• Food is locally produced.
• The producer or someone directly involved in the production process attends the stall. 

The Market and Healthy Eating

Making Yogurt with Golden Glen Milk
 
Once I discovered yogurt as a student - the virtues of its being easy to buy, easy to eat, and easy to clean up made yogurt a daily purchase - I thought I should probably buy a yogurt machine so I could produce my own. But then, as I looked at the paraphernalia, it dawned on me that yogurt wouldn't be easy to buy or easy to clean up if I made my own. So I let that project go.
 
Then years later when I read Mireille Guiliano's  French Women Don't Get Fat. After absorbing the writer's description of the joys and advantages of eating yogurt along with the ease of making it at home, yogurt machines called out to me, and once again, I investigated the machines. Once more I declined, thinking that the machine would not be able to match the quality and types of yogurt we can buy in our stories today.
 
Yogurt has taken off from my student days-with goat milk yogurt, soy yogurt, non-fat and low-fat yogurt, Greek yogurt, organic yogurt and all sorts of variations on flavoring. While Americans tend to prefer firmer yogurt, our stores are stocked with yogurt ranging from the sour-cream like consistency of Greek yogurt to the more pourable kinds of yogurt.  How could a lowly yogurt machine-there really isn't much technology to these machines-compete with what I could buy in a store?
 
Last summer, though, was a turning point. I bought French Women Don't Get Fat for my daughter, and the two of us spent some pleasurable hours together talking about the writer's approach to food. Making yogurt came up again. This time I decided it was time to take on a machine.
 
The Internet is filled with testimonials and instructions by people who make their yogurt at home without machines. I understand it can be done without a great deal of effort, other than making sure the yogurt is kept for hours at a certain temperature. But me, I prefer to rely on a machine. After due diligence research, I bought one with all the little glass jars, thinking at the same time that there goes the easy to clean up part of the value proposition for yogurt.
 
How did it all go?  What's the process?
First, it is a simple process. Obviously you start with milk. I had no doubt about the milk I would use - Golden Glen Creamery's milk because I love the taste of this milk. But I wasn't sure whether I would use non-fat, low-fat or whole milk. I experimented a bit with low-fat milk, but I concluded that non-fat works beautifully.
 
You heat the milk to 180 degrees, stirring most of the time to prevent scorching, cool the milk to around 110 degrees, stir in the yogurt cultures, pour into the little jars, put the jars in the machine, let the machine incubate the yogurt for several hours, and refrigerate the finished jars. And that's it.
 
The instructions suggest stirring in some of your last batch of yogurt for the culture. I haven't done that yet; instead I have been stirring in dried cultures that I've purchased. The directions also give some leeway for incubation time, the longer you incubate, the firmer your yogurt will become. As I a firm yogurt lover, I let the machine incubate for 7-9 hours.
 
Nor have I followed any of the recipes for making fruit-flavored yogurt because I am fonder of mixing fruit into plain yogurt, but the recipes look easy enough and come with the advantage that you know exactly what you're adding to your yogurt. Plus you can strain your homemade yogurt to make your own version of Greek yogurt. I did that once and rated the results mighty fine. 
 
How does it taste? How does it compare?
It's a revelation! After my first tentative spoonful, I had one of those discovery moments, "Ah, so this is how it is supposed to taste." The difference between homemade yogurt and store-bought yogurt is similar to the difference between just-picked berries and those sitting in stores for a few days. The difference is freshness. This homemade yogurt just sort of pops in the mouth. It tastes vital. It tastes real. It tastes delicious.
 
Now my refrigerator is always stocked with a few glass jars of yogurt. I only wish I had purchased my machine years ago. The bonus is that the cleanup isn't as onerous as I expected. Those glass jars fit nicely into the dishwasher! 

Let's Talk About Market Food

 

Making Freezer Jam from Market Berries

 

When berries first arrive at the market, two instincts take hold.
 
First, I want to consume. Berries are the sweet reward nature prepares for us for having  endured the gray, wet winter. I'm primed to reward myself well by eating lots and lots of berries.
 
While thoroughly gorging myself on the first of the berries, something else brews in my brain-an urge to preserve. It's as if my brain recognizes how precious the taste of berries is and urges me to think about ways to prolong that taste over the winter that is sure to come. How can I make this divine taste last? 
 
To satisfy both those instincts, I bought half a flat each of strawberries and raspberries at the market last week, took them home, eating freely from the boxes on my way, and then pulled out my family recipe for freezer jam.
 
Freezer jam is cheater jam. If you want to make real jam, you can buy the canning equipment and sweat over the stove boiling, straining and sealing. Kudos to any of you who do that. The results are delectable in terms of taste and texture with the advantage that you can store the jam on your pantry shelf for a long time. But I find freezer jam an acceptable shortcut. It has the fresh taste of berries, and it's easily stored in the refrigerator for a few weeks or in the freezer for up to a year.
 
The web is abuzz with everyone's favorite freezer jam recipe. Mine comes from my sister, who had a substantial raspberry patch, and it's been the freezer jam recipe I've used for many years. It's a little different from most recipes you'll find because the proportion of fruit to sugar is 4 cups of mashed berries to 2 cups of sugar. Usually the recipes call for more sugar than fruit. As you might conclude, this freezer jam ends up very fruity in flavor. 
 
Freezer jam for strawberries, raspberries or blueberries
Run hot water over glass jars and lids and let dry.
Run hot water over berries. Pick over and hull strawberries. Mash berries lightly with a potato masher or fork. Don't puree them.
Place 4 c. mashed berries in glass casserole dish or other non-reactive cookware.
Stir in 1 c. granulated sugar, and stir frequently while bringing to a boil.
Cook at moderate boil for 2 minutes.
Add 1 c. granulated sugar, bring to a boil, and boil for 4 minutes.
Remove from stovetop and pour into glass bowl.
Stir in pectin if using.
Let cool for 2 hours on the countertop.
Then ladle into glass jars, screw on the lids, and store in the refrigerator overnight before moving the jars to the freezer.
This recipe will make 3 to 4 jars of jam. 
 
I usually don't bother with pectin. That's the substance that causes jams and jellies to gel. This freezer jam recipe is so full of fruit that it holds its shape pretty well without pectin if using strawberries or raspberries. Blueberries are another matter; pectin is essential here because blueberries release so much juice while cooking. If you want to be sure to have a firm jam with any berry, use a package of pectin. Follow the directions-usually they require you to blend the pectin into hot water and then stir the pectin mixture into the fruit. Enjoy!