High Summer

We've just reached high summer, the point at which the farmer's market really hits its stride. I was noticing this morning the differences between a mid-July kitchen and a mid-January kitchen. I love a well stocked kitchen, and six months from now I'll have one - cupboards full of pickles, popcorn, jams and jellies, honey, winter squashes, hard cheeses and potatoes, and a freezer stocked with frozen fruits, vegetables and meats.

But right now in high summer the stock looks very different. Instead of edibles hiding in dark places for months on end peering out through glass walls, my countertops are overflowing with a rapidly changing assortment of super-fresh goods. The pantry is bare, but everywhere I look there are shiny red cherries, fuzzy apricots and peaches, strawberries, beets, radishes, sweet corn, tomatoes, tomatillos, grapes and greens, greens, greens among much else. There's no room in the fridge, there's no room on the table, there's no room on the kitchen counter.

It's always a race to eat as much as we can, because every three days we come home with another armload. This, of course, is no chore. We only get each delicious treat for a short time - from a few weeks to a few months - each year. It's pure ecstasy to indulge in several pounds of sweet juicy peaches every week during peach season. When they're gone I won't get another for 11 months, so I have no qualms about diving head first into this agricultural hedonism.

On the menu last night:

1. We started with local organic salad greens and backyard tomatoes tossed with basil from the garden and drizzled with Italian olive oil and red wine vinegar
2. The main course featured 100% grass fed, organic, locally raised round steaks from Panorama Farm - grilled medium rare with a spicy salt & pepper rub
3. A side of organic, locally grown "peaches 'n cream" sweet corn and summer squash sauteed with hand-churned local, raw butter, bit of sweet onion and dill from the garden
4. A side of mashed purple potatoes from the garden, prepared with raw milk and raw butter, salt & pepper
5. Colorado grown and produced organic red wine
6. For dessert, a warm, bubbly rhubarb crisp with the very last of the year's rhubarb served with whipped farm-fresh cream