This week’s recipe is Chestnut and Pear Soup, but that’s not what I have for you today. Instead, I’m going to tell you about a recipe the gang did earlier this month, a roast chicken with an unusual twist. I’ll also tell you a bit about what I was getting up to instead of sourcing chestnuts and making soup.
Hurry-Up-and-Wait Roast Chicken is cooked for about an hour on high heat, starting on one side and then flipped to the other mid-roast. I used carrots, potatoes, and a few cloves of garlic to prop up my bird and stuffed it with half an apple and half an onion. Along with a cup of white wine (courtesy of the Doristas who attended IFBC), there was about two cups of jus, even it was boiled and thickened a bit, while the bird was resting (on an angle) under a foil tent. This method makes for a tender, juicy bird and no leftovers. The vegetables were cooked perfectly, too. It was a perfect one pot meal.
Now for the reason I’m not going to be tackling this week’s recipe until Sunday. Post-harvest season has traditionally been a little lacklustre for some of the agricultural vendors of the Fraser Valley. So, the farmers have gotten creative. This Wednesday, my mother and I headed over to Krause Berry Farms for their customer appreciation night. It included bakery samples and wine tastings and a first look at this year’s Christmas food and craft offerings. Each year it seems the Krause family expands their retail complex, allowing the farm to offer their produce in new ways. Now, you can enjoy meals, cooking classes, wine tastings, and more throughout the summer, fall, and holiday seasons. It’s a survival strategy in a market with a narrow margin, but it’s also enriching the cultural landscape out in the Valley.
The next day, we visited Campbell’s Gold Honey Farm to pick out (and taste) some honey wines for upcoming holiday meals. They’re taking part in the Abbotsford Circle Farm Tour‘s Passport to Christmas, which offers substantial prize draws to visitors of six or more of the farms on the list. It’s a great way to promote off-season visits to farm retail outlets and allows for some great early Christmas shopping, too. I’ll be back to visit some more of the participants before Christmas, for sure.
I admire the way that farmers are finding ways to survive in this economic climate, while making the Valley a much more interesting place than I remember it being when I was growing up there. I also like the opportunity to see where all the local food I’m touting comes from. It’s grounding in the most literal of senses.
You can find many other blogged descriptions of this FFWD recipe here: Hurry-Up-and-Wait Roast Chicken
One Wet Foot 
Love the chicken and I loved reading about what you’ve been up to instead of making soup (so much more interesting). Those cookies in the top picture? Adorable 🙂
I know – so cute! I’d love to get some strawberry-shaped cookie cutters and try to make something similar.
Your chicken looks delicious, Teresa. I think we all liked how this delicious bird turned out after all the flips and flops that were necessary to make it happen. I’m glad you tried it. I wish you had put up more pictures of your delightful adventures into the country although I am going to follow your links. Andrea (The Kitchen Lioness) often takes us on her European adventures and I have learned so much from reading her Posts.) So, I enjoy when you do that also – taking us into your neighborhoods and such. Would you tell me about the cookies shown in your photograph. I know they are a berry filling but they are absolutely beautiful. I liked the chestnut soup — chestnuts had just never been a part of my Life. Not a midwestern thing. I think you are getting into the holiday spirit – since it snowed last night and the ski slopes open today, I have no choice. The holidays are just around the corner.
Thanks, Mary. I’m going to be posting a couple of more picture-heavy posts this month about things happening around Vancouver. (Though my photography doesn’t begin to match Andrea’s.) Hope you’re enjoying the snowy, holiday weather! It’s finally starting to get cold here, too.
What a great post! I’m glad you enjoyed your chicken. I think you made the right trade off. Your visits look and sound like so much fun! Those cookies are adorable, but the places you visited sound really remarkable. I’m glad you shared your adventure with us!
Thanks so much! I really enjoy showing off my region. I love reading about the places all the Doristas live, too.
Such a fun post, Teresa! Your chicken looks wonderful and I’m sure delicious! Soup…no Soup…I think you made the right choice! Looks like a fun adventure!
Thanks, Kathy – we had a lot of fun!
The chicken looks good, but your farm tour adventure with your mother looks even better. Isn’t exciting when farmers come up with fun new ways to get people in touch with the source of their food? I know it thrills me as a visitor. Thanks for sharing your excursion. I would trade one of those cookies for the chestnut soup any day, and I enjoyed the soup.
I love what’s happening in the Valley these days. From your posts, it seems like your region is getting similar benefits from farmers expanding their offerings. It’s a positive story amongst all the pressures on farmland from development.
The appreciation event sounds like a great way to spend an evening. I agree – much better than making soup 🙂
It’s true – though I have some chestnuts and I’m going to make the soup some time this month. It sounds great!