Mixed weather this weekend – beautiful today (Friday), some showers tomorrow, and cooler but sunny on Sunday. Not bad. Tonight is First Friday in Doylestown, so I think I see much sitting outside and sipping/nibbling going on around that town.

You can also swing over to Triumph Brewing in New Hope for their monthly barrel tapping, or fresh, gourmet vegetarian food at the new Sprig & Vine (also in Union Square, New Hope) or the Kindle Café in Lambertville. End the evening listening to Barbara Trent at the Centre Bridge Inn. And that’s just Friday night.

Considering the recent recall of Romaine lettuce in 23 states (including Pennsylvania) due to an e. coli scare, you might seriously consider stopping by one of the local Saturday morning farmers’ markets – Doylestown and Wrightstown - for salad greens. The New Hope Farmers’ Market just got going yesterday, so look for them on Thursday afternoons. What will you find at the markets? Beautiful flowers for mom, lettuce, early greens, radishes, rhubarb, starter herb and vegetable plants, and maybe even strawberries. Some of the markets will also have: pastured beef and chicken; cheeses and yogurt from pastured animals; pastured eggs; bread and baked goods; preserved products; handmade soaps and lotions; honey; organic, fair trade, locally roasted coffees; prepared foods, and fiber products. Make sure to read about all the Bucks farmers’ markets coming this season at our post published earlier this week.

Two famous firehouse and church suppers happening this weekend on Saturday: the Plumsteadville Fire Co.’s Original Family-Style Roast Beef Dinner (drive-thru also!) and the Old Goshenhoppen Reformed Church’s Ham and Roast Beef Dinner. I know the latter is not in Bucks, but it’s nearby and I know their oyster dinner in the fall is very famous. How bad could ham and roast beef be?

If you’re not making breakfast or dinner for your mother, there are plenty of places to go. See our previous post, or take her to any of the many firehouse breakfasts/brunchs/dinners taking place around the county on Sunday.

A peek at next weekend. A brand new farmers’ market opens in Warrington. Eat breakfast inside a covered bridge at Breakfast on the Bridge.

For more details, please go to our full calendar, Food Events in Bucks County. Also, please let us know of any food events going on in your neck of the woods. You can find Bucks County Taste on Facebook and Twitter too.

Have a sweet weekend!

Friday, May 7th:
Forecast – Sunny, 72°

• First Friday, Doylestown [evening]
• Barrel Tappings @ Triumph Brewing Co., New Hope [6-7 pm]
• Evening at the Vineyard @ Rose Bank Winery, Newtown [7-9 pm]
• Wine Tasting for Singles @ Crossing Vineyards and Winery, Washington Crossing [7-9 pm]
• Barbara Trent @ The Centre Bridge Inn, New Hope [7 - 11 pm]
• Kindle Cafe Supper Club @ Rojo’s Roastery, Lambertville [7:30 - 9 pm]
• All That Jazz – Jazz Night @ Crossing Vineyards and Winery, Washington Crossing [8-10 pm]

Saturday, May 8th:
Forecast – Thunderstorms, 76°

• Doylestown Farmers’ Market, Doylestown [7 am - 12 pm]
• Wrightstown Farmers’ Market, 2203 Second Street Pike, Wrightstown [9 am - 1 pm]
• Stockton Farmers’ Market, Stockton, NJ [9 am - 3 pm]
• Hoagie Sale @ Upper Gwynedd Fire Co., Upper Gwynedd [10 am-12 pm]
• Wine Tasting for Moms @ Crossing Vineyards, Washington Crossing [12-3 pm]
• Wine Tasting @ Phillips’ Fine Wines, Stockton [12 - 5 pm]
• Ham and Roast Beef Dinner @ Old Goshenhoppen Reformed Church, Woxall [3-6:30 pm]
• “Original” Family-Style Roast Beef Dinner @ Plumsteadville Fire Co., Plumsteadville [3-7:30 pm]

Sunday, May 9th:
Forecast – Sunny, 63°

• Breakfast Buffet @ Plumsteadville Fire Co., Plumsteadville [7 am - 12 pm]
• Mother’s Day Buffet Breakfast @ Hartsville Fire Co., Warrington 8 am-12 pm]
• Breakfast @ American Legion Post, Quakertown [8 am-12:30 pm]
• Breakfast Buffet @ Richland Twp Fire & Rescue, Quakertown [8 am-1 pm]
• Breakfast Buffet @ Silverdale Fire Company, Silverdale [8 am-1 pm]
• Saucon Valley Farmers’ Market, Hellertown [9 am - 1 pm]
• Mother’s Day Breakfast @ Graeme Park, Horsham [9 am-1 pm]
• Stockton Farmers’ Market, Stockton, NJ [10 am - 3 pm]
• Brunch @ New Hope-Ivyland Railroad, New Hope [11 am-4 pm]
• Mother’s Day Dinner Buffet @ Haycock Fire Co., Quakertown [12-5 pm]

Monday, May 10th:

• Flavor and Color! @ The Cooking Cottage, Sellersville [6:30-8:30 pm]
• Techniques of Cooking I: Grilling, Roasting, Searing Meats @ Carlow Cookery, Doylestown [7-9 pm]

Wednesday, May 12th:

• New York City Noshing Tour by The Cooking Cottage, Sellersville [8 am-7 pm]
• American Legion Meals on Wednesdays, Quakertown [11:30 am-9 pm]
• Complimentary Beer Tasting @ the Copper Leaf Grill, Buckingham [5-9 pm]

Thursday, May 13th:

• New Hope Farmers’ Market, New Hope [3:30-7 pm]
• Lobster Night @ The Centre Bridge Inn, New Hope [6-10 pm]

Look for Bucks County Taste on Facebook and Twitter!

Related posts:

1. Bucks Food Calendar: May 14, 2010
2. Bucks Food Calendar: April 16, 2010
3. Bucks Food Calendar: April 30, 2010

Forget that old saw about there being no such thing as a free lunch.

Each Wednesday at Centenary United Methodist Church in Lambertville, NJ, more than 100 people dine on a lunch provided by the church for anyone who wants to come.

Mike Gehrig, center, works at the Wednesday lunches.

The lunch is free, although some folks leave a voluntary donation.

The food comes from a variety of sources; service groups like the Kiwanis, Girl Scouts and Rotary take turns, as well as some local churches, and the Homestead Market in Lambertville provides lunch at least once each month. Centenary volunteers fill in all the gaps.

A recent lunch was hosted by Lewis Fisheries, whose family members currently can be seen in boats on the Delaware River, pulling in seasonal shad. (No shad was served at the lunch. You have to wait for Shad Fest for that.)

The lunch was the brainchild of Pastor Judith Gehrig, known to her parishioners as Pastor Judy. From the outset, she didn’t want it to be a lunch just for those in need.

“We had hoped it would be a very diverse turnout,” she said. “Our vision was always a community lunch where everyone could come.”

Launched more than a year ago, the lunch has become a draw for local as well as those from New Hope. Teachers, library workers, businesspeople and senior citizens all show up to check out the week’s display of food. There are always at least two kinds of soup, sandwich fixings, fruit salad, green salad, cookies and desserts, and steamer trays of hot entrees such as baked salmon, pasta, lasagna, sausage with peppers and onions, or chicken and rice.

The food isn’t fancy, but it’s hearty and filling.

After more than a year, with thousands of lunches served, there is no doubt the community lunch is a great success. “It really has worked out beyond our expectations,” said Pastor Judy.

Community Kitchen at
CENTENARY UNITED METHODIST CHURCH
108 N. Union St., Lambertville, NJ
609.397.2468
Hours: Wednesdays, 11:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m.
Cost: Free or voluntary donation

As I’ve learned more about food in Bucks County — and eaten more of it — I’ve become much more sensitive to what appears on my restaurant plate. Last August we were dining locally and steamed asparagus showed up as a side. Asparagus in August? I don’t know where it came from, but I do know it wasn’t nearby. (Asparagus likes spring weather, not the sweltering heat of a Pennsylvania August.) It was also thick with a tough skin. Hardly worth the trip it made from wherever. But even more surprising to me was the chef’s choice — asparagus, in August, when almost every other vegetable was growing within a 10-mile radius.

Connecting restaurants and farmers is harder than it seems. Chefs need quality, consistency and convenience. Bring me good stuff, when I can use it, and to my door. Farmers spend their days, well, farming and don’t have much time or gas money to run around to restaurants making small deliveries.

Despite these obstacles, more chefs are making the effort. In Bucks County, there at least three restaurants – Earl’s Bucks County in Lahaska, and The Down to Earth Café and newly-opened Maize Restaurant, both in Perkasie – that are focusing on locally-sourced food. On the other side of the river, in Lambertville, Hamilton’s Grill Room and Kindle Café both use local ingredients. I was intrigued. How were they doing it? What I discovered is that we are on the cusp, right here in the Delaware Valley, of a shift in thinking, practice and market demand. It’s been happening in other parts of the country – most notably California – but it’s just gaining momentum in Bucks County.

Ask most chefs why they want locally-sourced ingredients and they’ll tell you point blank it’s about quality and freshness – ultimately translating into better taste. “The food from out of state is, on average, coming 1,200 miles,” says Vincent Peterson, the chef and owner of Kindle Café, a vegetarian supper club and caterer in Lambertville. “It’s picked early so it will ripen on the road.” Buying local eliminates the transport time and extra handling. Ingredients are fresher, last longer and taste better. And, many local farmers are growing organic or nearly organic, a selling point with many customers.

Sourcing local also means chefs can be more hands on. “I can talk to the farmers,” says Maize chef Matt McPhelin, who likes to visit area farms to see how they grow, harvest and process the product. “They’ll show me what they have growing nice this season. Then I can plan the menu around that.”

What about the challenges of planning a menu around seasonal availability? Earl’s Bucks County, which recently re-birthed itself with a locally-focused menu, plans to change offerings to match the seasons. Maize, open just a short time, has already seen a dozen menu changes, depending on what McPhelin finds on his daily buying trips.

“It demands more creativity from me because I’m working with a limited palette,” Peterson says. “But it also makes my job easier because there are fewer choices.” As a diner, it means you may not find the same items every time you dine at a particular restaurant, but you will know it’s fresh.

Not to be diminished are the benefits that grow from supporting the local economy. “I like knowing that we’re helping local farms and that the money stays local,” says J. Ryman Maxwell, who opened The Down to Earth Café last September. Maxwell uses vegetables and fruit from two nearby farms, Blooming Glen Farm and Penn Vermont. McPhelin gets his meats from Hendricks (Telford), Blooming Glen Pork (Blooming Glen) and Bolton’s (Silverdale).

Maxwell has noticed that even in the short time his café has been open, farmers are coming to him, wanting to sell their goods and asking what products he’d like. Ultimately, this is how it should evolve, he says, with supply shaping itself to demand, and local producers putting themselves on firmer economic footing, knowing what their customers want and will buy. “I’m learning as I go, too,” he says, “I’m learning from the growers and they’re learning from us. The local farmer is realizing, I can branch out. There’s a market for this.”

How does the product get to the restaurant? Ah, therein lies the problem. Most of the chefs go and get it themselves. “It’s nice in theory,” Maxwell says, “but it’s a full-time job to work with all the different growers and farmers.” It takes a lot of coordination and time to meet with people and pick up orders daily or weekly.

Mike Azzara is very familiar with this problem. As manager of the seasonal Lawrenceville (NJ) Farmers Market and as a community outreach worker for the Northeast Organic Farming Association, he knew many farmers and chefs. And both would complain to him. The chefs wanted good-quality, local produce. The farmers wanted to get their goods to the restaurants. So, he decided to take things into his own hands.

In 2008, Azzara began Zone 7, a food distribution company. He picked up goods from 10 farms and delivered it to 15 restaurants, all in Central New Jersey. Last year, the operation grew to include 20 farms in New Jersey and Eastern Pennsylvania and 50 restaurants in Central and Northern New Jersey, putting $200,000 in the hands of local producers and high-quality, fresh goods into the hands of grateful chefs.

Azzara convened a gathering of his farmers and chefs in early February at Nomad Pizza in Hopewell to thank them and share his plans for the coming year. But they did most of the thanking. One after another praised Azzara for his efforts, and for creating Zone 7. As Ted Blew, a family farmer from Pittstown, NJ, put it, “Growing is easy. Putting up a farm stand in front is the next step. But going beyond to restaurants is very hard. It’s expensive. You need a distributor to make it happen. This was the missing link.”

The final “link” is perhaps the most important – the restaurant patron. These chefs and farmers are pioneers, in a way, but ultimately they won’t be successful unless customers buy and enjoy their products, and demand more local goods from the other restaurants and markets. I really should have said something when that asparagus showed up on my plate, but I wimped out. Now, however, I ask more questions, and praise the restaurant when they tell me the food is locally sourced. I guess it’s not enough to simply eat and be merry. If we care about our food, and our local economy, we need to eat and be active.

Look for Bucks County Taste on Facebook and Twitter!

Related posts:

1. September farm-to-table dinners
2. Earl’s Bucks County goes local
3. CSAs: It’s like having your own farm

Just in time for the holidays, and with plenty of Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s recipes, local cookbook authors Melissa Hamilton and Christopher Hirsheimer have produced the second volume in their series of homestyle gourmet cookbooks.

While Volume 1 in the Canal House Cooking series focused on the pair’s favorite summer recipes, Volume 2 is filled with drinks, dishes and anecdotes for fall and holiday meats, beverages, side dishes and desserts.

Hamilton shares her mother’s French cookie recipes, while Hirsheimer offers her mother’s recipe for lamb cooked in red wine. Some offerings are classic cuisine while others are as homespun as a reminder that the recipe on the Ocean Spray cranberry bag is a very flavorful option.

This book, like the first one, is very personal for the pair of former restaurant food editors, who, through their business Canal House in Lambertville, create cookbooks for other chefs.

Hamilton and Hirsheimer will sign their books from noon – 2 pm Sunday, November 22 at Hamilton’s Grill Room in Lambertville (it’s all in the family) and from 2-4 pm Sunday, December 13 at Farley’s Book Store in New Hope. The book also can be purchased at amazon.com and at the Canal House Web site.

Cranberry Port Gelée
Makes about 2 cups

Use a good port or red wine or even a Madeira if that’s what you have on hand. Cranberries have so much natural pectin that this sauce will set up even if you don’t refrigerate it.

INGREDIENTS
1 cup port
1 cup sugar
1 tablespoon juniper berries
10 black peppercorns
4 cups or 1 bag fresh cranberries

HOW TO

1. Put the port, sugar, juniper berries and peppercorns into a heavy saucepan and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Add the cranberries and return to a boil. Reduce the heat to low and simmer until the cranberries burst and are very soft, about 10 minutes more.
2. Strain the sauce into a bowl through a fine-mesh sieve, pushing the solids through the screen with a rubber spatula. Transfer to a pretty serving bowl. Cover and refrigerate.

Related posts:

1. Canal House Cooking
2. Bucks Food Calendar: May 7, 2010
3. Cross-River Eating

by guest blogger Elisabeth Villarroel

If you are looking for authentic Mexican cuisine, Buho is the place for you. This little restaurant, tucked away on a small alley in Lambertville, has a menu filled with delicious Mexican delights.
  
I heard about Buho from my parents, who have been raving about it for months. My dad, I should mention, was born in Mexico City, so when he says, “This is the best Mexican food in the area,” it carries some weight. When they invited my husband and I for dinner on a recent Saturday night, we were eagerly looking forward to homestyle Mexican cooking.

Buho is BYOB, but conveniently located across the street from a liquor store. It was 5pm and the single room dining area was empty – but not for long. We had reservations and the hostess/waitress greeted us like family, giving us our choice of the 20 or so tables, many of which were marked reserved (by the time we left nearly all the tables were full). The room was warmly decorated, painted yellow and adorned with owl figurines (“buho” means owl in Spanish). She quickly brought over menus, water, chips, and three different homemade salsas varying in color, flavor, and heat, all very good.

The menu was almost overwhelming in its variety — everything from a long list of traditional Mexican dishes, like Mole Poblano and Tampiqueña, and mouth-watering appetizers, like Queso Fundido, to American favorites like Fajitas and Quesadillas.

Buho's Carne Asada

I decided to get Carne Asada, a dish of thin strips of grilled marinated beef. Being a standard at many Mexican restaurants, I knew I could use it as a good comparison. Because I have a number of food allergies, I always start my order with the list of foods I can’t have and ask if what I plan to order will be ok. The waitress had a thorough knowledge of the menu and because everything used in their foods is made on the premises, she was able to tell me the ingredients in my order down to the oils used, which is a level of detail I don’t often find readily available. My husband ordered Tampiqueña, a steak, pounded flat, covered in cheese and sauce, and served with two cheese enchiladas and rajas (fried chiles and onions). This was also a popular item that could be used as benchmark.
 
The appetizers arrived quickly. Our waitress recommended the house special, Nachos con Chorizo. These are not your typical nachos. A generous portion of chips, chorizo, rajas, lettuce, and tomato was covered in a variety of Mexican cheeses; no ground beef or cheese whiz here. As we worked on the nachos our waitress shared that Buho opened in January 2008. The owner/chef Jessica Hernandez, an El Salvadorian, shares cooking duties with one other chef, which ensures that the quality is consistent and always authentic.

Buho's Tampiquena

On to the main courses. The Carne Asada met and exceeded my expectations. The steak was tender and topped with rajas. The dish came with yellow rice, refried beans, and a small salad of lettuce, cucumbers and tomato, which also were delicious, and when I wanted more rice, it arrived quickly and at no charge. My husband’s Tampiqueña, also served with yellow rice and refried beans, was excellent and among the best he has had.
 
The dessert list was tempting, with traditional delicacies such as Flan and Tres Leches cake, but I had no room left. Next time I’ll try to have better control when the basket of chips comes!
 
Buho
13 Klines Court
Lambertville, NJ 08530
609-397-6767

But there is so much fun stuff going on this weekend that I simply had to write about it. I only wish we were well enough to go to some of the events! And the weather promises to be sunny and cool. Details on any of these events can be found at our online calendar, Food Events in Bucks County.

Vegetarian delight. What are you doing tonight? Check out the Kindle Café’s Supper Club. Delaware Valley newcomer Chef/Owner Vincent Peterson has started a weekly gourmet vegetarian dinner in Lambertville every Friday night at Rojo’s Roastery. We haven’t gotten there yet but the menus look delicious. Using local produce and products for a prix fixe $25 dinner, BYOB.

Apples, apples, apples.  There are two festivals celebrating apples this weekend in Bucks County. The Riegelsville Community Fire Company — the same folks who put on such a great breakfast once a month — will be hosting the Apple Fest in Riegelsville on Saturday, November 7th from 10 am to 3 pm. Peddler’s Village in Lahaska also has a fun weekend planned for their 38th Annual Apple Festival, featuring local apple orchards, antique cider press demonstrations, authentic apple butter production, a variety of apple treats from apple dumplings to apple fritters, and apple pie eating contests. Festivities begin at 10 am and go until 6 pm.

What’s for breakfast…and dinner? From Hartsville (Warminster), to Plumsteadville, to Upper Black Eddy and Silverdale, you’ve got your choice of hot breakfasts at various firehouses and a grange this weekend. Yum. And for dinner, there’s a host (no pun intended) of church suppers in Chalfont, Pleasant Valley and Warrington. See our calendar for details.

Farmers markets still open! Doylestown Farmers’ Market and Wrightstown Farmers’ Market are still going on Saturday mornings through the weekend before Thanksgiving, as is the New Hope Farmers’ Market on Thursday afternoons up until November 19th. Also, the Saucon Valley Farmers’ Market in Hellertown stays open on Sundays through November 22nd. Stock up on vegetables for the winter and for your Thanksgiving meal. Also coming…an indoor farmers’ market in Stockton, set to open Thanksgiving weekend. Stay tuned for more details.

Related posts:

1. A winter weekend in Bucks
2. Cool Jazz, Strawberries and Even a Pig Roast
3. Reprise: Rain, Rain Go Away…In Time For The Weekend

Alert to any backyard farmers currently overrun with tomatoes, zucchinis and squashes. Carousel Gardens, on Route 413/Durham Road just north of Newtown, is accepting any fresh produce and passing it on to Philabundance, the Delaware Valley food bank. Donations are accepted all day Friday (8 am to 6 pm) and Saturday mornings (8 am to noon). This continues until the last weekend in September. For more information, call Carousel Gardens at 215.598.0202 or see Philabundance’s Web site. (Non-perishables accepted too.) 

On both sides of the river you can get some good firehouse food this weekend. Friday night is Rib Night at the Union Fire Co. #1 on 230 North Main Street in Lambertville from 6 to 9:30 pm. Yum. Up in Ottsville, the volunteer fire company is having a Summer BBQ and Beer Bash Saturday evening from 6 to 10 pm (249 Durham Road). And Sunday morning, check out breakfast at the Haycock Fire Company, 850 Old Bethlehem Road, in Haycock, near Lake Nockamixon.

Speaking of breakfast, and peaches, Solly’s Farm Market will try again this Sunday to hold their famous Peach Pancake Breakfast. Eating commences at 9 am, going till noon, weather permitting. A Peach pancake breakfast will cost you $7 per person. Solly’s is at 707 Almshouse Road in Ivyland (near Richboro).

If it’s not too late, see if you can go to the Quakertown Rotary Clam Bake on Saturday in Springtown from 3 to 7 pm. A great menu for a great price (see our Food Events in Bucks County calendar for details). Also in the Quakertown area, the Bucks County Jazz and Wine Festival is taking place at McCoole’s Arts & Events Place at Main and Broad Streets in Quakertown.

Finally, yet another reason to eat ice cream. Local ice cream maker, Uncle Dave’s, is having a festival at Shady Brook Farm on Sunday from noon to 4 pm. You can always eat ice cream. Even if it’s raining. Cheer you up. Really.

Get details on any of these events at our Food Events in Bucks County calendar. Have a wonderful weekend.

Related posts:

1. Reprise: Rain, Rain Go Away…In Time For The Weekend
2. Cool Jazz, Strawberries and Even a Pig Roast
3. A winter weekend in Bucks

As partners in a business that transforms chefs’ cookbook dreams into reality, it’s good to share a common vision. It’s also good to like the same kinds of food.

Shared tastes and a love of the culinary world prompted local food experts Melissa Hamilton and Christopher Hirsheimer to step beyond their role of crafting other people’s books and create one of their own.

Christopher Hirsheimer, left, and Melissa Hamilton in their Lambertville loft studio

Volume one of Canal House Cooking was published this month, the first in a series of softcover cookbooks that focus on seasonal cooking.  In the book the two moms, who live in Hunterdon and Bucks counties, share the summertime recipes they make at home.

The 80 recipes in the book focus on foods in season and feature summertime fare such as tomatoes, plums and zucchini. Every course is covered, from seasonally appropriate mixed drinks to dessert.

The two authors are former magazine food editors with credentials that include years spent at Saveur and Metropolitan Home. Christopher has collaborated on four other cookbooks, including three for Saveur.

Melissa is well known in local culinary circles for co-founding Hamilton’s Grill Room in Lambertville with her father, Jim Hamilton.

Canal House Cooking costs $19.95, or $49.95 for an annual subscription of three books and can be ordered through the website thecanalhouse.com.

Next will be a book on fall and holiday cooking, then a winter/spring edition. In addition to the website, books are available at amazon.com, Farley’s Bookstore in New Hope, Pa., and the Hamilton’s Grill Room. The books will also be sold at other private bookstores in the U.S. and through Anthropologie stores.

This recipe from the book is a great way to enjoy the fresh local tomatoes just coming into season:

Roasted Tomatoes Studded with Garlic

serves 4

INGREDIENTS

½ cup diced pancetta
6 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for the pasta
2 anchovy fillets
1 cup coarse fresh bread crumbs
4 tomatoes, tops sliced off, seeds scooped out
2 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
small handful fresh thyme, parsley, or basil leaves, chopped
salt and pepper
½ pound spaghetti

HOW TO

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
2. Fry the pancetta in a skillet over medium heat until browned and crisp around the edges. Use a slotted spatula to lift the pancetta out of the skillet to a plate. Leave the rendered fat in the skillet.
3. Add 2 tablespoons of the olive oil and the anchovies to the same skillet. Use a wooden spoon to mash the anchovies until they dissolve. Add the bread crumbs and cook, stirring often, until they are golden.
4. Put the tomatoes, cut side up, in a baking dish and slip some garlic into each tomato. Mound some bread crumbs into each tomato and scatter pancetta and herbs on top. Season with salt and pepper and drizzle the remaining 4 tablespoons of oil over all.
5. Roast the tomatoes in the oven until they have browned a bit and the interior is supple but the tomatoes haven’t collapsed, 1–1½ hours.
6. Cook the spaghetti in a large pot of boiling salted water. Drain.
7. Return the pasta to the pot and stir in some olive oil and some of the oily tomato juices from the bottom of the tomato roasting dish.
8. Serve the spaghetti with the roasted tomatoes and their juices spooned on top.

Related posts:

1. Canal House Cooking for the winter
2. Thanksgiving: Been there, done that

The other way I know summer is really here is that I’ve noticed the number of calendar events has decreased – or maybe I’m not working hard enough to find them. Either way, it’s a sign that things are slowing down.

But there are still some interesting things going on. This week, from Tuesday, July 21st through Sunday, July 26th, SEE, a Lambertville-based community organization, is sponsoring the Local Harvest Restaurant Week in Lambertville and New Hope. The purpose of the event is to raise awareness about sustainability – in our society, environment and economy (SEE) – while eating great local food!

With cooperation from local restaurants, farms, food producers, and Zone 7  (a local foods distribution business), SEE is bringing the best of the region’s local harvest to local restaurant tables. If you eat at one of the participating restaurants, you’ll be able to enjoy dishes specially prepared for the event using the finest local ingredients. Check out SEE’s website for more information about their mission, more details about the restaurant week, and a list of participating restaurants (which includes practically all of the good ones in Lambertville).

And I’ve got a “Save The Date” for your calendars. The Heritage Conservancy is hosting a Farm-to-Table Dinner on Saturday, August 1st. I’ll give you more details as we get closer but the catering will be done by Soup to Nuts Caterers and Earl’s Restaurant in Peddler’s Village, which recently changed its menu and concept to focus on local, farm-fresh ingredients. Price will be $45 per person, with proceeds benefiting the Heritage Conservancy, a land conservation organization here in Bucks County. It will be held at the historic Lindsay Farm in Warminster.

Here’s the run-down for the weekend. Check out our online calendar, Food Events in Bucks County for more details on any of the events below. Have a sweet, cool weekend.

Friday, July 17th:

• Linden Hill Farmers’ Market, 3:30 – 7:30 pm, Ottsville.
• Wine Concert Series @ Shady Brook Farm,  7 – 9 pm, Yardley. Weather permitting. Free admission. Jerry Watkins is the musical entertainment.
• Outdoor Summer Music Series @ Crossing Vineyards and Winery, 7 – 10 pm, Washington Crossing. Eric Mintel Quartet is the musical entertainment.
• Wine Tasting for Singles @ Crossing Vineyards and Winery, 7 – 9 pm, Washington Crossing.

Saturday, July 18th:

• Doylestown Farmers’ Market,  7 am – Noon, Doylestown.
• Indian Valley Farmers’ Market, 8:30 am – 12:30 pm, Telford.
• Plumsteadville Grange Farm Market, 9 am – 12 pm, Route 611 just north of Stump Road, Plumsteadville.
• Wrightstown Farmers’ Market, 9 am – 1 pm, Wrightstown. 

Sunday, July 19th:

• Breakfast @ Riegelsville Fire Company, 8 am – 12:30 pm, Riegelsville.
• Saucon Valley Farmers’ Market, 9 am – 1 pm, Hellertown.
• Hunterdon Land Trust Farmers’ Market, 9 am – 1 pm, Flemington.
• Sunday Funday: Butterfly Festival @ Shady Brook Farm, 12 – 4 pm, Yardley.
• Open Hearth Cooking Demonstration, 1 – 4 pm, Pennsbury Manor, Morrisville.
• Sangria Sundays @ Chaddsford Winery, 1 – 4 pm, Lahaska.

Related posts:

1. Marathons, Music and Markets
2. Welcome Linden Hill Farmers' Market
3. A cool, crisp November weekend

Related posts:

1. Getting local food on the local table