This post was sponsored on behalf of The Seeker Wines via One2One Network. All opinions stated are my own.
The Farmer's Market on a Saturday morning, when it has just opened and there's still a cool breeze in the air, smells like a wonderful farm. I'm always hit by the smell of tomatoes, basil, and corn, when I enter the Park Blocks this time of year. And then the smells keep coming - fresh beeswax candles, sliced and dripping peaches, locally roasted coffee brewing, big skillets full of local pork and vegetables heating up, the sizzle and aroma of butchered meats on a grill, fresh bread waiting to be broken into. It's enough to make a girl that doesn't cook, want to cook.
This Saturday, we loaded our market basket up with the best things we could find: big Early Girl tomatoes, juicy and red, heads of fresh, leafy bunches of cilantro, sweet summer corn, sweet onions, Soppresata from a local charcuterie, a big sourdough loaf from a delicious bakery, and a giant bouquet of massive, sunset colored dahlias.
Saturday's dinner was an experiment in seeking to bring only the farm to the table (well... a dried bag of beans came into play, so there was some non-farm on the table) in a healthy dish that would pair well with a brand new bottle of summery white wine. We created a wonderful farm fresh salad to go with a new (to us) bottle of wine from The Seeker. We tried The Seeker's Sauvignon Blanc from New Zealand (though we have a Pinot Noir waiting in the wings for round two of this farm-to-table dinner spread) as the day was hot and hazy and Oregon covered in a hot, low-hanging smoke from many wildfires burning through the Northwest. The air quality was so bad that we were not supposed to go outside (a waste of a summer weekend), but it turned into the perfect day to have an adventure in our own home with a wine that shared a bit of our farm-to-table mission. The Seeker's winemakers are committed to sustainable vineyard practices, reducing waste, and turning that process into a daily adventure.
The Sauvignon Blanc was a very zesty, full-bodied wine (like you'd expect from New Zealand) and was a bright wine perfect for a summer table. It paired well with a bright and limey salad as it had lots of citrus notes and a juicy finish. For the lover of sweeter, bigger, and juicier wines, this is a perfect summer sip and would go wonderfully with a grilled fish and a porch view.
For our farm fresh salad recipe, read on:
You'll need
2 large, ripe tomatoes
3 ears of corn
2 cans (or 1 bag, soaked and cooked) of black beans
1 bunch of cilantro
1 sweet onion
2 limes
Salt, pepper, and hot sauce to taste
Roughly chop tomatoes and place in a large bowl. Slice corn off of the ear and boil for 2 minutes. Drain corn and add it to the tomatoes. Cook and prepare black beans (or use two cans of black beans) and add to the salad. Roughly chop 1 bunch of cilantro and add. Dice one sweet onion (soak first if it's not a sweet onion and is harsh) and add to salad. Juice two limes and add, along with salt, pepper, and hot sauce to taste.
Open a bottle of The Seeker Sauvignon Blanc and enjoy!
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