ROLLINSFORD—
You’ll thank your local farmers for a delicious holiday meal! Just in time to set your Thanksgiving table with local food, 50+ farmers and food producers will be offering their own farm-grown food on November 20 from 10am-2pm at Seacoast Eat Local’s 4th annual Holiday Farmers’ Market indoors at the Wentworth Greenhouses in Rollinsford. Wentworth Greenhouses is located at 141 Rollins Road, a mile past Red’s Shoe Barn of Dover.
A holiday cornucopia of locally grown foods! Area farmers and food producers will be selling everything you need for your holiday table, from cheese, wine, and apple cider, to pie pumpkins, apples, and cream for dessert. Potatoes, carrots, winter squash, onions, beets, leeks, broccoli, parsnips, turnips, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts and salad greens will be in abundance, ensuring plenty of wholesome vegetables on your holiday table. There will be eggs, honey, and maple syrup, alongside special finds like sweet potatoes, wheat flour and dried chili peppers.
Farms are taking pre-orders for turkeys (see website for details). A wide variety of beef, pork, poultry and seafood will also be for sale. Dinner rolls, pre-baked pies from locally grown fruit, bread for stuffing, and a host of other foods will round out your shopping and your meal. Area food producers have pledged to a high standard of localism this year and will be offering ready to eat meals, soups and stews, jams and jellies that all contain locally grown ingredients.
Purchasing locally grown food directly from area growers helps ensure our farms stay in business - keeping open space and good food growing in the seacoast. You can find a full list of participating vendors and the products they will be selling at www.seacoasteatlocal.org
As sweet as pie, your own homemade pumpkin pie! Folks who make their pumpkin pie from scratch – from pumpkins – swear by the flavor, quality, and texture of the finished product. It’s an easy and worthwhile step to roast or steam your pumpkin. These folks also develop firm allegiances to particular pumpkins. The three most popular pie pumpkins, Long Island Cheese, Maine Long Pie Pumpkin, and Sugar Pie will all be for sale at the Holiday Market on November 20 at the Wentworth Greenhouses in Rollinsford.
The Long Island Cheese pumpkin, an heirloom variety, has pale bronze skin and a squat ribbed shape, resembling a giant wheel of cheese. They are very sweet with smooth, dense flesh that isn’t stringy, making for an exceptionally creamy, delicious pie.
The Maine Long Pie Pumpkin, also an heirloom variety and featured in Slow Food’s Renewing America’s Food Traditions project, is picked green and then ripens to orange. Because of their long, tubular shape, they are very easy to peel and prepare. The flavor is intensely pumpkin, the flesh stringless, and pies made from it are swooned over!
The Sugar Pie is the classic pie pumpkin, shaped just like a small orange pumpkin. They are thin skinned, sweet, with bright orange, dry flesh, a desired quality for firmly set pies. These pumpkins are widely available.
To prepare whole pumpkins for pies, you first need to cook them. Pumpkins can be either baked or steamed. To bake, cut the pumpkin in half or pieces, remove the seeds, cover with foil and bake at 375 for 1 1/2 hours or until tender when poked with a knife. Allow to cool, then scoop out flesh. To steam, peel pumpkin and cut into chunks, set aside seeds for roasting. Place in a saucepan with 1-2” of water. Steam over high heat until tender, about 25 minutes. Drain, allow to cool, then mash with a potato masher. Your pumpkin is now ready for your favorite pie recipe!
Share the harvest. As in year’s past, each Seacoast Eat Local winter farmers’ market will feature an area food pantry collecting donations of food. You are encouraged to purchase fresh foods to donate; pantries are seeing a sharp increase in demand for their services and those in need are also eager to eat wholesome foods. Potatoes, carrots, onions, salad greens – any product available for sale at the market would make a welcome donation. Farmers generously donate hundreds of pounds of foods at each market and the combined efforts of shoppers and farmers makes a significant positive impact in our community.
For more information, including a complete schedule of area Winter Farmers’ Markets, visit www.seacoasteatlocal.org.
Photo caption: Hackleboro Orchard Apples (Courtesy photo)
You’ll thank your local farmers for a delicious holiday meal! Just in time to set your Thanksgiving table with local food, 50+ farmers and food producers will be offering their own farm-grown food on November 20 from 10am-2pm at Seacoast Eat Local’s 4th annual Holiday Farmers’ Market indoors at the Wentworth Greenhouses in Rollinsford. Wentworth Greenhouses is located at 141 Rollins Road, a mile past Red’s Shoe Barn of Dover.
A holiday cornucopia of locally grown foods! Area farmers and food producers will be selling everything you need for your holiday table, from cheese, wine, and apple cider, to pie pumpkins, apples, and cream for dessert. Potatoes, carrots, winter squash, onions, beets, leeks, broccoli, parsnips, turnips, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts and salad greens will be in abundance, ensuring plenty of wholesome vegetables on your holiday table. There will be eggs, honey, and maple syrup, alongside special finds like sweet potatoes, wheat flour and dried chili peppers.
Farms are taking pre-orders for turkeys (see website for details). A wide variety of beef, pork, poultry and seafood will also be for sale. Dinner rolls, pre-baked pies from locally grown fruit, bread for stuffing, and a host of other foods will round out your shopping and your meal. Area food producers have pledged to a high standard of localism this year and will be offering ready to eat meals, soups and stews, jams and jellies that all contain locally grown ingredients.
Purchasing locally grown food directly from area growers helps ensure our farms stay in business - keeping open space and good food growing in the seacoast. You can find a full list of participating vendors and the products they will be selling at www.seacoasteatlocal.org
As sweet as pie, your own homemade pumpkin pie! Folks who make their pumpkin pie from scratch – from pumpkins – swear by the flavor, quality, and texture of the finished product. It’s an easy and worthwhile step to roast or steam your pumpkin. These folks also develop firm allegiances to particular pumpkins. The three most popular pie pumpkins, Long Island Cheese, Maine Long Pie Pumpkin, and Sugar Pie will all be for sale at the Holiday Market on November 20 at the Wentworth Greenhouses in Rollinsford.
The Long Island Cheese pumpkin, an heirloom variety, has pale bronze skin and a squat ribbed shape, resembling a giant wheel of cheese. They are very sweet with smooth, dense flesh that isn’t stringy, making for an exceptionally creamy, delicious pie.
The Maine Long Pie Pumpkin, also an heirloom variety and featured in Slow Food’s Renewing America’s Food Traditions project, is picked green and then ripens to orange. Because of their long, tubular shape, they are very easy to peel and prepare. The flavor is intensely pumpkin, the flesh stringless, and pies made from it are swooned over!
The Sugar Pie is the classic pie pumpkin, shaped just like a small orange pumpkin. They are thin skinned, sweet, with bright orange, dry flesh, a desired quality for firmly set pies. These pumpkins are widely available.
To prepare whole pumpkins for pies, you first need to cook them. Pumpkins can be either baked or steamed. To bake, cut the pumpkin in half or pieces, remove the seeds, cover with foil and bake at 375 for 1 1/2 hours or until tender when poked with a knife. Allow to cool, then scoop out flesh. To steam, peel pumpkin and cut into chunks, set aside seeds for roasting. Place in a saucepan with 1-2” of water. Steam over high heat until tender, about 25 minutes. Drain, allow to cool, then mash with a potato masher. Your pumpkin is now ready for your favorite pie recipe!
Share the harvest. As in year’s past, each Seacoast Eat Local winter farmers’ market will feature an area food pantry collecting donations of food. You are encouraged to purchase fresh foods to donate; pantries are seeing a sharp increase in demand for their services and those in need are also eager to eat wholesome foods. Potatoes, carrots, onions, salad greens – any product available for sale at the market would make a welcome donation. Farmers generously donate hundreds of pounds of foods at each market and the combined efforts of shoppers and farmers makes a significant positive impact in our community.
For more information, including a complete schedule of area Winter Farmers’ Markets, visit www.seacoasteatlocal.org.
