Recipe by Kate Payne, Author of Hip Girl’s Guide to Homemaking

Prepare your peaches by bringing a medium saucepan of water to a boil.  Depending on peach size, this recipe will use 1lb small (+/-2”) peaches whole or 2lbs larger peaches halved and pitted.  For both sizes, drop peaches whole into boiling water and let them sit for as long as it takes for the water to return to a boil (2-3 minutes).

1. Drop peaches into an ice bath while you prepare your syrup.
2. Place 1/3 cup honey, 1-1.5 cups water, 2 Tbs. lemon juice in a medium saucepan and bring to a simmer over med-low heat.  Remove pan from heat.
3. Peel small peaches (or peel, pit and halve larger peaches) dropping them directly into syrup saucepan as you go.
4. Once all peaches are in the syrup, simmer for 5 minutes.  Skim foam if necessary.
5. Place a slice of fresh ginger (optional) or any dry spices directly into one quart jar.
6. If water-bath canning is necessary, multiply brine recipe by amount of peaches you have.  Leave ½ inch head-space and process quart jars for 25 minutes.  Otherwise, loosely cap jar, let sit on the counter to cool for an hour and then place in the fridge.  Keeps for about 3 months.

Visit Kate’s blog for canning tips, contact info and recipes: hipgirlshome.com

Made at Cedar Park Farmers Marker on Saturday, June 16th 2012

• 3 squash (any variety)
• 3/4 cup shredded cheddar cheese
• ¼ cup chopped onion
• 1/8 cup flour or cornmeal or mixture (I use soy flour)
• 1 egg
• ¾ teaspoon Black pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon oil
Can also add a diced jalapeno or other peppers

Directions:

• Grate the squash with a cheese grater (or use your food processor) into mixing bowl.
• Add the cheese, onion and egg.
• Mix together and then add flour/cornmeal until it is almost a dry mix.
• Heat oil in skillet and drop spoon size/or patties amounts of mixture into hot oil and flatten to make into shape of pancake.
• Fry until golden brown and sprinkle with salt.

Use yellow squash, pumpkin or zucchini flowers plus the small fruit for this favorite recipe that is popular in Italy as well as Mexico. If you are lucky enough to have a garden and plant any type of squash, you will know how prolific they are. Nipping off the blossoms will help tame the harvest and help the remainders that grow into fruit.  Click to view recipe!

I received an email from a shopper wanting to purchase a bushel of tomatoes (53lbs) at the market this week.  I explained that we had hothouse tomatoes but field grown were not available until early May.  She replied that with the rain and warmth tomatoes might be available soon…which made me start thinking about when we would actually have field tomatoes at our market. It is always a race with the farmers to see who can be the first in with sought after vegetables and fruit.  On that note, I thought we might create an award for the first of our farmers bringing us red, ripe field tomatoes to sell at CPF2M.   So, the market will donate a booth space to show our appreciation for his/her hard work and entrepreneurial farming practice.  Be sure to ask your farmer/s about the schedule of ripening veggies and fruit and when they might be bringing field tomatoes to our market.

Asparagus, strawberries, artichokes are some of the vegetables and fruits at the market which indicate the seasonal transition from winter into spring.  The warmth and rain promise an incredible spring harvest and the anticipation of what comes next…