Larrea likes peach jam for its texture and strawberry jam because “it is always a classic.” She also continues her grandmother’s and mother’s baking tradition with summer fruit desserts like peach raspberry crisp and blueberry buckle. Larrea uses her grandmother’s buckle recipe but has added her own touches — a bit of applesauce in the cake batter to increase the moistness of the cake, and a triple dose of the streusel.
Or, Corsino will tell a customer to cook that flank steak the way his mother did. “She would brown it and put it in her [spaghetti] sauce,” he says. “The acid from the tomatoes help to break down and tenderize the meat.”
Like other food producers and growers, the Smyths introduce new products to the regulars who stop by their tents, but they know that some items require consumer education. Trinity Farms’ fresh milk (including chocolate and coffee flavors), plain and fruit-flavored yogurt, butter and cream are familiar products.
A cut like flank steak has little marbling, the veins of fat that lend flavor and keep the meat moist. A flank steak benefits from marinating and grilling just to rare or medium, he says.
“Very health-conscious people know about it,” he says. To the uninitiated, he describes his kefir as a “pourable yogurt with 10 live cultures. People don’t drink it straight. They either add fruit or put it in a blender with fruit and ice and make a smoothie.”
Ideally, that is the charcoal you’d use to grill the Bronzini Himono (a whole sea bass brined, then partly dried in the sun) and Bone-In Ribeye with Wasabi Sour Cream. A bit intimidating? Lump or even regular briquettes will do just fine.