Atlantic Queen pears

Last week, my friend Bill phoned and asked if we wanted some pears. Bill and Molly harvest apples, pears and plums every fall and I love Molly and Bill's unique fruit varieties, so I said I'd stop by that afternoon.

In their garage, I was greeted by the subtle perfume of pears and apples in towel-covered boxes because most weren't quite ripe yet. Pears are one fruit that must be picked before ripening (for the best flavor) and then allowed to ripen slowly in a cool dark place.

When Bill lifted a towel, I noticed the pears weren’t the sleek, perfect grocery store versions you see every fall. These were yellowish-green with russet at the top and a little on the bottom. They barely had any pear shape. Bill told me Atlantic Queens came from New Jersey. Emigrants from Europe brought them. They’d started orchards on the East Coast and some the orchards were abandoned for a number of years. But these hardy, neglected trees still produced fruit. Bill said Atlantic Queens will grow in poor soil and harsh conditions.

He cut a slice of a ripe pear and held it out. Moisture glistened on the creamy white flesh. I took a bite and was surprised by a texture slightly like a Bosc only more buttery with a very sweet flavor. Maybe it would be good grilled or lightly sautéed with walnuts. But maybe Atlantic Queens are perfect by themselves.

Before I left, Molly asked it I wanted some plums. I told her the squirrels eat all our plums every year; they can clean a tree off in one day. "And they just take one bite and throw it on the ground," Molly added. She handed me one that looked like a wild plum and told me that they got these plum trees from a friend who had found a number of trees that had sprouted up in her irrigation ditch. So Molly and Bill dug a few up and transplanted one or two trees to their yard.


How's that for food in your backyard? Finn knows how to wait but he’d certainly love it if I said “Okay.”

Cliffside Orchards: Meet the Hermans

This is Jeanette and Jeff Herman from Cliffside Orchards. They sell organic stone fruits (apricots, nectarines, peaches), apples and pears at Seattle farmers' markets. They also sell their great organic produce at the Spokane market and at one in Idaho, but Seattle continues to be their best.

Jeanette and Jeff usually get to the University District Farmers Market in about mid July. This year they had a bumper crop of nectarines and peaches and customers could buy boxes of seconds (not perfect looking) fruit for a bargain price. The Herman's farm is in Kettle Falls, just north of Spokane. It's about a 350 mile drive to Seattle but this it's been a big boost to their farm to sell here.

Jeanette and Jeff met pruning the orchards in eastern Washington in the 1970s. They married and later Jeanette's daughter was born at the same birth clinic in Mount Vernon where my daughter was born 33 years ago. It's funny how small the world suddenly seems when you discover links like that. Anyway, they moved onto their property in Kettle Falls the day after Mount St. Helen's blew in 1980. The Hermans experienced windstorms and hail and years when they made next to nothing because of the weather, but they've had good years, too and selling at Seattle markets really helps this small sustainable organic farm's bottom line. And buying from them helps our state's economy.

Cliffside Orchards has long been one of my favorite farms so when Timber Press offered the opportunity to update my cookbook and add farms, Cliffside Orchards was at the top of my list. Every late summer and fall, I stop at their booth at the University District market to hear farm news, sample new varieties of fruits and get cooking ideas from Jeanette. She always has time to share information about their fruit.

Look for a profile of Cliffside Orchards and Jeanette's recipe for Pear Clafouti in my cookbook to be published by Timber Press next spring. The original version Local Vegetarian Cooking (2004)was self-published and contained a number of profiles about Washington farmers.

Will the real shallot please step forward

At the University District farmers' market, a small container of shallots(left) caught my eye at Grouse Mountain Farm. Two small bags of large dirty garlic-like cloves sat like lonely vagabonds. The two bags were all Liz Eggers had for sale. The sign in front said "Grey Shallots, $5 a bag. "They don't look like shallots," I'd said.

"Those are true shallots," Liz said. "Most people don't sell the real ones, just the hybrids, but these are the real thing."

I picked up the bag and tried to imagine their flavor. "You don't need many to flavor the dish," she'd said. Cooking them solo, so you could taste them is best. I bought a bag, took it home and peeled and sliced them, a bit tedious. I sauteed it until it was crispy like my friend Patty does. We cooked baby bok choy and topped them with crispy shallots. The sweet crispy shallots complimented the slightly bitter greens. They had the kind of flavor I love to recall when I'm in a blah mood.

Though some farmers grow shallots in the Northwest, it's one vegetable that I completely forgot to include in my list of produce grown in the Northwest in my book Local Vegetarian Cooking (http://www.localvegetariancooking.com/). I couldn't believe I'd discovered an omission now, before it's even been printed, but too late to add anything. All you true shallot growers, I'm sorry. Maybe I was an onions snob who hadn't really considered shallots much more than an onions-shallot cross.

To learn more about shallots, I consulted two reference books. The first, The Food Lovers Companion by Sharon Tyler Herbst, says there are two types of shallots "the Jersey shallot or 'false' shallot, [the larger of the two on the book page above] and the more stubtly flavored 'true' shallot." In the Essential Reference Vegetables From Amaranth to Zucchini," Elizabeth Schneider says, "The esteemed gray shallot, also bulb propagated, and smaller and stronger than others, is a separate species little known outside France." Sheneider goes on to say shallots probably originated in Central Asia, then travled to India before arriving in the Mediterranean. I couldn't wait to tell Liz I'd done my homework. I saved part of my purchase and I'd plan to plant them soon because this is the time of year to plant garlic and shallots.

While looking for gardening tools at Wights (http://www.wights.com/) for some gardening tools when I found a handout on how to grow garlic. I took it, thinking I'd use the information and when I got home, I turned the handout over and it said: "How to Grow Shallots and Their Relatives." Serendipity. Liz is brining me a few more shallots to plant next week. Maybe next summer's harvest season I'll be harvesting the real thing--gray shallots from Grouse Mountain Farm.