April Food Swap

I like blackberries.

I like blackberry pie and cake and cobbler and jam and bread and frosting and marshmallows and sauce and syrup. I like blackberries sweet. I like blackberries savory. I like blackberries stewed, dried, frozen, baked…Toasted orange bread with fromage blanc and blackberry jam is a perfect breakfast.

I could go on for half of forever.

Sad truth – I’m out of blackberries. No more bags of frozen blackberries. No more cobblers waiting to thaw. No more secret jars of blackberry jam hiding behind pickled vegetable stuff. It is a long way to blackberry season.

Cry for me.

At this month’s FSC Food Swap, my beady, dry, tired eyes locked in on a jar of blackberry jam. It was a beautiful swap. A loaf of my orange bread for a jar of blackberry jam. Blackberry jam loves orange bread. I could hear them serenading as they floated from hand to hand.

That is just another reason food swaps are fantastic. I doubt the person providing the blackberry jam knew there would be someone at the swap down right excited to see that jar. She spread happiness and didn’t even know it.

It is good jam too.

With over 40 participants, this month’s food swap seemed massive & rather cut throat. The quality and variety of the items offered was outstanding.

For my part, I baked a yeast orange bread and made chocolate cream cheese. I’m working on updating an orange bread recipe (more on that later). My plan was to offer ready to bake frozen dough in a disposable pan. Ed convinced me to offer people a finished item. The night before, I baked off some of the dough for the swap. I moved my cream cheese making to a few days before the swap. Morning of I added the bittersweet chocolate and packed it in 8 oz containers. I offered 3 of each item.

There wasn’t a lot of interest in swapping for the chocolate cream cheese. Chocolate cream cheese is a favorite in the oxysequitur kitchen. I was more than okay with bringing some home. Always – make sure to bring items you like.

Here is a tip from the hip: if you’re not vegan, find out who they are. Don’t even look at their delicious goods. Blinders up, Baby! Not looking helps avoid the awkward situation. “Oh, you’re vegan?” (insert uncomfortable silence) “Then why did you bring something that looks like I might want to eat it?”

I actually slipped into a corner, pulled out my phone and scanned the blog of one of the ladies before offering her a swap. I was scanning for signs of meat or dairy. It took a long time since it isn’t a food blog. It was all good and the swap went down. Seriously – even if you’re not a food blogger, can’t you mention what you ate for dinner during major holidays?

The food swaps are fun. I’m beginning to look forward to the monthly From Scratch Club gathering. I also get great ideas. I swapped for rose syrup. I adore rose syrup. I’m not sure it ever occurred to me to make my own. Well, maybe it did. But I don’t. Now I will.

The proper rose syrup quality test is rose syrup in a glass of Prosecco. I started testing shortly after I got home.
Cheers – to a well stocked Prosecco pantry!

Here are a few other FSC April Food Swap write ups:
Albany Eats! | Capital Region Dining | Eating from the ground up.