Our friends at The Market at Pepper Place in Birmingham couldn’t have said it better: “In an uncertain world, our farmers ground us in what is most important: Mother Earth, our daily bread, and each other.”
Pepper Place, Alabama’s biggest and most well-known farmers market, is continuing operation as a contactless drive-through market with pick-up options, as many markets across the country are doing right now. Our local markets have opened and are following social distancing guidelines and putting special protocols in place.
If you are able to get fresh strawberries this season, we have a simple recipe for my son Zach’s classic Strawberry Cobbler, reshared below from our Journal archives. Most of us have these basic ingredients on hand. Add fresh strawberries to make it spectacular.
STRAWBERRY COBBLER
4 cups fresh strawberries, peeled
½ cup unsalted butter
1 cup all-purpose flour
2 cups sugar
1 T baking powder
Pinch of salt
1 cup milk
1 T lemon juice
Ground cinnamon or nutmeg (optional)
Bring 1 cup sugar, strawberries, and lemon juice to a boil over high heat, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and add to preferred baking dish. Combine dry ingredients and remaining sugar in large mixing bowl and cut in butter. Add milk to make dough and roll out ½ inch thick. Place strips of dough on top of strawberry mixture and bake at 375 degrees for 35 to 45 minutes, until golden brown.
Serve warm with ice cream.
Shown here in Large Covered Serving Dish by Heath Ceramics. Though California is in a shelter in place order, you can still support our friends at Heath. They will be back and making and filling orders as soon as possible. Explore our Heath X Alabama Chanin dinner and servingware in our Cook + Dine collection.
P.S.: Our friend, Hannah Hayes, recently made an Old Fashioned Strawberry Cake from NYTimes Cooking. That set us in the mood for strawberries and this recipe share. Get your Smithey Cast Iron ready.
And our friends at Short Stack Editions have a book (among their 33 volumes) dedicated to the strawberry.