table talk / By Stephanie Silvia

Strawberry Nirvana

Strawberry muffin baking was surely on the agenda, a staple we’d baked all last summer. To my immense satisfaction we came upon Kevin Cunningham’s stand. I had met Kevin at the Wild Chick Farm where he was assisting his friends, the Brunners, with their pasture-fed flock. It was then I learned that he was growing wheat right here in the county. Yes, I was finally going to buy some of his flour. Whoa! These muffins were going to be gloriously local.

After convening with Cunningham’s partner, Melanie Olstad, I bought a pound and a half of barley flour. She suggested the blueberry muffin recipe from The Joy of Cooking because it uses two eggs, which is needed since the barley flour lacks gluten. We went right home and took out our own berry muffin recipe, which has yogurt and honey in it and added an extra egg. I was near delirious when they came out of the oven. Scrumptious and über-local: the eggs, honey, strawberries, butter and flour all from Humboldt (the yogurt Nancy’s from Oregon). I substituted half the barley flour with whole wheat since I didn’t know how successful the new-to-me flour would be; that and the baking soda were the only ingredients from unknown locales.

The other day in Trinidad I was raving about using the barley flour in the strawberry muffins to Beachcomber owner/baker, Alice Vasterling. The locally dedicated establishment often has exclamatory signs on their baked goods made with local flour. Before I was done gushing she whipped out a bag of Shakeford Community Farms Whole Wheat Flour. My life is complete - my next batch will be even more local.

Strawberry Yogurt Wholegrain Muffins

4 Tbls butter
5 Tbls honey
1 cup plain yogurt
1 1/2 cups quartered strawberries
2 eggs
grated rind of 1 lemon and 1/4 cup of lemon juice optional
1 cup barley flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
Preheat the oven to 375. Grease 18 muffin pans (or use liners).
Melt butter and honey. Remove from heat and let cool.
Beat together yogurt, eggs, lemon rind and honey/butter mixture.
Sift dry ingredients together in another bowl. Fold in the yogurt mix and strawberries, just to blend.
Fill the prepared muffin pans 2/3rds full. Bake for 20-25 minutes, until the tops spring back.

Strawberry Shortcake

1 cup whole wheat flour, 1 cup all purpose flour
1/4 cup sugar
1 Tbls baking powder
pinch of salt
1 cup heavy cream
Preheat oven to 400. Lightly grease a baking sheet.
Sift the flour into a mixing bowl. Add sugar, baking powder and salt. Stir well.
Gradually add cream, tossing lightly with a fork until the mixture forms clumps.
Gather the clumps together. DO NOT KNEAD THE DOUGH. Shape the dough into a 6-inch log. Cut into 6 slices and place them on prepared baking sheet.
Bake around 15 minutes, until light golden brown. Place on a wire rack to cool.
Slice each cake in half before serving.
To make your friends and family to swoon, place one of these shortcakes in the bottom of a wide-mouthed wine glass and add a scoop of Humboldt Creamery organic vanilla ice cream, sliced strawberries and fresh whipped cream.

Your life, too, will be complete. Trust me on this one.

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