With the sun resting high in the simmering August sky, it is peak season at McCarren Park’s Greenmarket and fruits and vegetables are at their ripest.
Most Greenmarket shoppers look to buy tomatoes and apricots they can use later that night, but Williamsburg pickler Bob McClure is urging locavores, or those who eat locally, to consider preserving some of this produce for consumption when they are out of season through canning.
McClure recently led a workshop devoted to the art of canning, where they cured cucumbers following his famous McClure’s Pickles recipe. Using vegetables purchased from the Greenmarket earlier that morning, McClure showed a rapt audience how to pickle Kirby cucumbers, fresh garlic and wild dill, all from the S & S.O. Produce Farm in Goshen, NY.
“The dill that S & S.O has is wild dill fronds,” McClure said. “What I think is so great about the tops of the dill weed is the subtlety in the flavor is much more present because of the pollen which is carried on the flower tops of the dill. If you were buying conventional dill, you’re not going to have the same type of flavor.”
McClure often shops at the Greenmarkets in the city for ingredients for his briny vegetables, particularly carrots, tomatoes, tomatillos, onions, cabbage and beets. Cabbage and tomatoes are expected to come to the market in mid to late August, while tomatillos, red and white onions, green herbs such as cilantro, basil and parsley, and of course, cucumbers, are available now.
“The market is great because the vegetables are fleeting and seasonal,” McClure said. “We can only get this dill during the summer time. A customer who eats a jar of pickles or relish in the summertime versus the wintertime is going to notice a difference.”
The workshop attracted a large walk-up crowd who peppered McClure with questions about the brine and vinegar he was using to what foods to pair spicy pickles or relish with.
“It was a really good demonstration,” said Jessica Douglas, manager of the McCarren Greenmarket. “Bob has a lot of skills for answering questions and talking his way through a demo. People came back to us this week and said they had pickled things.”
For the record, McClure says that his pickles and relishes go not just with sandwiches and barbecued meats but also with goat cheese, crackers and even strawberry jam.
“Commercial relishes tend to be a sweet relish,” McClure said. “We don’t make a sweet relish. We don’t add any sugar. [Commercial relishes] also add potassium sorbate or sodium benzoate or yellow number five. We don’t add any preservatives to it. You’re going to taste a difference in the entirety of that product.
While McClure does not make jams or jellies, he was particularly enthusiastic about the peaches, apricots and sugarplums available at Red Jacket and Suka-Di Farms in upstate New York, as well as strawberries and wild berries before they are sold out. Mellons, such as cantaloupe, musk mellon, and watermelon should also be arriving in mid-August at the market.
For McClure, pickling ingredients in season is the key to keeping his products fresh, natural, and surprising.
“We’re committed to that artisan process, that things are going to change, that produce is going to change,” McClure said. “We are not dictated by buying a commercial standard, rather dictated by what farmer has to offer and the seasonality of time.
McClure will be hosting upcoming workshops at the Greenmarket (located at the corner of Lorimer Street and Bedford and Nassau avenues) on August 9, featuring Brent Young of Diner, and August 16 with the chef of Lokal who will lead a fish cooking demonstration. They are held at 10 a.m. For more information, visit http://www.cenyc.org/greenmarket or call 212-788-7476. For more information on McClure’s Pickles, including locations in Brooklyn to buy their products, go to www.mcclurespickles.com.
