One of the things that should keep coming throughout the rapidly waning autumn and the chill of winter will be the heads of organic heirloom garlic from Anselmo’s Organic Farm, including a number of varieties I haven’t gotten to taste yet. This week though they had a big basket filled with Roggero Roc, a fairly rare hardneck of the Rocambole variety that may have originated in Washington State. It’s large brown skinned cloves are explosively hot when raw with loads of ‘garlic’ flavor, all of which mellows and sweetens dramatically when baked with a pleasant lingering flavor, - it’s in the oven as I type – making it perfect for roasted garlic spreads. Unfortunately, Rocamboles have the shortest storage life of any of the hardnecks, so I’ve got to enjoy it before it starts to sprout.
I didn’t expect to see any of the farmers who specialize in heirloom apples and pears in the Farmers’ Markets this weekend, so I was surprised to see the Jones Farm booth at the Capital Hill Market. The chalkboard only listed a few varieties of apples and a few pears, including the Conference so I stopped to buy a few. I have been eating Conference pears for about three seasons now, and I have never seen any russet on them, until today. As you can see from the image these medium-to-large Conference pears have loads of russeting, so I decided to post this picture for the purpose of full disclosure. These are by far the juiciest pears I’ve eaten all season. Even though they are slightly under-ripened, my hand has been dripping wet by the time I’ve finished one. They also have a very pronounced ‘pear’ flavor and grainy texture.
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