The times they are a changing

Hello everyone!!

Where the heck did the summer go?   Soon the kiddies will be back in school, my staff will start abandoning me to pursue their higher education  and our hours will be shortened.  With all of my staff heading back to school after the long weekend, we'll be on a skeleton crew at the market. 

As of Tuesday, September 6th, Crampton's Market will be open.
Monday to Friday 9-7
Saturday and Sunday 9-6

The last day of the 2011 will be Saturday, October 8th.  The only thing that would shorten our season is many feet of snow and very low temperatures.  But we all know that we'll have a beautiful warm fall, so no worries there. 

The last day of Sam and Ira's ice cream shop will be Sunday, September 4th!  You have one more week to enjoy the ice cream treats out of there!!

Lots of news to report.
The local corn, cucumbers, FIELD TOMATOES, peppers, potatoes, beans, broccoli, cauliflower, zucchini, eggplant, onions, storage garlic, melons, fall strawberries, apples,  etc etc etc are all in full swing.  Our store is packed to the rafters with local goodies.  What a great time of year. 

Some of the herbs will soon be done for the season, time to start drying and freezing herbs for winter use.
Delicate herbs such as dill and basil take very well to freezing.  Just clean your dill or basil (remove stems from basil), place 2 cups of herbs in a blender with  a  half cup of water.  Blend until mixed.  Pour into ice cube trays.  Freeze.  Pop out the cubes, store them in a reusable freezer safe container and you are set for the winter.  The water keeps the oils in the dill and basil from dissipating and keep the herbs from turning black in your freezer.

If you use lots of tomatoes throughout the winter, now is the time to chuck bags of them into your freezer for winter use.  When you need to use them, just run your rock hard frozen tomato under warm running water, the skin will just slip off and you can pop the whole thing into your soups, stews etc.  Making sauce?  Just let your skinned tomato thaw for a few hours in a colander in the sink.  The water will fall away from the tomato and you won't have to cook your sauce down for hours.  So simple!

Take Care!
Erin
Crampton's Market





We are currently taking orders for end of season baking.  Lots of our customers like to have our baked goodies in their freezers to remind them of summer all winter long.  We will be taking end of season baking orders from now until September 12 th.  You have to come into the store to place the orders as we need payment in advance and need to book a pick up date.  End of season orders will be booked for pick up between September 19th and 30th.  We are too short staffed during our last week at the store to take on any extra bakery orders during that week.