Gooseberry jam

As promised, I experimented with the gooseberries I got at the Roundup Saturday Market. Yum!

Cooked gooseberries do not taste anything like raw ones. The added sugar improves them quite a bit. The cooked jam has something of a plum-like taste, with a tart/sour nuance that is very pleasant.

Christa Phillips, who gave me the recipe, was a bit vague: simmer gooseberries with brown sugar, add vanilla extract or bean, or cinnamon, and serve. She recommended a crockpot but said a pan on low heat and watched very carefully would work, too.

My version of what Christa told me follows.

To prepare the gooseberries, pull off stem and flower end. (The berry on the top is ready to go.) This process is tedious, so settle down with a good TV show or a contemplative view of the garden.

Gooseberry Jam

gooseberries

brown sugar

vanilla or cinnamon

For every cup of berries (stems and flower ends removed), use 2/3 cup brown sugar and 1/2 teaspoon vanilla or 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon.

Put berries and sugar in a crockpot or a noncorrosive pan.

You'll have to do your own experiment with the crockpot, but in the pan, over lowest heat on my stove, I simmered the berries and sugar together for 2 hours. After 1 hour, I gently mashed the berries with a fork. Other than mashing the berries, I left the pan alone. [Note: If you are making a tart, take the pan off the stove after an hour and don't mash the berries.]

Take pan off heat (or turn off crockpot), let cool, and then stir in vanilla or cinnamon. The jam will thicken as it cools.

Put in a jar and keep in the refrigerator.

1 cup berries makes about 1/2 cup jam.

In the German fashion, Christa eats this jam on bread that has been covered first with sour cream. She also suggested using it in a tart with layers of: shortbread crust, vanilla pudding or custard, gooseberry jam, and whipped cream.

I tried it on an English muffin I bought at the Billings farmers market, and I can say my attitude toward gooseberries has improved considerably.

Billings, Roundup markets

The drive to Roundup was flat and tree-lined. It's definitely cow country, but a different sort than elsewhere in the state. Roundup itself is a pleasant, nondescript town, but when I saw the sign proclaiming "Flea Market" pointing toward my destination, my heart dropped.

But that goes to show that you never know what you'll find. Peggy Jones, who runs the market, says she prefers to call it a "Saturday Market" rather than a farmers market so that anyone can join in and sell things.

Their one produce vendor wasn't there today because the vegetables are behind schedule. But I did find cookies, herbs, and gooseberries. Unfortunately, I'm not terribly fond of gooseberries. The ripe ones taste just like the unripe ones, in my opinion.

I took a few photos and began driving out of town. But then I stopped and turned around. This was the only time I've seen 50 pounds of gooseberries for sale, and I thought there must be some sort of story to get out of it.

Sure enough, Christa was eager to share her recipe (more on that after I've made it . . .) and talk about how to enjoy gooseberries. She likes eating them right off the bush, but since her recipe makes a sort of jam, she also enjoys them on toast (first slathered with sour cream; it's a German thing, Christa explained) and in a tart that includes a layer of vanilla pudding and whipped cream.

After she poured about 1 pound of berries into a bag for me, I asked how much I owed her. "Oh, nothing," came the reply. And that, friends, is what it's like to visit a small-town farmers market.

On to Billings. I visited the Billings Farmers market last fall, but since it was on the way home from Roundup, I stopped in again today.

Billings is the big city in these parts; the biggest in the state, in fact, with just over 98,700 people living there. So of course the farmers market is big, covering about 5 blocks with every sort of food you can imagine.

I like it because I get to eat eggrolls! You can buy whole Asian meals to go, or tamales, or just a cupcake. You can also buy lots of vegetables, from Hutterites, from children, from women who like to dig in their back yards. You can listen to classical music or original pieces played rhythmically on overturned buckets. You can rent a small red wagon from the West High Majorettes so you can enjoy a carefree stroll, pulling your precious possessions behind you. The gals will even help you carry things to your car if you ask them.

It's a fine market to spend a morning in.

The following are a few photos I took.

And by the way, my last stop was at the cupcakes. I said I wanted to try each of the four flavors (vanilla, chocolate, pumpkin, and strawberry), and Carmelita said she'd give me two of each for the same price. She had sold many during the day, but as it neared noon she just wanted to get rid of the rest. And that is what you might experience even at bigger markets here in Montana.

Billings Farmers Market

Downtown, under the Skypoint

June 18 - October 3

Saturday, 8:30 am - noon

In August (5th - 26th)

Wednesday, 4:30 - 8 pm

Roundup Saturday Market

Busy Bee parking lot

May 23 - September 26

Saturday, 9 am - 1 pm

Kountry Korner Cafe

On the way back from Big Sky last night, my friend and I stopped at an old-timey cafe called Kountry Korner.

You wouldn't think to look at its simple exterior, but it has some really great food inside. Being too busy eating, I didn't take a photo of my chef's salad. It was mostly chopped toppings (tomatoes, eggs, ham, 2 kinds of cheese, and I forget what all), with the minimal lettuce foundation being a wonderfully up-to-date mixture of many exotic salad greens.

The cafe has been in the area for years, and the friendly waitress made sure I saw all the interior highlights, including an old stove used as part of the salad bar and a very old bar located in a large dining area in back.

When I exclaimed over the cute menu covers, hand-colored by children, the waitress explained that they encourage young customers to color in a seasonal picture, and the results are inserted into the menus. Before I knew what was happening, she had whipped out some crayons for me and away I went. I think I even stayed in the lines.

Kountry Korner Cafe

Four Corners

81820 Gallatin Road

Bozeman