Farm-fresh meal
Serendipity (and an inexplicable police barricade of Sandy Ridge Road) led me to discover the J&S Country Store several months ago. You might remember J&S Farms and their organic produce from their space at the right rear of the retail building at the Triad Farmers Market in Colfax. Well, now they have their own small country store about a mile away at 2301 Sandy Ridge Rd. It’s a wonderful place to find quality organic produce—plus freshly baked goodies, since they share the space with an artisan bakery, SwedeBread.
I visited Saturday and came away with a nice assortment of produce, including several pints of what I mostly went for, organic blueberries. One of the fun things about summer farmers markets is buying what is fresh and in-season and then figuring out what to make with it. Here’s a picture of what resulted from my buying trip:
I made an eggplant, squash and tomato gratin; sauteed kale with white beans, red onion and veggie bacon; and baked sweet potatos with pecans and maple syrup. All the produce came from J&S, apart from the tomatoes and fresh herbs, which came from my own garden. The hearty, multigrain roll came from SwedeBread.
All in all, it was a bright, fresh, filling (and tasty, if I do say so myself) meal. So take this summer challenge: Next time you visit a farmers market, try going in without a meal plan and see what develops!
The phone number of the store is (336) 665-0350, and you can contact them at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address). They send out an e-mail weekly to let subscribers know what’s fresh in the store that week. (Just a note: The SwedeBread baker, Lena, is on vacation in Sweden, so there won’t be any fresh bread there for the next month. You can see her Web site here.)
