BourbonRedTurkey.com

Mmm, bourbon.

The deadline to order your high-quality birds for Turkey Day is fast approaching.  Most local farms need their counts in now-ish, so if you aren’t buying a Butterball, get your order in.   Some purveyors, like Griggstown Quail Farm, will even brine, truss and make your bird completely oven-ready for an additional fee or increased price per pound.  As the helpful woman on the phone put it, “All you have to do is open the oven.”

A few well-recommended sources for natural, free-range, organic, heritage or otherwise relaxed turkeys:

Griggstown Quail Farm:  All natural free-range turkey, $3.79/lb.  Oven-ready free-range, $5.49/lb.  Red Bourbon heirloom turkey, $7.99/lb; add $30 flat to make oven-ready.  Order online at griggstownquailfarm.com or by telephone, 908-359-5218,  by Wed., Nov. 18.  Pick up your turkey at the Headhouse Farmer’s Market, Second St. between South and Pine, Sun., Nov. 22 or Wed., Nov. 25, 10 a.m. – 4 p.m.

Hendricks Farms & Dairy: Free-range, Broad-Breasted White turkey, $3.50/lb; 12 lbs. to 26-plus lbs.  Order by emailing Trent@hendricksfarmsanddairy.com or by calling 267-382-0556; deadline is Thu., Nov. 19.  Pick up your turkey at their suburban location, just 45 minutes outside of Philadelphia, in Telford, PA at 202 Green Hill Road.

Mountain View Poultry Farm: Broad-Breasted White turkeys, pastured-raised without antibiotics, hormones or pesticides, $3.99/lb.  Order by telephone, 484-320-0045; deadline is Mon., Nov. 23.  Pick up at the Headhouse Farmer’s Market on Wed., Nov. 25 between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m.

foodandwine.com

Food & Wine just published a photo slideshow of Top Chef judge Tom Colicchio’s extended road trip from Georgia to Philly. (Porsche lent him a Panamera 4S for the sojourn — tough life!) You might’ve noticed a mention of Tom C (and the Porsche) in Brian Howard’s Nov. 5 piece on garlic guru Tom Culton — here’s corroboration. Other local stops for Colicchio — Samuels & Son seafood and Vetri, where he exchanged baldhead slick tips with our favorite Italian chef and dined on “impossibly thin, buttery pastas and tender baby goat [that] could hold their own against any I’ve had.”

Photo | James Saul

On a tip from Miss Rachel’s Pantry, we discovered that you can find homemade vegan donuts 20 minutes down the White Horse Pike (or a 15-minute walk from Lindenwold Speedline) in scenic South Jersey.

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Variously referred to as devil’s dung, Hing, food of the gods, stinking gum or giant fennel, asafoetida is a pungent spice that smells earthy and rank when raw, but adds a round, garlic and leek flavor to cooked dishes.  My gypsyish friend Kelly Anura brought the funky seasoning home after a trip to her husband’s native India, and showed it to me while cooking dinner the other day. The jar had been wrapped once in Saran and again in a plastic bag to prevent the serious stench from taking over the entire pantry.

Though intense in aroma, asafoetida is prized for its ability to add a savory, umami quality to vegetarian cuisine.  It is particularly prized by the Jains, who do not consume root vegetables, including garlic and onions.  Asafoetida, which reduces the quantity of indigenous microflora living in the human gut,  has also been used for centuries as a natural antiflatulent, and is often stirred into legume dishes or taken as a tea to that end.  A more important, non-culinary use of the resin is being explored now — Jim Dawson at LiveScience.com writes:

Scientists at the Kaohsiung Medial University in Taiwan have discovered that the roots of a plant used in 1918 to fight the Spanish influenza pandemic produces natural antiviral compounds that kill the swine flu virus, H1N1….In their tests of a group of chemical compounds contained in extracts from the plant, scientists Fang-Rong Chang and Yang-Chan Wu discovered that some of them where more potent in killing the H1N1 virus than a prescription antiviral drug.

The resiny gum of the Ferula assafoetida stem is the result of drying the plant’s sap; the prepared spice is a sold as a compounded asifoetida powder, blended with rice flour and gum arabic.  Sources abound on the Web for the compounded powder and liquid.

© Julia Koprak 2009

Though the lights were turned on for visitors, growing portobellas love shade and moisture. They can grow from a cremini (~1.5 inches) to a portobella (~5+ inches) in less than a week.

Philadelphia-based writer/photographer and Meal Ticket reader Julia Koprak shot her way across the Kennett Square Mushroom Festival a few weeks back, then came home to turn her haul of shiitakes, creminis, royal trumpets and maitakes (hen-of-the-woods) into a multi-course tasting for a few lucky friends.

“As for the mushroom festival itself,” writes Julia, “the highlight for me was definitely the farm tour, though I did have dreamy expectations of a wild mushroom hunt (I’ve heard morels grow like crazy in PA).”  Julia didn’t get her wild mushroom hunt, so she got her thrills serving untested recipes to guests.

© Julia Koprak 2009

A haul of tasteful fungus.

“On Friday I created a mushroom feast with my festival purchases …  A very informal affair, some friends all hung around my table sipping wine (I bribed them with a Chateauneuf du Pape), wiping and slicing mushrooms, and waiting for the next course to come out.  I had never made any of these dishes before, so I was happy with the turnout.”

Take a look at more of Julia Koprak’s Mushroom Festival and Feast photos, after the jump.

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Photo l Michael T. Regan

Vegans take Manhattan.

On November 3, Rich Landau and Kate Jacoby of Horizons (611 S. 7th St.) will become the first vegan chefs to work the hallowed line at the James Beard House in New York City.  The pair has fired off their tentative menu to JBH, which you can check out in all its cruelty-free glory after the jump.

Appetizers will be passed around at a 7 p.m. cocktail reception; the sit-down portion of the meal, complete with wine pairings for each of the five courses, begins at 8 p.m. Prices have not yet been posted for the event.   Call the Beard House at 212.627.2308 or 800.36BEARD for reservations.

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lobsterfrommaine.com

Posting in the next week will be a little lighter than usual, as this half of Meal Ticket is trucking it up to the great state of Maine for some much-needed R&R. But we’ve got some good stuff in the works to tide you over in the meantime. For now — anything that’s important for us to see/eat/drink up there? Let us know in the comments …

Photo via The Mushroom Festival

Lovely fungus

No, not those mushrooms, hippie.  This sort are grown by at Mother Earth Mushrooms in West Grove, PA.  Fair Food is partnering with the Mother Earthers to host a tour of the mushroom farm on Saturday, Sept. 12, discussing the challenges and benefits of growing fungus organically.

Guests will also be treated to a fresh and locally-sourced picnic and have a chance to explore the 24th annual Mushroom Festival in Kennett Square, PA.  Lovable Top Chef runner-up Carla Hall will be doing shroomy cooking demos at the fest, while kids bob for mushrooms and talented amateurs offer up their best bowls in the Soup Contest.

Contact Louisa Amsterdam at farmtours@fairfoodphilly for your reservation to the mushroom picnic, or call 215-386-5211 ex. 113.  Tour and picnic is $25 for adults and $12 for kids aged 6-13.

Graceful Gardens

Urban edibles by Grace Wicks

If you enjoy summer’s diversity of fresh, locally grown produce, now is the time to consider putting in your own cole crops. These members of the mustard (Brassicaceae) family will supply your autumn and winter kitchen with cold-tolerant edibles like broccoli, cauliflower, leeks, beets, brussel sprouts, spinach, arugula and red lettuce.

Cole crops do well when seeded directly into the soil, and most are as happy in containers as in the ground.  Greensgrow Farm is selling mixed six-packs of edible fall plants if you can’t be bothered to start from seed; make sure these tender little babies get some shade during the last hot weeks of summer.

Novice gardeners can hire professional coaching from Grace Wicks of Graceful Gardens, who teaches green thumb technique in addition to providing full landscaping services for urban dwellers.  Her specialty is organic, edible ornamentals — rainbow chard (pictured) is  used to add height and drama to a window box, but also offers a healthy snack.

You know the lady gardener has taste; she grew up during the heyday of mom Judy Wick’s landmark restaurant, The White Dog CafĂ©.

Nifty Fifty’s, a five-outlet, family-run chain that opened its doors in 1987, harkens to the era before giant corporate conglomerates took over the American fast-food market.

The flat, old-school burgers are ground and shaped in their own on-premises butcher shop. French fries are hand-cut; glasses of orange and grapefruit juice, as well as lemonade, are squeezed to order.  The generous milkshakes are made from homemade ice cream and served to you in a frosty mixing tin, but they are not health food. Wholesome is a better word to describe both eats and atmosphere.

Families with multiple children, giggling teenagers working out their new licenses and cops breaking for lunch populate Nifty’s Delaware County location, in Folsom, just off I-95. I grew up around the way, begging my mom to take me for a milkshake when I earned a quality report card.  We revisited our old favorites the other day — a Royal burger topped with an onion ring for her, chicken nuggets rolled in super-spicy “Pistol’s Pete’s” cayenne-heavy blend for me — and were pleased to find nothing changed.

The milkshakes, just as they were 20 years ago, are dreamy. Choose from the standard menu of shakes (Choc-Cherry, Strawberry, Double Bubble, Coconut) or the amped-up exotics (Peanut Chew, Fluffernutter Cheesecake, Mint Oreo Chocolate Chip, et al);  the results are thick enough to stand up a spoon. New York egg creams, ice cream sodas and floats (from the World’s Largest Soda Fountain, boasting more than 100 flavors), coffee-cup sundaes and pie a la mode round out the sweet selection.

Though tempted by the array of candy-enhanced shakes, I had to stick with my old standard: Black & White with fresh bananas, which still tastes like home. Adding authenticity to the retro vibe were the old-fashioned prices … lunch for two, including a burger, nuggets, fries, two iced teas and two milkshakes, was $23.

Nifty Fifty’s, five locations in PA and NJ, visit NiftyFiftys.com for more information and full menus.