Prosecco and Figs
Book launch for The Month of Their Ripening and a visit to Barbara Kingsolver's restaurant, Harvest Table
As August wanes, we have some catching up to do. Food Pilgrim has been preparing for the launch of The Month of Their Ripening: North Carolina Heritage Foods though the Year, now available from UNC Press. We’ll be at Malaprop’s Bookstore in Asheville at 4 pm on Saturday, September 1 and BookMarks Festival in Winston-Salem on the 8th with D. G. Martin for a live audience taping of “Bookwatch.” The Piedmont launch of the book is at 3 pm on Sunday, September 9th at McIntyre’s Books in Fearrington, near Pittsboro, NC. Please join us wherever you can. At McIntyre’s we’ll be serving prosecco laced with fig syrup and a windowpane fig slice that was frozen this season from the Celeste figs in my Carrboro garden.
Photo by Donna Campbell
Overall, it was an erratic summer for growing. First it was mercilessly dry in June, and I wondered if the little nubby figs would ever fill out. The deer destroyed the beautiful tomato plants in July, and then the rains came. The figs filled out fast in August, but as happens with cantaloupe, they were watery and not as intensely sweet. “Washed out,” as the farmers in my book would have put it.
So, we have cooked down the watery figs to intensify their flavor for immersion in the bubbly. The August chapter, by the way, is all about figs. September is about scuppernongs, so you will likely see these at other book events later in the month. How can you write a book about North Carolina foods and not come with some samples, right?
In other news, Donna Campbell and I visited novelist Barbara Kingsolver’s restaurant, aptly named Harvest Table. It is on the town square in Meadowview, Virginia, right off I-81 west, just before the Abingdon exit. With a gas-fired pizza oven and lots of local meats, the menu offers a range from simple family fare—burgers and pizza—to several more elegant dishes.
We tried the Sunburst trout filet, dusted with corn meal and pan fried, then placed atop a fresh bed of sunchokes and local wax beans. We also ordered a vegetarian dish of Carolina gold rice (SC) and Sea Island (GA) red peas which were nicely done with the addition of Italian squash, goat cheese, and pickled tomatoes. They were also offering a savory squash, blueberry, peach, and mint gazpacho. The dishes were all very fresh and understated, but we were sad to be the only patrons in the restaurant at the end of their day. The adjacent store, where Kingsolver sells signed copies of her books, also gives local craftspersons an outlet for their wares.
This enterprise is first-rate economic development in a gorgeous Blue Ridge valley, bringing 20,000 visitors yearly and supporting 200 local growers and artisans, the menu said. We bought some fish lure earrings and admired the folk art exhibition and the table arrangements of fresh pink gladiolas, black-eyed Susans, and Queen Anne’s lace. The restaurant, managed by Kingsolver’s husband, Steven Hopp, is now ten years old.
And finally, we were deeply saddened to hear of the total loss by fire of the Cypress Grill, discussed in a Food Pilgrim post back in January. The restaurant was, after all, a fragile wooden shack seasoned with years of boiling grease fumes and tottering on the banks of the Roanoke River in Jamesville. No word yet about plans to rebuild. Honestly, I will miss their meringue-topped pies more than the herring that they deep fried over a four-month window each year, January to April.