October 1, 2015: Hardly Strictly Picnic

Hello there,

It’s officially autumn today, which means that Hardly Strictly Bluegrass is coming soon! We have your picnic (or your alfresco feast, or your hiking lunch, or your several days of food during the week) covered, with hand pies, butter bean and squash salad, corn crackers and fig-olive tapenade, and even a raspberry tarragon syrup for sodas or cocktails. This is a week to get the crate if you’d like a jar of our coveted tomato conserva, too.

This crate will be for pickup in the East Bay between 3:30 and 7:00 pm and delivery in San Francisco between 5:00 and 7:30 pm on Thursday, October 1. The regular size feeds about four people; the small size feeds about two.

The vegetarian version contains the mushroom, kale, potato and goat cheese hand pies; the omnivore’s version contains the pork and apple hand pies. The all-in version has both, but we don’t want to afflict you with eight pies, so the regular-sized all-in has two of each kind and the small-sized all-in has one of each kind. You can get more from the Extras section, if you like.

One final note about the pies: we’re giving them baked this time, for ease of picnicking. Which do you like better, frozen ones ready to bake, or baked ones ready to eat? Let us know, on email or twitter or Facebook.

All-in: $177 regular, $112 small
Omnivore: $181 regular, $114 small
Vegetarian: $173 regular, $110 small

It’s like this:

Pork and apple hand pies (four pies or two pies)
Savory, flaky, very portable and better than a sandwich: hand pies are the best. Baked and ready to eat.

Mushroom, kale, potato and goat cheese hand pies (four pies or two pies)
Maitake and crimini mushrooms, creamy with goat cheese and good for you with kale. Baked and ready to eat.

Italian butter bean and squash salad (a quart jar or a pint jar)
Iacopi Farms grows the best beans; these Italian butter beans are fat and creamy, and will have a good dousing of olive oil and vinegar, with squash and herbs.

Corn crackers and fig-olive tapenade (two dozen crackers and an 8 ounce jar of tapenade, or one dozen crackers and a four ounce jar of tapenade)
Sweet and salty and crunchy and jammy, yes.

Early girl conserva (an 8 ounce jar)
Dirty Girl dry-farmed early girl tomatoes, cooked down so that their most essential qualities shine through: sweetness, inexpressible tomato-ness, character built through adversity.

Herb-marinated lunchbox peppers (a 12 ounce jar or an 8 ounce jar)
Simply marinated lunchbox peppers, for eating.

Oatmeal cookies, dried cherries (one dozen or a half dozen)
Oatmeal cookies are a food to have strong feelings about. Ours are: they should be crispy just on the edges, chewy and soft in the middle, with a little something interesting mixed in, lightly spiced.

Raspberry tarragon syrup (a 12 ounce jar or an 8 ounce jar)
We’re having a raspberry moment, possibly the last one, and we want to make it into something season-marking for you. You can add fizzy water to this for a soda, or gin and egg whites for a dreamy flip, or champagne for a brunch cocktail.

Extras this week include our own exceptional chicken bone broth, our sriracha, Morell’s rosemary bread, Nuthouse granola, and extra hand pies.

Thanks for supporting Potliquor! We’ll see you Thursday.

All our best,
Jennifer & Laura