OLS Week 10: Watermelon, Peach and Basil Salad

Watermelon, Peach and Basil Salad, originally uploaded by Brooklyn Forager.

We traveled up to the Great North Woods and stayed in a cabin with friends for the weekend. Saturday night was our night to cook and while I wasn't able to make a completely local dinner, I did make this lovely Watermelon, Peach and Basil Salad for dinner.

The recipe came from Mark Bittman's 101 Salads article and is simply delicious. His first choice is watermelon and tomato which I've made to great success. I couldn't find non-red tomatoes at the food co-op, so I used his backup suggestion this time around, the peaches. So good!

The watermelon was grown in Maryland and purchased in NY. The peaches were grown in PA and purchased in VT. The basil was grown in VT and purchased in VT. Salad dressing items were pantry staples.

Watermelon, Peach and Basil Salad (serves 6)

1 small watermelon (mini-watermelon worked perfectly)
3 fresh not-too-ripe peaches (a little texture goes a long way)
2-3 big handfuls of basil (or to taste)
olive oil
sherry vinegar
sea salt
fresh cracked black pepper

Chop up the fruit and tear up the basil. Mix well. At this stage, set aside and dress just before serving. When preparing the dressing, make to taste and be creative.

Locavore Dinner Party, Part I

DSC00792, originally uploaded by Brooklyn Forager.

My friend JK and I decided to host a dinner party celebrating the bounty of summer. While the bulk of the work would come Saturday, we got started early Friday evening with a beautiful crumble using berries handpicked at my in-laws home in Vermont.

We used a great simple recipe for Any Season Fruit Crumble from epicurious.com and really only tweaked it slightly. The lemons I had were on the not-so-fresh side, so we decided to use fresh orange juice instead. However, my sack of oranges turned out to be a sack of ruby red grapefruits. With no other option, we used the grapefruit juice which gave the dish a nice layer of sweet tangy freshness that I just might keep as a trick up my sleeve.

The dish does rely on a lot of non-local pantry staples that I have to grapple with to continue baking in my locavore adventures. For now, I'm satisfied to have featured these amazingly fresh beautiful berries in such a great way.