May 31st Newsletter
Bardstown Road Farmers’ Market
Sarah’s Corner
From our friend Sarah Fritschner
Old timers who shop the Bardstown Road Farmers Market may know Henry Byrnside as the man in the corner spot who’d be selling strawberries and blackberries as soon as they were in season. He was among the first farmers to join the market, and in those early days, he was the one with the berries.
He inherited the strawberry plot from his father, who was a teacher at Eastern High School and bought a farm in Shelby County to raise an apple orchard, tobacco and hay. Henry left the farm in 1954 for a career as an electronic technician in the Navy. When he retired in 1977, he bought Marv’s electronic store in Shelbyville, which he turned into a Radio Shack two years later.
But when his father died in 1979, Byrnside inherited the 28-acre farm, perhaps 400 apple trees, the strawberry plot, and the tobacco base. He grew “all kinds of produce” on it, in addition to the fruit, so decided he’d join the Bardstown Road market effort when it started in the mid 90’s.
While the bulk of his business is garden produce, he says his customers really love the berries and peaches he sells.
Strawberry feta spring salad
You’ll make more dressing than you need for the salad, but it keeps forever and tastes great on any tossed salad or sprinkled lightly on grilled vegetables.
Dressing:
½ cup sugar
½ cup vinegar
½ cup vegetable oil
½ teaspoon dry mustard
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon paprika
1 clove garlic, minced, about ½ teaspoon
Salad:
1 cup strawberries
4 ounces feta cheese
2 quarts tender lettuce leaves or spinach
Combine all dressing ingredients in a pint jar and close tightly. Shake to dissolve sugar and salt.
Remove hulls and slice strawberries. Put salad greens in a large bowl and toss with dressing to taste. Sprinkle with strawberries and crumble feta cheese over the top. Serves 4.
Herb and spice rub
I love the coffee grinder that I bought at a yard sale to use as a spice grinder. It allows me to make short work of traditional ethnic recipes that require crushing 3-inch pieces of cinnamon, whole cumin and coriander, or toasted Mexican chilies, in a mortar and pestle.
Even better, it allows me to make flavorful but low-calorie spice rubs for meat that I cook on the grill or under the broiler.
If you don’t have a spice grinder, you can mix this rub in a blender. It takes longer to crack the whole spices and it’s much noisier than a coffee mill, but it works.
2 teaspoons whole black peppercorns
1 tablespoon fennel seeds
1 teaspoon coriander seed
2 teaspoons dried basil
2 teaspoons dried thyme
2 teaspoons dried oregano
1 tablespoon salt
Put peppercorns in a spice grinder or blender and blend several seconds to crack them. Add fennel and grind a few seconds more. Add coriander and grind a few seconds more. Add basil, thyme, oregano and salt and grind to a powder.
Use about 1 teaspoon of rub per pound of meat. Sprinkle it all over the meat and, if you have time, refrigerate several hours. Store extra spice mix in a jar in a cabinet and use it within a few weeks to get the full flavor of the volatile oils. Or freeze excess if you want to keep it longer. Makes about ¼ cup of rub.
Spice-rubbed chicken pieces: Heat oven (or grill) to 400 degrees. Sprinkle bone-in chicken pieces all over, using about 1 teaspoon rub per 1 pound of chicken. Put in the oven or in a covered grill. If you’re cooking thighs, cook about 10 minutes, then reduce heat to 350. If cooking breasts, reduce heat immediately after closing the top. Cook about 30 minutes total, or until chicken is cooked through. (If you’re cooking breasts and thighs together, put the breasts on with the thighs, cook them at the higher heat, but take check them after 20 minutes of cooking and take them off if they’re done).