Setting the Table: Vol. 21
Strawberries, Garlic Scapes & a freebie for you guys
Every Thursday, I'm setting the table for your weekend…a little collection of reads, recipes, fun things, and whatever else caught my eye this week. It's the moment before the chaos when you get to decide what kind of experience you want. NOT a to-do list…just really sweet possibilities.
I got to the market last Saturday morning, super early, with my tote bag and came home with a coffee stain on my dress…I was clumsily trying to balance my coffee while loading my bag, full to the brim and overflowing into my other hand, and that’s basically the whole spring summed up. Messica at her best.
Since April, I’ve actually managed to make it down to the greenmarket each weekend, scooping up the firsts of the season and looking ahead at what’s to come. This Spring season went by beautifully: ramps and asparagus for weeks, and now a good long run of strawberries, garlic scapes curling at the tip, and then cherries appearing out of nowhere with their hand-lettered signs, and rhubarb making one last dramatic run at everything. I bought more than I could reasonably use, and I managed to use it anyway. This is the spring I finally paid attention all the way through, and I want to do something with that feeling before it gives way to summer next week.
I was finally able to give my fridge the overhaul I’d been putting off for six months, and if you want to know how that went down, that reckoning is here. The short version: the fridge was lying to me about what was actually in it, I was lying to myself about my intentions, and we both got honest with each other. I went to the market after that with a fridge I actually wanted to fill and had a system to do it.
Like the Spring Equinox box back in March, I wanted to catch the transition…the perfect window when one season is ending and the next is beginning, and they find themselves briefly, perfectly in sync. Late spring produce and first summer arrivals were made to last a little longer than the market week they came from…and put into jars before the window closed.
Pre-orders are finally open for the next Summer Solstice Pantry Box! Four beautiful small-batch jars chock full of the best of spring and summer. I hope you try it out for yourself. Like last time, limited to only 15. The spring box sold out in 24-hours, just saying:)
Yes, it’s local NYC pickup again…and YET, this box will have a BONUS southern tour. Next weekend, Yas and I are flying south: family pool time in Blythewood and then a few days in Charleston, eating our way through the city. If you’re in Charlotte, NC or SC and want a box, drop me a note.
The summer solstice is this Sunday…the longest day of the year…and I think that deserves a jar of something. Now, let’s set the table for the weekend…
THE GRAZING PLATE
(quick bites, short reads, things to nibble on)
Becky Krystal on Boiling Water for Service Journalism from Joy of Cooking
The hosts review Joy’s soup chapter and keep ending up on the same question: what does “boiling” actually mean, and why does it matter? Then their guest, Becky Krystal from the Washington Post, comes back around to the same question. The distinction between a boil & a simmer is not nothing. The basics are unsexy and also completely load-bearing.Stop Looking for the “Right” Way to Show Up from Grey & Gold
Bryn writes about quitting the search for borrowed clarity: the right framework, the right voice, the right formula, and what it costs to keep waiting for someone else to hand you the map. She makes the case that self-trust gets built by doing the thing before you have permission to, not by accumulating enough information to feel ready. You figure it out by doing it, not by waiting until you’ve figured it out.
THE UTENSILS
(tools, recipes or things that help you do the work)
The Price of Strawberries
Still riding high from this past Sunday’s essay & the 28-Kitchen tool I launched for you guys…and bc I’m feeling fun & fresh, I decided to make it free for the rest of June!
This piece highlighted the real economics of eating well…grocery store register math, the wellness industry’s costly lies, and the nervous system regulation magic of a $4 pot of lentils. I launched the 28-Day Kitchen companion for the actual work of cooking, wherever you might be in your cycle, week after week.
I’ve heard GREAT things from those of you who have used it…so much so, that I wanted to share it out for free through the end of June. Come try it, tell me what you think, and if it’s useful to you, consider becoming a paid subscriber when June ends (I’ll keep updating it throughout the year with new, seasonal recipes!).
The 28-Day Kitchen Tool →
THE VESSELS
(what holds us, what gives our chaos shape and space)
These two go together. Read them back to back.
Deadbeat Eldest Daughter Guide from Couchtyper
A guide for prioritizing your actual life over the role you were assigned before you were old enough to negotiate the terms. The eldest daughter thing is real & it runs deep: the training that happens when you are the one who was taught to hold things together, manage the room, need nothing, and ask for less. Whether or not you’re an eldest daughter, if you’ve ever felt like you were living inside someone else’s idea of who you should be, this one hits.
People Pleasing Is a Symptom of Repressed Anger from Heart Led Creates
The explanation for how we got to the role in the first place. People pleasing is what happens when anger has nowhere safe to go except inward, when saying no feels more dangerous than consenting to things you don’t want. She connects it to self-abandonment and links it to everything the piece above also described, and reading them together makes the whole picture click into place. I found it clarifying and uncomfortable in equal measure.
THE GLASSWARE
(the bubbles, the refreshment, what quenches)
Every Summer Is a Midlife Crisis (No Matter How Old You Are) from Kate Bowler
Kate writes about how we find ourselves holding up the year against where we thought we would be by now, against the summers we remember as good, against some imaginary version of our lives that runs on more sunshine and less email. She’s precise about this rather than sad…Summer has a quality of pressure to it, an urgency that tells you time is passing and asks what you’re going to do about that. The solstice is this Sunday, the longest day, the year’s own hinge point, and this is the right time to read this.
THE NAPKIN
(for wiping away the week’s mess, the reset)
Your Fear of Being Seen Is Costing You Your Success from Anna Morgado
Anna writes about the version of fear that doesn’t announce itself as fear. It comes dressed as perfectionism, as “not being ready yet,” as waiting until the website is better or the photos are better or you are better. She almost didn’t show up at all, and she writes about what it cost her before she figured out that the visibility wasn’t the risk, the invisibility was. I put this one in the Napkin section because it’s the kind of piece that makes you set down whatever you’ve been hiding behind and get back to work. Or at least it did that to me.
THE DESSERT PLATE
(the sweet stuff, pure joy, no justification needed)
The Summer Solstice Pantry Box is here!
Four handmade pantry items, made in my kitchen using what the late-spring and early-summer greenmarket had to offer. The box is the shifting of the seasons…that special window between spring and summer when everything is at its peak and you want to put it somewhere before it disappears…of all that, wrapped in an adorable little jar.
What’s inside:
SweetBitter Berry Jam
Strawberries, Chamomile & Amaro Montenegro w/ Dona “The Field” Tea
Floral, jammy, bittersweet. The Montenegro gives it that bitter orange and rose aromatics. The chamomile from the tea doubles down with the fresh buds, making the flavor more cohesive the more you eat of it. This jam is for good butter on good bread and also, frankly, for eating with a spoon.Scape Artist
All-Green Garlic Scape Chili Crisp
Savory, spicy, deeply textural, vivid green all the way through from the chive oil folded in at the end. Green Sichuan peppercorns for floral citrusy heat, white miso for umami and body, garlic scapes fried until the edges are golden. This one goes on eggs, on rice, on noodles, on anything that needs a reason to exist.Jewels of June
Pickles of Rhubarb, Cherries & Chive Blossoms
The brine turns a deep jewel-toned magenta after 48 hours. Rhubarb pieces and cherry halves packed with chive blossom florets and a tarragon sprig down the inside of the jar. Tart and sweet and a little dramatic about it. The brine is a condiment: into salad dressings, into cocktails, over chèvre, over vanilla ice cream. Don’t waste it.Sundown Salt
Chive Blossom, Lemon & Tarragon Finishing Salt w/Aleppo Pepper
Pale lavender-gold with purple flecks from the dried chive blossoms. Maldon flakes kept in shards, not crushed. Use it at the table and for finishing, not during cooking. On grilled fish, on soft-boiled eggs, on sliced heirloom tomatoes, on torn bread with good butter. This is the one the zinger needed for all meals.Each box also includes: The Sun…an original tarot card designed and painted by Rose Seccareccia and printed by me. The Sun is the card of vitality and warmth and clarity, the feeling of a perfect day when everything is working. It felt right for the season and for the box. A small ceramic spice/herb jar by Sarah Buffaloe. Both lovely and hopefully will make you smile. Seasonal recipes by yours truly for the spring and summer.
$65 per box
*Small-Batch: Only 15 available
📍 NYC local pickup: Drop me a note to arrange
✈️ NC/SC delivery: Yas and I fly down next weekend. If you’re in the area, I’ll bring yours.
Order yours at thefreckledfork.com →
Happy Thursday, turkeys!
xo, Jess
Setting the Table drops every Thursday. This Sunday on The Steady Table: What Our Grandmothers Already Knew. I'll meet you there. ♥
Ok, cried my way through heartled creates piece on people pleasing!