picked up, felt, smelled and seen, rather than something that comes in a cold ambiguous package.

Got to Love Evergreen Lane Farm.

Have you ever been around baby goats?

Each spring, when I visit Evergreen Lane Farm in Fennville, I seriously contemplate scooping up one the adorable kids so I can put her in the backseat of my Jetta.

So far, I’ve resisted.

However, there’s no resisting the artisan cheeses handcrafted by Cathy Halisnki.

Let’s start with the chèvre: it’s fresh, snowy white, soft, easy to spread, and has a mild goat flavor. Caution…addiction is possible.

When I first sampled Cathy’s Pyramid Pointe soft-ripened cheese, I found (another) new

favorite. It has a distinctive pyramid shape and natural rind that’s blackened with ash. The flavor becomes more pronounced as it ages, and it’s fabulous at any stage.

If you prefer cow’s milk cheeses, Evergreen Lane Creamery makes some of the best. La Mancha MOO! is an outstanding camembert. Poet’s Tomme is a raw milk cheese made with The Poet stout from New Holland Brewing.

By: Micheal Shaw

Koeze Makes Organic Peanut Butter?!?!

Mother Nature knows how to achieve perfection all by Herself.

For 84 years the people of Koeze Gourmet Nuts have been making peanut butter the way nature intended it to be.

Crafted in small batches, Cream-Nut Natural Peanut Butter (crunchy or smooth!) boasts a deep roasted peanut taste and contains only two ingredients: peanuts and a pinch of sea salt.

Go ahead; look at a jar of Jif and compare. Do we really need to be tripling our sugar intake?

When you want peanut butter the natural way, you want the good stuff: Koeze Cream Nut Butter. It consistently wins taste-testing awards, and it’s made right in Grand Rapids. So, go ahead and eat what’s naturally delicious; Mother Nature will thank you!

Monique Deschaine Loves Pasta

In 1981 Monique Deschaine decided that she wanted to make perfect pasta.

Following the advice of Julia Child to “Find something you’re passionate about and keep tremendously interested in it,” Monique started her quest for perfection.

29 years later, we are lucky enough to enjoy the results of Monique’s commitment to her passion.

Meet al dente® Pasta Company from Whitmore Lake, Michigan.

Starting with the best ingredients, al dente® works their dough by hand. Their technique guarantees the difference in texture that you will taste.

With a cooking time of just 3 minutes, al dente® noodles make dinnertime easy to enjoy. Choose from a wide variety of fettucine, linguine, and low-carb noodle options. Try one of Monique’s™ Sumptuous Sauces as a topping, or experiment with one of the delicious recipe offerings found on the noodle bag or al dente’s website: www.aldentepasta.com.

We are exited to be adding some Michigan Italian to the Market this year.

Meet McClure's Pickles

We love everything about McClure’s pickles!

Let’s start with the fact that their recipe has been passed through the generations from Great Grandmother Lala.

Learning their craft from both their Grandfather and Father, the McClure brothers use local produce whenever possible and whenever it’s in season. As a second best alternative, either Joe or Bob calls the farmers and to converse about getting the best, freshest produce around.

From there, the cucumbers are hand sliced and the jars are hand packed.

We also thought you’d want to know that their labels (composed of soy and vegetable based inks) are printed on a rolling press run by wind-powered electricity.

Now that’s cool.

Oh, did we forget to mention how darned irresistible their pickles are????

www.mcclurespickles.com