SUMMER CHARCUTERIE BOARDS

What I'm watching, eating, drinking & reading~Garrison Keillor on M.F.K. Fisher~cheese, fruit, sweets, vegetarian, antipasto, and tinned fish boards

Flowering Artichoke at a Farmers’ Market

Just last weekend these humungus flowering artichokes began appearing at the Diablo Valley Farmers’ Market in Walnut Creek, Calif., and a week later at the Walnut Creek Farmers’ Market, too. Left unpicked the inedible artichoke bud opens with a spectacular 6-inch purple bloom

I’M EATING CHERRIES

Here in the suburbs of San Francisco, we’ve been enjoying life, that’s to say enjoying bowls full of Bing and Rainier cherries, this spring. But, regretfully, the cherry season here is phasing out. Happily, for folks in Door County, Wisconsin, their season is almost upon them and lasts through August. And a couple of fresh cherry locations include Coveyou Scenic Farm Market and Bill's Farm Market near Petoskey, Michigan. Some 70 percent of all cherries in the U.S. are grown in Michigan, during roughly the same season as northern Wisconsin and in the Northeast, for all of whom this, of course, is the season with a cherry on top!

Lovely illustration by Vicki Smith

I’M DRINKING DELACY WINE

You have to work to discover DeLacy wines. The winemakers, Jim Delacy and David Holden, certainly have a love affair with California wines. Jim has been making wine for more than 20 years, starting in the Santa Cruz Mountains.  He’s won several medals for wine making, and, when he moved to Oakland, he was still making wine for just friends and family. Then, when he met David, and, they together created DeLacy Wines. It’s no longer just for family and close friends. It can be bought online. And, on a couple November of weekends, they invite their whole email list to come and celebrate (and buy out!) the season’s wines, a necessity since they don’t have room to store and age their fruits. And sell out, they do, indeed.

Take Note The DeLacy pinot noir was a double gold medal winner at the 2022 San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition. It’s a delightful wine that retails for $32. Might it be able to command a considerably higher price because of its quality? Just askin’.

DeLacy Wines

An old friend introduced me to Jim DeLacy at a dinner party at Jim’s house. What a blast! DeLacy the man—winemaker, retired fireman, master swimmer, and colorful raconteur. DeLacy the business—considered a boutique winery, with an output of 150 cases a year or fewer of five different wines: cab, chard, pinot, zin, and a red blend.

Fun Fact By comparison, E. & J. Gallo Winery, the world’s largest winery and distributor, produces north of 75 million cases a year for 100+ countries and 100+ brands. Perspective: That’s merely 900 million bottles for the more than 7.8 billion people on planet earth.

I’M WATCHING “FEED PHIL” & “THE BEST ROSÉ IN THE WORLD”

“Somebody Feed Phil”

“Somebody Feed Phil,” season five of this charming Netflix TV series was just released. It travels to Oaxaca; Maine; Helsinki; Portland, Oregon; and Madrid.

“The Best Rosé Wines in the World” by V is for Vino, visits Provence in its latest release. I’ve become attached to these charming romps by Vince the host through wherever he takes me. His captivating personality and production skills are entertaining and useful YouTube episodes.

And, just maybe, I’ll watch “The Bear” on Hulu, which I don’t subscribe to, but I’m seeing numerous glowing reports from critics about it. “If you haven’t watched ‘The Bear’ on Hulu, don’t miss it,” says Ruth Reichl in a recent La Brief newsletter. “The show is moving, painful, exhilarating . . . . I think it’s the best restaurant show ever aired on TV.” From Plate, an Online industry publication for restaurant workers, is another review. Plus, a former line cook speaks out on The Spruce Eats.

I READ “CORK DORK”

“Cork Dork” is a romp through the world of elite sommeliers in NYC by Bianca Bosker that’s not to be missed! Says Jay McInerney, author of The Juice, and some say the best wine writer in the U.S., “[i]t’s a brilliant feat of screwball participatory journalism . . . .”

I MADE COLOSSAL MISTAKE IN MY KITCHEN THIS WEEK

I’m crazy for tuna in a can with olive oil, so I tried making it. Just winged it. First, I sauteed the tuna, which I didn’t know would absolutely dry it out. Second, dowsing it with olive oil re-energized it, but the tuna had something of an awful taste. To make matters worse, I paid twice what a can of tuna costs for the fresh stuff. Never again. What I should have done in the first place is seek guidance. With a precious commodity such as raw, expensive tuna, I will. Here are tips from The Spruce Eats that I should have followed and should protect you from my wildness in the kitchen.

THE WRITER’S ALMANAC WITH GARRISON KEILLOR

(Sunday, July 3, 2011)

It's the birthday of M.F.K. Fisher (1908), born Mary Frances Kennedy in Albion, Michigan. She's the mother of the "food essay" and always viewed cuisine as a metaphor for culture. She grew up in Whittier, California, and met her future husband, Alfred Young Fisher, at the University of Southern California in 1929. They spent the first three years of their marriage in Dijon, France, and she referred to that period as the "shaking and making years in [her] life."

She found an Elizabethan cookbook at her public library, and was inspired to try her hand at food writing. Her first book, Serve It Forth (1937), was full of sensual, evocative prose and some critics assumed a man had written it. Her 1941 book, How to Cook a Wolf, was addressed to Americans and Europeans dealing with rationing and food shortages during World War II. In it, she wrote, "When the wolf is at the door one should invite him in and have him for dinner." It has a few recipes, but it mostly contains meditations on the role of meals in relationships, and on sharing limited resources with spiritual abundance. Her chapter titles include, "How to Distribute Your Virtue," "How to Greet the Spring," "How to Be Cheerful Through Starving," and "How to Have a Sleek Pelt."

Author Anne Lamott wrote the introduction to an edition of Fisher's letters. "Hers was a face anyone would naturally want in the kitchen, a combination of fresh peach and aged potato," Lamott wrote. "You could see the weight and warmth and softness of her cheeks — the tender part a mother would cup in her hands — now grown so old."

Summer Charcuterie Boards

Photo courtesy of Charcuterie by CJ in Elkhorn, Nebraska, just west of Omaha

I’d never eaten off a charcuterie board until a couple weeks ago. Since then I’ve had a couple, enough to hook me on the idea of them. Zero formality. Tons of fun to eat with your fingers. And all that’s on the board is one whole meal. Lots of my fave cured meats, cheeses of all sorts, with condiments and vegetables and breads or crackers interspersed throughout, plus maybe even sweets. Just what kind of a “board” all this is put on matters, too, be it wood, ceramic, slate, marble, or stone.

My Approach For my first attempt, I’m gonna stick with a combo of meats and cheeses and breads, but combining sweet, sour, and savory is legit. I have a couple favorites when comes to meat. Pancetta, which I’d have to cook up. I might even try to pickle quail eggs and pickles. Prosciutto di Parma is an all-time favorite. Mild soppressata. Jamón. Now to cheese: Parmigiano-Reggiano. Gruyere. La Tur. Pleasant Ridge Reserve. Époisses. All favorites. For bread, I’ll search out a fresh baguette and slice it into small rounds, maybe drizzling a bit of extra virgin olive oil or spreading French butter from one of these two sources on top.

A Whole-Foods Approach Forget cutting anything. Leave everything whole for guests to slice themselves. Round up a couple sausages, pâtés—duck or goose liver; bunches of grapes; whole plums, apricots, and radishes with tops on; and spring onions. Anything in season, really. Just serve everything whole since it is charming to see each in its original state.

Many, Many Themes Only after searching 15 Google pages for charcuterie board did I come to understand such boards can come in so many different themes: Vegetarian, berries and cream, antipasto, fruits, sweets, or tinned fish. So give yourself license to experiment like a Mad Hatter!

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