Most of my local food is gone now until the new harvests start, but I stockpiled a lot of berries last year so we're still enjoying local partridgeberries and cranberries from the freezer. Their sweeter companions, the blueberries, are long gone since we ate them up a lot quicker. You may have seen a recent post on cranberries with smoothie and milkshake recipes. Those are great ways to use tart berries because combining them with sweeter elements like yogurt or bananas will really mellow their flavour. You'll find too that recipes for cranberries work really well if you substitute partrideberries instead, so that opens up a lot of options if you're looking on search engines like the ones here where cranberry recipes are more common.
To share your berry ideas Root Cellars Rock has a forum where you can post recipes, cooking tips and tricks for using local foods.
Below are two very different recipes to enjoy what's left of last season's partridgeberries.
Partridgeberry Vinaigrette
This dressing is really nice on top of mixed greens, especially if paired with nuts or seeds and goats cheese. The colour is fantastic. If used on a coleslaw, this would make a colourful salad with a summertime-feel that you could eat throughout the winter.
1/2 cup thawed partridgeberries
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
3/4 cup olive oil
1 tablespoon honey (softened honey will blend better)
salt and pepper to taste
Blend berries, vinegar, oil and honey together. Add water and stir until you get the consistency you want. Taste the vinaigrette and add salt and pepper or more berries or honey to your taste.
For tips on creating a great vinaigrette from scratch with whatever you have on hand, check out this video from Mark Bittman.
Partridgeberries on Hot Cereal
This is such a nice breakfast on a cool morning. Make your favourite hot cereal according to the package's directions. Here I used Speerville's Organic 7-Grain Cereal. Top with some milk (dairy or non-dairy will work), a sprinkling of cinnamon and about 1/4 cup thawed partridgeberries. I find the partridgeberries I've got to be a bit over-tart so I also drizzled some maple syrup on top too.
A nice thing about hot cereal is that you can prepare it the night before and have it ready to microwave in the morning if you're like me and sleep until the last possible moment. I made the cereal the night before and also took out the frozen partridgeberries to let them thaw overnight. In the morning scoop the cereal into a microwave-safe bowl and top it with the same things as above. Microwave for about a minute, stopping it partway to stir. It's easy and will warm you right up to start the day.
