Eat First

New at Dinosaur Bar-B-Que Syracuse: A weekly North Carolina-style Pig Pickin’

Photos courtesy of Dinosaur Bar-B-Que

“Pig in, Pig Out,’’ reads the neon sign in the window at the Dinosaur Bar-B-Que in downtown Syracuse.

It can be taken several ways: “Pig out,’’ as in eat in excess until you can’t move/eat another bite. Or, “Pig out,’’ as in bring your appetite and feast on a whole pig, smoked for 10 hours and served OUTDOORS, with an array of sides/trimmings.

A North Carolina-Style Pig Pickin,’ they call it. Gatherings like this, sometimes called a pig roast, pig roll or pig bake, are common in the South. The Dinosaur is hosting one every Thursday this summer, in the area behind the restaurant known as The Boneyard.

Here’s how it works, according to my friend Bob Baker, public relations and social media manager for the Dinosaur: The pig is rubbed with Dinosaur Cajun Foreplay (a spice rub), injected with an apple brine, “mopped” throughout cooking with a vinegar-based sauce and smoked to the point of falling off the bone – 10 to 11 hours. The pig is dressed and displayed, belly-side down, with a traditional apple or pepper in its mouth. The meat is then pulled off the pig. Mix/dip it in Dinosaur barbecue sauce, or savor it in its natural, smoky state.

The first pig pickin’ at the Syracuse Dinosaur was held Thursday, June 20. It featured an 80-pound, grass-fed pig from Lucki 7 Farms in Rodman (Jefferson County), to feed a crowd of about 50.

Pay $15 for a token. The Boneyard has plenty of picnic tables and its own bar.

A one-time-through buffet gets you: pulled pork; sweet 'n' sour slaw; BBQ beans; Brunswick Stew; North Carolina sauce and/or Dinosaur Sensuous Slathering Sauce; house-cured pickles; pickled onions; rolls and Southern-style sweet tea.

“One-time-through buffet’’ means just what is says, so pile that plate. Refills of sweet tea are on the house. The bar has your favorite adult beverages.

The Pig Pickins’ will be held each Thursday this summer, from 6 to 8 p.m., or until the pig is gone. A different band is scheduled to play each week, from 6 to 9 p.m. This week’s band is Novak-Nanni-Dorgan.

More information: Dinosaur Bar-B-Que, 246 W. Willow St., Syracuse, 315-476-4937.

You’re invited to a U-Pick Strawberry Party at Cobblestone Valley Farm

Strawberry season in Central New York is short and sweet – a harbinger of summer. That’s why we’ve got to make the most of it.

On Sunday (June 30^th), Farmshed CNY, in collaboration with Slow Food CNY, will host a U-Pick Strawberry Party at Cobblestone Valley Farm in Preble – one of the few organic strawberry growers in Central New York. Hours are 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. and the public is invited to attend.

Besides scrumptious organic strawberries for the picking, more than a dozen local vendors will be on-site, offering their goods. Vendors signed up so far include Two Spruce Farm (organic produce), Main Street Farms (aquaponic greens), Critz Farms (Harvest Moon hard ciders; maple syrups.); Alambria Springs Farm (brick-oven baked farmhouse breads – some of the best sourdough loaves I’ve ever tasted); Kriemheld Dairy (grassfed, farmstead butter) and others.

LoFo (Armory Square) will be whipping up smoothies and Cafe Kubal will keep the crowd caffeinated. Admission is free, strawberries will be weighed and sold by the pound and vendors will accept cash only for food, produce and beverage offerings.

Wear smart shoes for picking – the terrain at Cobblestone Valley is a little rocky, in parts. And leave the family dog(s) at home; they tend to squash the strawberries -- and we wouldn’t want that to happen.

Taking advantage of sunshine and 80-degree weather on Friday, the longest day of the year and the official start of summer, I drove down to Cobblestone Valley to pick a couple quarts of strawberries.

I arrived mid-morning to find about two dozen other people in the field, hunting for and picking red, ripe Earliglow strawberries, the first strawberries to ripen.

Picking strawberries requires a lot of bending, stooping and squatting – and you have to separate the leaves and look deep in the plant foliage to find them. But it is so worth the work.

Picking your own berries is also less expensive than buying them already picked: Cobblestone Valley charges $2.70 per pound for U-pick berries, which amounts to about $3.60 a quart. I paid $7.95 for the two generous quarts of berries I picked. Containers are available for sale or you can bring your own containers, plastic bowls or colander with you.

Can’t make it to the Farmshed CNY U-Pick Strawberry Party? Cobblestone Valley’s U-pick fields are open at 8 a.m. daily during strawberry season but hours depend on the weather and growing-field conditions. Preble is about a 30-mile drive from Syracuse. It’s best to call ahead or visit the website for conditions and hours before making the drive.

See you there on Sunday!  

Gardening for food in Syracuse: Thinking inside and outside the box

This relentless mist and rain is not good for Taste of Syracuse, Greek Fest and other outdoor activities in Central New York this week.

But it IS good for our garden in a box – which has started to resemble a big, leafy, green salad in a box.

So far, knock wood, the neighborhood deer and resident woodchuck are not snacking on all the green goodness behind our house.

But I enjoyed my first salad from it last night. Besides tasting incredibly fresh, there is something very satisfying about eating food you have grown yourself, outside your door. It’s the ultimate in eating healthful and local.

Since I first posted about our attempts to grow some food in a small city space, we have added pole beans, three pots of green bell peppers and two containers of basil.

In addition to Swiss chard, a variety of salad greens, spearmint and more basil, the garden box contains contains one Super Sweet cherry tomato plant, which promises to bear clusters of tiny tomatoes until frost.

Robert, consumed by the gardening bug after building the box, cleared a small spot on the east side of the house, where he has planted zucchini, two varieties of tomatoes and eggplant.

This year, if he chooses to make grilled ratatouille and can it for enjoyment all winter, he won’t have to rely entirely on produce from the Regional Market.

We’ll keep you posted on how our little Syracuse gardens are growing.

Eat First projects: DIY almond butter

I love almonds. Raw, slivered, dry roasted and salted, dry roasted and dusted with sugar and cocoa powder, oily Marcona almonds and – let’s not forget those addicting sugar- and-spice-coated New York Almonds, sold at fairs and festivals around Central New York.

A one-ounce serving (about 22 almonds) is rich in protein, dietary fiber, vitamins (especially Vitamin E) and minerals, like manganese, potassium, calcium, iron, magnesium, zinc and selenium.

I also love almond butter.  It’s a tasty and healthful alternative to traditional peanut butter. Once you try it, you might not go back to that old childhood stand-by – except for the sticker shock at the grocery store. A 16-ounce jar of almond butter costs $10 to $11 – and considerably more for organic almond butter.

The price tag prompted me to make my own almond butter this past weekend. It couldn’t be easier.

The first thing you need is about 3 cups of almonds – one pound, or a little more. You can use raw almonds or toast them, as I did, on a rimmed baking sheet, in a 375-degree oven, for 8 to 10 minutes or until light brown. Your nose will tell you when they’re ready.

Transfer the almonds to a bowl or another baking sheet and let them cool for about 10 minutes. Then transfer the almonds to a food processor fitted with a bowl and blade.

The processor will be running, on and off, for roughly 12 minutes. Turn off the machine and scrape down the sides of the bowl every three minutes.

The almonds will go through several stages:

Gritty and sandy.

Gloppy and clumpy.

And finally – smooth and creamy. At this point, add a pinch or two of sea salt and blend the butter to combine.

Transfer the almond butter to a couple small storage containers or canning jars. Over time, the butter will stiffen. Place in microwave oven and reheat gently on low setting for a few seconds to loosen it up again. Stir.

You know how to serve it! (Almond butter on multi-grain bread, with a bit of honey)

All told, this Saturday project cost roughly $7 in almonds and 45 minutes in kitchen time.

I probably won’t make my own almond butter all the time, but I’ll definitely make it some of the time.

Buy local nut butters: Don’t want to make your own almond and other nut butters? Give Once Again nut butters a try. The employee-owned company, based in Nunda (Livingston County), makes several varieties of natural nut and seed butters, including peanut, almond, cashew and sunflower. Look for Once Again products at the Syracuse Real Food Co-Op and some Wegmans stores.