Summer Provisions Box
The days are long, hot, and humid. Dense leaves and the sounds of songbirds fill the tree canopies, while the shaded forest floor is covered with wildflowers, nettles, and chanterelle mushrooms. A wide variety of pole beans and ripe, colorful heirloom tomatoes fill the trellises in our garden. Summer is upon us at Lost Creek Farm.
It’s a bountiful – and extremely busy – season on the farm, and we’re honored to share a piece of it with you in our Farm & Forage Provisions Box! As with our spring Provisions Box, we’ve included items that mean a lot to us, our families, and our community. On this webpage, we’ve pulled together a few recipes, recommendations, and stories, so you can share our experience of summer at Lost Creek Farm.
hand-carved, hand-printed
Original Blockprint Notecards
For the summer collection, we’ve included some of Mike’s original, hand-printed blockprint notecards inspired by one of our barnyard pals. It seemed a fitting way to kick off the summer box, since most of our summer mornings begin with the sounds our vocal rooster, George, crowing away as the sun rises above the mountains.
for the “dog” days of summer
Hot Dog Chili Seasoning
There are places we look forward to visiting each summer, and atop that list are roadside hot-dog joints throughout north-central West Virginia. But you don’t have to leave home to experience the perfect West Virginia dog (classic toppings include chili, slaw, mustard, and onions). Within the Mountain State, there’s some regional debate about slaw’s place on a dog, but wherever you’re chowing down, chili is a unanimous must-have. Simply open the seasoning mix in your box and follow the included instructions. We’ll leave the contentious slaw decisions up to you!
FROM THE orchards
Classic WV Peach Butter
When the bounty of fresh summer peaches arrives in the mountains, we make some of our favorite seasonal dishes, from peach upside-down cake to savory salads with grilled peaches. We’re also likely to make old-fashioned peach butter to pair with toast, ice cream, biscuits, or the communion wafers we’ve included in this box. The peach butter can be added to seasonal cocktails, and makes a lovely vinaigrette for salads throughout the year.
Starting Snacks
Momaw Betty’s Communion Wafers
These crispy, savory crackers were made by Mike’s grandmother, Betty Williams in the basement kitchen of Emmanuel Baptist Church, where elders were known to break out into song as they cooked extensive meals and baked wafers for Sunday service. Though Mike didn’t attend church with his grandma, he snacked on plenty of these wafers, and we serve them frequently during our Farm & Forage Supper Club events.
VIDEO: Learn to make communion wafers at home!
VIDEO: Make fresh farmers cheese to pair with Momaw Betty’s Communion Wafers!
Pickled and preserved
Spicy Dill Pickles and Bread and Butter Pickles
Use these spice mixes to create some of our favorite summertime pickles. Simply grab a couple of quart jars, pick out your vegetables, and follow the instructions included in your box. While the recipes call for cucumbers, mix it up with other garden vegetables like zucchini, carrots, or celery.
FOR THE MAIN COURSE
Summer Skillet Frying Mix
In both of our families, summertime meals during our childhoods included a wide variety of fried chicken paired with fresh sides straight from the garden. Our own Summer Skillet Fry Mix works with poultry, fish, or the seasonal bounty of green tomatoes. See the recipe for buttermilk fried chicken on the back of the Summer Skillet Fry Mix package. We suggest drizzling your fried chicken with maple or sorghum syrup and serving with the spicy dill pickles you made with the spices in your box.
Something SWEET
Amy’s Brown Sugar Cookies
As our lead baker at Lost Creek Farm, Amy makes plenty of tasty treats throughout the year. We’re thrilled to share a few of them with you in our Farm & Forage Provisions boxes each season. Her classic chewy brown sugar cookies are go-to summer pairings with morning coffee, for late night bites, and as snacks while breaking from long days in the garden.
inspired by the forest
Foraging Basket Block Print
For the summer Farm & Forage Provisions box, we’re honoring a seasonal pastime, along with some of our favorite wild ingredients, with an original block print. The block for this print was carved several years ago, but with a prolific harvest of mushrooms and wild greens upon us, it seemed a good fit for this year’s summer box.