SpiceLines

That was the surprise at Sunday’s Farm to Fork Picnic at the Breeze Family Farm in Hurdle Mills, a few miles north of Hillsborough. Pickles were everywhere—and why not? The old-fashioned art of preserving is the megatrend of the moment, at least in foodie-land.

After a rave article in The New York Times, Eugenia Bone’s Well Preserved: Recipes and Techniques for Putting up Small Batches of Seasonal Foods surged to a sales ranking of #1630 (currently #1899) on Amazon. Business is brisk for classics like Janet Greene’s Putting Food By (#1626). New rubber gaskets for my French ARC Triomphe jars won’t be available till August, and just try to find canning tongs for lifting said jars from their boiling water bath.

What’s a girl to do? A good idea from Sunday’s picnic: freshly made pickles, doused in vinegar and flavorings of your choice.

Kevin Callaghan's Wood-Smoked Yukon Gold Potato Salad got some sass
from pickled fennel, cipollini onions and fresh basil.

I really liked Kevin Callaghan’s pickled fennel and cipollini onions—a sweet tart foil, not only for his Smoked Yukon Gold Potato Salad, but also for Acme’s slow-roasted pork shoulder that I make every year around July 4th. Then there were the gently Pickled Pamlico Shrimp in 18 Seaboard’s delicate Bok Choy, Tomato and Basil salad, Pickled Kohlrabi with Hog Head Cheese on Focaccia at Zely & Ritz; Andrea Reusing’s Pickled Green Tomatoes and Hakurei Turnips in the craft food tent; and Scratch Bakery’s Pickled Beets with Herb Salad on Whole Wheat Naan.

Easiest pickles? The refrigerator pickles (veggies from Teikei Farm) at Foster’s Market. “It’s so simple,” Sera said. “You don’t have to process them for canning. Just cut up your vegetables, pour in the vinegar, herbs from the garden and some spices, and stick them in the refrigerator. They’ll last for a couple of weeks.” I fell for the beets with garden mint and fresh ginger in balsamic and red wine vinegar. Most intriguing? Batons of yellow squash pickled with slices of lime and fresh basil.

Note to self: Remember when squash and zucchini run rampant this summer.

Was it my imagination or has some of the fizz gone out of the picnic? Maybe it was the sticky heat, the battalions of flies, or the abrasive parking and trash directives. Or maybe it was me, feeling a little lackluster after spending all day weeding, tying up tomatoes, and pruning boughs on the apple arch (yes, I know, poor timing) in my own garden.

But with around 70 farmers, chefs and food artisans strutting their stuff for 650 paying guests ($50 a ticket) on a model family farm, there was bound to be some good food and a few welcome surprises—if you knew where to look:.

Here’s my own short list of winners:

Prettiest Plate: Dutch Buffalo Farm’s Beet Salad with Carrots, Lambs quarters, Cabbage and Garlic Dill Vinaigrette. Strewn with blue borage blossoms. Brilliant color, fresh flavors. (Emily Lancaster and Farrell Moose also win best-looking couple award.)

Most Delicious Surprise Filling: Aaron Vandemark’s (Panciuto) Braised Rabbit Bierocks with Hot Sweet Chiogga Beet Jelly. Potato pocket rolls, sprinkled with coarse sea salt and stuffed with succulent braised rabbit raised by Brittany Kordick and Dan Shields (Contrarian Farm). “A lot of chefs would like to serve rabbit on a regular basis, but there’s the Bambi factor,” said Dan. The sublime pale pink beet jelly could win over the squeamish.

Best Hearth Baked Bread: Rob Segovia-Walsh (Chicken Bridge Bakery) has a bread CSA that delivers chewy, coarsely textured loaves that are baked in a wood fired hearth oven in his home near Pittsboro. Bread as it once was? Maybe better. I ate every crumb of the Foggy Ridge Rye (OK, one slice), a dense, naturally leavened rye bread made with hard apple cider.

Best Way to Cook Heritage Breed Chickens: Doug Brown (Fowl Attitude) has a flock of 250 heritage Buckeye chickens, an endangered breed with a touch of game bird in its DNA. “They work for their food,” says Brown. “The dark meat is very dark. You have to cook them slow.” The tender, stewed Chicken Tacos with Homemade Queso Fresco and Salsa Verde by Patrick Cowden (Weathervane) did the trick.

Most Spectacular Dessert Prep: Two guys shaving big blocks of crystalline ice with sturdy blades sprayed cooling shards of frost over the sweaty crowd waiting for The Lantern’s much anticipated Snoballs. Dark red, intensely berry-flavored syrup (from L’il Farm’s strawberries), poured over shaved ice in paper cones, topped with Honey Marshmellow Cream and a candied strawberry, were pure summer.

Most Coveted Back Door Lunch Invitation: Score two for the Lantern. I loved the Monterrey Style Cabrito (Fickle Creek Farm) prepared by the kitchen staff at our local Asian fave. Rich braised goat, paired with fiery pickled jalapenos and spring onions, was wrapped in handmade—hot from the grill—tortillas made from freshly ground Anson Mills' heritage corn. Curly pig’s tails, braised in ancho and guajillo chiles, were spicy and tender. This is the staff lunch? How about tomorrow, guys?

Handmade Pizzas I Want to Make on My Own Grill: Phoebe Lawless’s (Scratch Bakery) grilled Red Pontiac Potato with Garlic Scape Pesto was so good and garlicky that I snitched a second piece. Anson Mills whole wheat naan, slightly scorched from the grill, and the Kale, Pheta and Duck Egg Pizza were great. Recipes, please?