Newsletter & Bag Contents: Winter Share Week 4

Hi there!

Welcome back to the Winter Share! We hope you had a fantastic Thanksgiving and are enjoying your December. From here on out we will be seeing you every other week. We have two share weeks this month ( Week 5 will be December 19th-22nd ) and then we're into January 2019.

The season of gift giving and celebration is fast approaching. Let us make your holidays smoother with gifts that support small farmers and small businesses. Give locally with a Fresh Fork Market gift certificate, available in any denomination (email [email protected] ). Or place a special order and make your own unique holiday gift basket, you could fill it with locally roasted coffee, maple syrup, or sweet and savory preserves or whatever you like! Showcase your affinity for local food with Fresh Fork Market t-shirts, mugs, and honey pots.

If you are planning on hosting, keep Ohio City Provisions in mind. They will soon be announcing their catering menu and holiday meat selections. For the cook in your life, OCP also has gift certificates available in multiple denominations. To learn more call 216.465.2762.

Thanks and enjoy your bags!

-Your Fresh Fork Market Team

The stylish Fresh Fork Market mug goes with everything

NOTES FROM THE OFFICE

PAYMENT REMINDERS

If you currently owe money on your winter share account a payment reminder will be coming your way soon. You can either sign in and make that payment online, or bring cash/check to your stop this week.

BAKED GOODS FROM THE FARM

Ashley and her baking team at the farm have been busy concocting a number of seasonal recipes. There's no better way to celebrate winter than to dig in to this week's Maple Pie. Reminiscent of the traditional southern chess pie, its sweet gooey filling is balanced by a buttery whole wheat pie crust. We suggest you sprinkle coarse sea salt on each piece before serving to create a salted caramel-like effect. This pie is proudly made using only local ingredients and showcases the hard work and labor intensive process of collecting and boiling maple syrup every winter.

Baking pies for us is a two-step process: first, we blind-bake our pie crusts until barely golden brown. A great pro-tip for par baking crusts is to use any kind of dry bean, like a pinto bean for the blind-bake. Line your chilled pie crust with parchment paper and fill the crust to the top with dried beans. Bake at 325 F for about 15-20 minutes until bottom crust becomes slightly brown. Pull off the parchment paper along with all the beans. After the crust has cooled completely we add the custard filling. Then, bake again until the custard is set.

Another new product our bakery has piloted this winter is our Whole Wheat Crackers. Our crackers are made with only five locally sourced ingredients. We start with Stutzman's freshly ground hard whole wheat flour for a rich, buttery, almost nutty taste. The trick to getting these crackers so good and crispy is to roll them out thin! They are hand-rolled to about 1/16 of an inch, brushed with butter, and sprinkled with salt. Try them alongside a Charcuterie Board from Ohio City Provisions (call 216.465.2762 to reserve!)

Maple Chess Pie

Ingredients: Organic butter (cream, salt), organic cane sugar, Himalayan pink salt, pure local maple syrup, free-range eggs, organic heavy cream, apple cider vinegar, vanilla extract (vanilla, brown caramel, vanilla flavoring, purified water, alcohol 1%), local white pastry flour, hard whole wheat flour, leaf lard

Large pies (9" $15.00) and small pies (6" $7.00) available

Whole Wheat Crackers

Ingredients: Organic hard whole wheat flour, organic butter (cream, salt), Himalayan pink salt, organic cane sugar, coarse sea salt, water

8 oz of crackers for $4.00

Special Orders need to be placed & paid for in full by Tuesday at midnight to be delivered on this week's routes.

PLACE A SPECIAL ORDER

Our Grape Cider is back! Made with all locally grown concord grapes this seasonal product is only available for a limited time. You'll each be getting a quart in your bags.