Fall may be my favorite season, but that doesn’t mean I don’t hoard the summer produce just as long as possible. Sweet summer corn in particular, and this year my favorite has been the white corn from Three Way Farm at the Del Ray Farmers Market.

Pancakes and kids are pretty much a sure thing, and the boy was eager to help me whisk together this quick and easy batter. It’s adapted from a classic puffy apple pancake recipe that I’ve always enjoyed, turned savory to serve as a side dish to our first maple-glazed pork chops and apples of the fall. (Oh yes, we went apple picking recently too, at the ecoganic-ish Crooked Run Orchard in Purcellville, Va. … they spray their apples (I’m unaware of any u-pick orchards in the region that don’t) but have a lengthy explanation of their practices on their website.) Anyway, corn and apples makes the perfect crossover pairing to mark the autumnal equinox, I’d say.

RECIPE: Puffy Sweet Corn Pancake
Adapted from Betty Crocker Puffy Oven Pancake

Ingredients:

• 1 cup corn kernels (from 2 ears of corn)
• 1 small yellow onion or spring onion, finely chopped
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 3/8 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
• 1/8 cup corn meal
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup milk
• fresh parsley to garnish

Instructions: Place butter in 9-inch pie pan and allow to melt while preheating oven to 400 degrees. Combine flour, corn meal and salt in one bowl. In a separate bowl, lightly beat the eggs and whisk in the milk. Add the flour mixture, stirring until just combined, then fold in corn and onion. Remove the pie pan from the oven and brush the butter around the pan, including the sides. Pour batter into pan and return to oven. Bake 25-30 minutes, until puffy and lightly browned. Remove from oven and run a knife around the edges to loosen the pancake. Place a large dinner plate over the pan and flip quickly. Garnish with parsley and enjoy! Makes 6 servings.

Note: If you’re in the area, Crooked Run will be making apple butter on the farm this weekend, Sept. 19 and 20. Elsewhere, visit pickyourown.org to locate an apple orchard near you. And if you have any favorite apple recipes, please share!

Farms of Origin:

• corn, Three Way Farm (VA)
• corn meal, Wye Mill (MD)
• milk & butter, South Mountain Creamery (MD)
• parsley & onions, Potomac Vegetable Farms CSA (VA)
• pork chops, Smith Meadows (VA)
• apples, Crooked Run Orchard (VA)

Shared with Real Food Wednesday — visit for round-up at Cheeseslave for more real food recipes and inspiration!

At the Alexandria Markets: We’ve returned to our Alexandria farmers markets after our recent travels, and witnessed that unequivocal sign of seasons changing from summer to fall in the peaches and tomatoes being nudged out by apples, pears, and early winter squash. Now I don’t know if there’s some sort of zucchini shortage in Northern Virginia, but we’ve received none from our CSA this year and I only spotted a few giant ones at the West End market. Has there been some sort of run on zucchini by crazed zucchini bread addicts? (By the way, if you haven’t been to West End lately, you’re missing out on some wonderful authentic Mexican tamales from Alma at Westmoreland Berry Farm.)

At any rate, we received word from our CSA that their tomatoes have begun to show signs of early blight (not the late blight you’ve heard so much about), so I set about to make sure we enjoyed the ones we got to the fullest. After our tomato jam experience (kudos to Jennifer for winning the food52 best preserves contest with her recipe!), the boy comes running to get his knife whenever he sees me dicing tomatoes. He even overcame his fear of the blender to help me make this super simple gazpacho. With all due to respect to José Andrés, who makes the best restaurant gazpacho in town, this recipe is even simpler with just six ingredients, tasting pretty much like, well, a pulverized tomato. Ironically the boy liked it even though he refuses to eat fresh tomatoes. Be sure to use good quality extra virgin olive oil — preferably from Spain, of course.

Recipe: Simple Tomato Gazpacho (kid-friendly instructions)

Ingredients:

• About 2 pounds very ripe tomatoes, diced
• 2 slices white/Italian bread, crusts removed and cubed
• 3 cloves garlic, peeled
• 2 tablespoons sherry or white balsamic vinegar
• 1/4 to 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
• generous pinch of sea salt

Instructions:

1. Using a kid-safe knife, assist child in cutting tomato and bread into pieces.

2. Place tomatoes, bread, garlic, vinegar, salt and 1/4 cup oil in blender. Cover and blend for 1 minute.

3. Add additional olive oil as needed, blending after each addition, to reach a smooth consistency. Chill for at least 30 minutes, then serve with an extra drizzle of oil to garnish. (Use basil oil for extra oomph.)

Bonus Foodie Tot Video! This was a totally unscripted, impromptu video shot by the husband so please disregard the messy counter and, uh, my lack of make-up. (And no, Seventh Generation did not provide compensation for the product placement, but clearly we should buy stock or something. ) Anyway, enjoy!

Foodie Tot cooks gazpacho from Colleen Levine on Vimeo.

We’re already more than a third of the way through our CSA season, and we’ve finally left the abundant leafy greens behind and moved on to the baby vegetable phase. Well, there were some full size sweet onions this week, but everything else seemed perfectly sized for the toddler — baby beets, baby yellow squash, baby potatoes (white and blue), and even a few small tomatoes. One of the things that surprised me our first year with our CSA farm was the lag in the bags behind what’s at the market. Something about quality over quantity, yada yada yada. (Seriously, the farm’s vine-ripened tomatoes are worth the wait, but some weeks can be a little frustrating.) Faced with a shortage of fridge supplies after a week away, the hodge podge of veggies, cheddar from our “emergency” stop at the Wednesday King Street Market for some of Mr. Tom’s cheese, and some random pieces of meat unearthed from the freezer, I came up with this summer veggie nacho supper.

Recipe: Mid-Summer Nachos with Squash and Tomatoes

Ingredients:

• 1/2 bag tortilla chips*
• 1/2 cup tomatillo salsa*
• assorted chicken pieces, diced
• 1 sausage, preferably chorizo but I had Italian
• 1 large or 2 small yellow squash, halved length-wise and sliced
• 1 tomato, diced
• 1 red onion, diced
• 1 cup cheddar cheese, shredded

Instructions: Heat oil in skillet over medium heat. Add chicken and crumbled sausage, cover with salsa and cook until meat is cooked through. Remove from heat. Meanwhile, spread tortilla chips on rimmed baking sheet. Sprinkle with half of the shredded cheese and arrange squash, tomato and onion over top. Spread meat over and sprinkle with remaining cheese. Place under broiler and cook 4-5 minutes, until cheese is melted and bubbly. Cool slightly and enjoy! Makes 4 servings.

*Chips and salsa from Las Glorias at the Crystal City/Crystal Farms Market.

One Local Summer is an annual challenge in which people around the world join together for 13 weeks of seasonal eating, supporting local farmers and exploring their local foodsheds. Visit FarmtoPhilly on Tuesdays for the weekly round-up; here’s what my neighbors in the Southern region cooked up this week.

We had a July 4th engagement party/barbecue to attend this year {congrats R & A!}, so the menu was out of our hands. The boy and I did make a cherry cobbler to take, though (recipe coming soon). And then we grilled Sunday night instead, a batch of Cheerwine-marinated spare ribs with eggplant and summer squash.

Cheerwine, for those who’ve never had it, is a cherry soda produced in North Carolina. We enjoyed routine deliveries while my little brother was stationed at Ft. Bragg, but have had it less frequently since he relocated.  While made outside the One Local Summer (OLS) 100ish-mile challenge border, we found it while stopping in a Food Lion on Virginia’s Northern Neck to stock up on another regional favorite, Northern Neck ginger ale. I don’t usually drink soda, let alone douse my dinner in high-fructose corn syrup*, but once a year or so we embrace our adopted Southern home and make Cheerwine ribs. This version used small pork spare ribs that were quickly grilled; lower and slower grilling will produce more tender ribs, but this was just fine for an easy meal to wrap up the long weekend. To up the health/OLS factor, we brushed the ribs with a fresh cherry glaze. I prefer a semi-tart cherry like Rainier or Queen Anne, but be warned that those produce a yellow sauce — so go with classic red cherries if you want that red color.

Recipe: Cheerwine Spare Ribs with Cherry Glaze

Ingredients:

Marinade:

• 1.5 lb. pork spare ribs
• sea salt
• pepper
• 2 garlic scapes, thinly sliced
• 1 can Cheerwine (or other cherry cola)

Glaze:

• 1 tablespoon grapeseed oil
• 1 spring onion, white portion, minced
• 1 cup cherries, pitted and halved
• 1/4 cup honey
• 2 tablespoons white balsamic vinegar

Ingredients: Season spare ribs with salt and pepper and place in shallow glass pan in a single layer. Sprinkle with scapes and pour Cheerwine over. Cover and let sit in refrigerator (turning if Cheerwine does not completely cover ribs) at least one hour, preferably half a day or longer. To make the glaze, put all ingredients in a small saucepan and bring to a simmer over medium low heat. Simmer on low until cherries are falling apart, about 20 minutes. Smash cherries with a fork or blend glaze in a food processor or blender until combined.

To cook the ribs, heat the grill to medium high. Reduce to medium and cook ribs for 3 minutes per side. Brush with cherry glaze and cook an additional minute per side. Serve with additional glaze (”cherry ketchup” for dipping if that appeals to your kids.) Serves 4. Enjoy!

Farms of Origin: Smith Meadows Farm (VA, spare ribs), Kuhn Orchard (PA, Queen Anne cherries), Potomac Vegetable Farms (VA, scapes, spring onion, zucchini), Three Way Farm (VA, eggplant, pattypan squash), VA honey. (*You can find glass-bottled Cheerwine made with the original cane sugar formula, but they’re even harder to come by this far north.)

This past week we got our first garlic scapes in our CSA bag. Garlic scapes are the curly bright green shoots of a young garlic plant, not to be confused with the “green garlic” stalks that soon follow. Last summer at a New York farmers market, I watched a farmer practically plead with a skeptical customer to give them a try. If you love garlic, you can’t go wrong — but if you’re expecting something mild like a chive, you’ll be in for a pungent surprise.

Garlic scapes are commonly used in pesto — a great way to store them for later use as the scape season is fairly brief. And I like to throw them whole on the grill for a little mellower flavor and perfect accompaniment to a grilled steak. This week we again had Cibola Farm’s buffalo meat, the meaty steaks rubbed with olive oil, smoked paprika, oregano, salt and pepper before grilling. We also had home-baked brioche, which is not exactly local as I don’t have local flour, but I’m taking partial credit here because the rich brioche dough got a boost of flavor from our local, cage-free farmers market eggs and butter. I haven’t had much time to bake lately but am looking forward to cooking up some cherry treats now that the first cherries have arrived at our local markets. We snacked on Emperor Francis cherries from Long Meadow Ecological Farm found at DC’s Eastern Market on Saturday.

We’ve also been snacking on some local goat cheeses from Firefly Farms and Spriggs Delight in Maryland. You can read more about them over on the cheese blog.

Recipe: Grilled Garlic Scapes

• 4 garlic scapes, rinsed
• 1 drizzle olive oil
• course salt and pepper

Instructions: Toss the scapes in olive oil till lightly coated. Place on hot grill over high heat and sear several minutes, until soft and grill marks appear. Remove from heat and season with salt and pepper. Serve along side your favorite grilled meat or fish. Enjoy!

One Local Summer is an annual challenge in which people around the world join together for 13 weeks of seasonal eating, supporting local farmers and exploring their local foodsheds. Visit FarmtoPhilly on Tuesdays for the weekly round-up; here’s what my neighbors in the Southern region cooked up this week.