Locavore supper club feasts on region's bounty

Platters of steamed blue crabs, salads made from rosy-hued heirloom tomatoes and freshly dug potatoes from the Eastern Shore were spread out on Pete and Lynn Schultz’s kitchen counters recently.

Alongside  were dishes made from corn and blueberries grown in Pungo, peaches and honey from Knotts Island, eggplant and more  from backyards.  Bottles of Church Creek Chardonnay from Chatham Vineyard on the Eastern Shore, along with several regional beer s and ales, filled  an ice bucket.

It was a colorful, hot-weather  spread for our locavore supper club. A locavore is someone who exclusively (or at least primarily) eats foods from the local or regional foodshed. And it didn’t take long for us to dig into the savory summer salsa, first up on the menu for July.

Eating doesn’t get much better than when the supper group gathers for its monthly meal featuring all local delicacies. Add the magic wielded by some good cooks and local beer and wine to wash it all down, and we are  satisfied that our supper group provides the best there is to be had  – winter, spring, summer and fall.

This recent dinner was at the Schultzes’ home in the North End of Virginia Beach. Other supper club members are Jo Ann and Buzzy Hofheimer, LaVerne and Buzz Crown, and Larry Maddry, all from the Beach.

Pete, whose job as director of the Virginia Tech Agricultural Research and Extension Center in Virginia Beach takes him to the Eastern Shore, brought the crabs and potatoes back with him the Friday before our supper. Pete steamed the crabs, seasoned with Old Bay, on the grill. Lynn fixed potato salad from a  family recipe.

Nothing is quite as local as steamed crabs, and they are Pete’s specialty. He often cooks them from crabs caught in his own pots.

“But the weather’s been too hot, and Pete wasn’t catching enough to provide this crowd.” Lynn explained, “so he got them on the  Shore.”

Jo Ann provided a tasty seasonal start and ending to our meal – first with sweet-hot salsa created from her garden vegetables along with Knotts Island peaches and honey. And we left for home with the lemony flavor of her Blueberry Buttermilk Tart lingering in our mouths.

Jo Ann bought fresh local eggs for the tart filling from Full Quiver Farm in Suffolk and picked the sweet round fruits at Pungo Blueberries in Virginia Beach. Over the years the tart has become a favorite.

“It’s been my summertime dessert,” Jo Ann said.

LaVerne created eggplant stacks as another appetizer. The stacks were almost bite-size eggplant Parmesan made from small Japanese eggplants grown in her garden.

My contribution was a Grilled Corn and Heirloom Tomato Salad I saw in the July issue of  Bon Appetit.  I purchased corn grown in Pungo by Cromwell’s Produce, and Eva Purple heirloom tomatoes, which are raised on the Eastern Shore by Mattawoman Creek Farms. Both businesses were represented at the Old Beach Farmers Market the day before our supper.

The idea for our supper group started with Lynn, who knew I was writing a bi-weekly column in  The Virginian-Pilot’s Flavor section about where to find fresh local food.

“Let’s start a locavore supper club,” Lynn said.

That’s all it took. We asked the Crowns and  Hofheimers to join us, and we were off and running.

Our mostly monthly locavore eating fests began  more than a year ago on one beautiful May evening at my house when the season’s best local foods. The menu included soft-shell crabs, sugar snap peas, an asparagus tart, a green salad and strawberry meringues.

To make it easy on all of us, and to make sure we each enjoyed the search for local food, whatever the season, we decided to divide the duties each month. The host supplies the main dish – meat, seafood, whatever – and the beer and wine. The other three couples bring appetizers, sides and dessert.

Visiting farmers markets and farm stands has been a highlight of getting ready for our supper group . In the process, we have all begun to change our shopping habits. LaVerne said that she goes more frequently to farmers markets, day in and day out, and that she looks for recipes that use local seasonal produce.

“When we are in a restaurant, we also ask whether or not certain items on the menu are local,” LaVerne said.

We are all grandmothers of little children,  which could contribute to how we feel about the importance of fresh local food.

Now we’ve gone through a year of eating locally. We’ve dined on pork roast from Full Quiver Farm in Suffolk, where meats are pasture-raised without hormones. We’ve had kale with balsamic vinaigrette as a winter salad . We’ve tried fresh pink-eyed peas from Pungo, and we’ve dined on corn bread made from Pungo Creek Mills Indian Corn Meal  on the Eastern Shore.

Through it all, we’re becoming locavores to the core and see our food choices differently.  Jo Ann questions the shelf life of packaged produce, and she makes an effort to buy regional products from small producers when she can’t find what she wants locally.

“I am looking much more warily at lots of products I was excited to get a year ago, especially asparagus from Peru and apples from New Zealand,” Jo Ann said. “Now I am much happier to wait until they are in season and enjoy them to the fullest.”

 Mary Reid Barrow,  barrow1@cox.net 

Recipes from the meal

MARINATED CUCUMBERS
Lynn Schultz’s mother’s recipe

3 cup (medium) thinly sliced cucumbers
1 medium  red or green pepper, chopped
1/4 cup chopped onions
1/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon celery seed
1/2 teaspoon mustard seed
1/2 cup cider vinegar

In large bowl, combine cucumbers, peppers and onions.  In small bowl, combine all other ingredients and blend well. Pour over cucumber mixture and toss to coat well. Cover and refrigerate for at least 24 hours , stirring occasionally. If desired, drain before serving. You may add new cucumbers to the batch.

SUMMER SALSA
Jo Ann Hofheimer

4 medium or 3 large ripe tomatoes, chopped
2 ripe peaches, peeled and chopped
1/2 Vidalia onion, chopped
1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and minced
1 teaspoon Watkins Bee Farm honey
Juice of 1 lime
Salt and pepper to taste
Minced small-leaf basil or cilantro or mint leaves

Blend together; chill until ready to use. Drain  some of the liquid before serving with chips. Will keep  three to five days.

HEIRLOOM TOMATO AND GRILLED-CORN SALAD WITH BASIL VINAIGRETTE
Bon Appetit magazine,  July 2010

3 tablespoons Champagne vinegar or white wine vinegar
1 small garlic clove, minced
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/4 cup finely chopped fresh basil
1 teaspoon fine sea salt
4 ears of corn in husks
11/4 pounds assorted heirloom tomatoes, cored, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
1 10-ounce container small heirloom cherry tomatoes

Mix vinegar and garlic in a bowl. Whisk in oil, then basil. Season with salt and pepper.

Fill large bowl with water. Mix in 1 teaspoon sea salt. Add corn; soak 1 hour.

Prepare barbecue grill (medium-high heat). Drain corn. Grill in husks until outside is very charred and corn kernels are tender, turning occasionally, about 25 minutes.

Cool corn. Remove husks and cut kernels off cobs into large bowl. Add tomatoes. Toss with enough vinaigrette to coat. Season salad with salt and pepper.

BLUEBERRY BUTTERMILK TART
Gourmet magazine, July 1990

For the shell:
 1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
 1/4 cup sugar
 1/4 teaspoon salt
 1 stick (1/2 cup) cold unsalted butter, cut into bits
 1 large egg yolk, beaten with 2 tablespoons ice water
 Raw rice (for weighting the shell)

For the filling:
 1 cup buttermilk
 3 large egg yolks
 1/2 cup granulated sugar
 1 tablespoon freshly grated lemon zest
 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
 1/2 stick (1/4 cup) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
 1 teaspoon vanilla
 1/2 teaspoon salt
 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
 2 cups picked-over blueberries
 
Also:
Confectioners’ sugar for sprinkling the tart
 Blueberry ice cream as an accompaniment if desired
 
Make the shell: In a bowl stir together the flour, the sugar, and the salt, add the butter, and blend the mixture until it resembles coarse meal. Add the yolk mixture, toss the mixture until the liquid is incorporated, and form the dough into a ball. Dust the dough with flour and chill it, wrapped in plastic wrap, for 1 hour. Roll out the dough 1/8 inch thick on a floured surface, fit it into a 10-inch tart pan with a removable fluted rim, and chill the shell for at least 30 minutes or, covered, overnight. Line the shell with foil, fill the foil with the rice, and bake the shell in the middle of a preheated 350-degree oven for 25 minutes. Remove the foil and rice carefully, bake the shell for 5 to 10 minutes more, or until it is pale golden, and let it cool in the pan on a rack.

Make the filling: In a blender or food processor blend together the buttermilk, the yolks, the granulated sugar, the zest, the lemon juice, the butter, the vanilla, the salt and the flour until the mixture is smooth, spread the blueberries evenly over the bottom of the shell and pour the buttermilk mixture over them. Bake the tart in the middle of a preheated 350-degree oven for 30 to 35 minutes, or until the filling is just set.

Let the tart cool completely in the pan on the rack, sprinkle it with the confectioners’ sugar, sifted, and serve it at room temperature or chilled with the ice cream.