Fresh ingredients make a salad unbeatable

Editor’s Note: Chef Christy Rost passed along this recipe early this summer as planting season in the high country was just beginning. With some fresh ingredients, it remains the perfect complement to dinner.

By Christy Rost

Though I usually purchase seeds for my garden in a nearby garden center, this year I ordered them from Burrell Seed Growers in Rocky Ford. This east Colorado retailer has been in business since 1900 and supplies both farmers and backyard gardeners. Randy and I discovered their retail store several years ago while driving from our home in Texas to Swan’s Nest in Breckenridge. We had decided to take a different route so we could visit Dodge City, Kansas – an Old West town experience complete with Boot Hill Gunfighters, a saloon, dance hall girls, and a fascinating western museum featuring collections from legendary, real life western characters like Bat Masterson and Wyatt Earp. But, I digress…

Walking through the front door of Burrell Seed Growers was like stepping back in time. The walls of the long, narrow shop were lined from floor to ceiling with rows of old wooden draws – each containing a collection of seeds. The ceiling was decorated with tin, the original wood floors creaked as we walked, and there was an immense wooden counter along one side. I doubt much had changed from the day the store first opened. We soaked in the history of the old building, picked up a seed catalogue, and promised ourselves we’d order Burrell seeds for our garden one day.

This year, we harvested three varieties of lettuce, arugula, icicle and French breakfast radishes, pak choy, purple top white turnips, rainbow carrots and peppergrass cress. As much as I love the idea of growing tomatoes, beans, zucchini, and other warm season crops, our Colorado mountain temperatures are too cool and the summers too short to be successful. Instead, I planted quick-harvest cool season crops and depend on our nearby farmers market for items I can’t grow at Swan’s Nest.

It gives me an immense feeling of satisfaction to grow and harvest food for our table, while supporting local farmers who bring tomatoes, corn, beans, squash, and a luscious variety of stone fruit to the weekly farmers market. There’s truly nothing quite as tasty as fresh-from-the-garden ingredients!

Strawberry and Blackberry Garden Salad with Dark Sweet Cherry Balsamic Vinaigrette

Ingredients

1 bunch red leaf lettuce, rinsed, spun dry, 4 leaves whole, the remainder torn
1 pint fresh strawberries, rinsed, hulled, and sliced
6 ounces fresh blackberries, rinsed
6 ounces fresh raspberries, rinsed
1 tablespoon dark sweet cherry balsamic vinegar
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Place a whole lettuce leaf on each salad plate and top with torn lettuce. Arrange sliced strawberries over the lettuce and garnish each salad with blackberries and raspberries. Chill until ready to serve.

Just before serving, combine cherry balsamic vinegar, olive oil, salt, and pepper in a small bowl. Whisk gently to mix and spoon the vinaigrette over the berries and lettuce.

Yield: 4 servings

Television chef, author, and entertaining guru Christy Rost is host of the annual national PBS special, A Home for Christy Rost: Thanksgiving, the sole national PBS show filmed entirely in Colorado and broadcast throughout the United States. The show is filmed in her stunning 1898 historic home in Breckenridge. It has aired nationally annually and consecutively since 2009 and will air again in 2020.

Chef Rost is the author of three books: The Family Table; Where's My Spatula?, and her newest book, Celebrating Home: A Handbook for Gracious Living (Bright Sky Press).