Peas and New Potatoes ... and MFK Fisher

She writes so beautifully ... that, and her approach toward the fresh and local foods around her are her legacy. Enough said.

“ Once on Long Island I saw jewel-like tiny potatoes lying in a newly plowed field, in late August, and I pulled off my shoes and plunged out into the soft sandy dust and culled enough for a fine lunch. A car slowed down on the road, and I thought it might be the workers back from a break, or the police, but there was a great laugh and it drove on. Later I learned that I had embarrassed my hosts (who enjoyed the nut-like little culls before they felt any qualms). But the next August came an air-mailed box of ‘more of the same’, and I have always wondered how and when other people got knee-deep dirty to pick them for me, out in that elegant banlieue.”

- M.F.K. Fisher from With Bold Knife and Fork

No elegant banlieue here on our dirt road  ... just a small garden plot giving up its first green jewels and brown-burnished taters. This is a small garden ritual that we go through each summer ... SB calls in from the back yard, 'Peas and new potatoes tonight!' I give an Olive Oyl hoot and rattle the bowls for shucking the peas and soaking the dirt off the new little taters.

Later, the potatoes will be boiled gently just until they are tender.The peas will be blanched in the same water and when they are bright green and still a bit crunchy, I will drain everything and toss them with butter and plenty of black pepper... and we will feast. MFK would like that.

peas and new potatoes, creamed chard, and roasted lemon chicken