It’s harvest time in New England. Peaches, apples, raspberries, corn and pumpkins are all waiting for you. To get the freshest possible, you can either pick your own or go to a farmers’ market. But before that, come to the library and check out some cookbooks with recipes for those great fall dishes, succotash and apple pie.

The New England cookbook: 350 recipes from town and country, land and sea, hearth and home, by Brooke Dojny, is a good place to start.
Or try New England Soup Factory Cookbook: More than 100 recipes from the nation’s best purveyor of fine soup, by Marjorie Drucker and Clara Silverstein; or “Hometown Cooking in New England: From Stews and Chowders to Cobblers and Pies,” edited by Sandra Taylor.
For the kids, Up, Up, Up! It’s Apple-picking Time, by Jody Fickes Shapiro, or Apples, Apples, Apples by Nancy Elizabeth Wallace will excite them to get to those orchards. Both books are similarly illustrated with cut-outs and describe a day of picking apples, along with recipes. The Shapiro book also has a helpful chart of five apple varieties telling whether they are good for eating or cooking, or are sweet, tart or crisp.

To find places to pick apples, peaches, raspberries or other fruits and vegetables, there are two excellent websites. Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources has links for strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, vegetables, flowers, apples, peaches, pumpkins and farm stands. Within those links you can choose a county. The farms and farmers’ markets are then listed in alphabetical order with directions, hours, phone numbers and/or website addresses. The site also lists culinary events and farm festivals.

The second site, PickYourOwn.org lists farms all over the country and has more information than the government site. It has instructions on how to freeze corn and peaches, how to can tomatoes, how to make ice cream and pickles, and where to find corn mazes.

Categories: Library News
Tags: autumn, display, fall, harvest, pick your own