I am not a locavore, but I find great delight and comfort in knowing where my food has come from. This week, I found Rainbow carrots, kale, garlic,and Delicata squash at the farmer's market. Honestly, I bought the carrots only because I thought they were beautiful. I have a bushel of carrots at home, but these were so extraordinary looking that I couldn't pass them up. Now, with Thanksgiving looming, I wish I had bought more. They are not sweet, in fact, they have an earthy, almost bitter quality. However, the kale, frost-kissed, is remarkably sweet and tender.
Finally, it's Mutsu season, so a trip to Cold Spring Orchard was in order. Cold Spring is a research facility of UMass Amherst and it is located in what is certainly one of the most beautiful sites in the Valley. They grow over one hundred varieties of apple including Goldrush, an apple I've never tried, but which is said to keep exceptionally well, retaining its crisp texture and developing its flavor over time. The Mutsu, developed in the Mutsu province of Japan, is a cross between the Golden Delicious and the Japanese Indo apples and it's one of my favorites. It's incredibly crisp, with a sweet-tart flavor. I've no pie-baking scheduled, but I think I could be persuaded to make the irresistibly toothsome Nigella Lawson Ginger-Jam Bread and Butter Pudding I made a few years ago.
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