The peak flavors of summer are fleeting. And sometimes they are overwhelmingly bountiful. Two Oak Parkers have forged these forces together with steam, sugar, heat and hard work to savor summer all year long.
LISSA DYSART
Lissa Dysart, also known as the Tomato Lady of Oak Park, makes what she can of many parts of the seasonal cycle.
“To me, some things are about capturing the kind of unique little bits and pieces,” Dysart said. “I made lilac syrup this spring. There’s nothing like what lilacs smell like in any other plant, so it’s kind of a fun way of just capturing this kind of ethereal moment in.”
She responds to what is doing well in her garden.
“There’s a piece of it that feels kind of silly in a way. There’s really great quality food that’s available [in grocery stores.] But some things are just not the same. I mean, even though it’s a crazy amount of work. I made elderflower syrup this spring. I’m like, why? Because you have to just pick all of the blooms off. Same thing with lilacs. But there is something to be said about that whole process.”
A recent discovery was making garlic scape salt. She takes the green flowering tops above the buried garlic head and lets them dry in a bed of salt at room temperature.
“It is like super intense garlic salt. I put it in these little adorable jars. Oh my God, that stuff was amazing! It’s just like green and fresh. To me it tastes like it has a spring, summery kind of flavor year,” said Dysart.
Tomatoes, of course, have had a special place in her heart ever since childhood.
“When we grew tomatoes, you’d eat them morning, noon and night. We would eat them sliced with sugar. Because it’s a fruit!”
Another of her favorite options for a summer bounty of tomatoes is a Portuguese tomato jam that Dysart was first introduced to while working at Whole Foods.
“I never really saw anything like it. And then I came across a recipe in a preserving cookbook and I thought, I’m gonna try it. You get a ton of the really nice bright fruit flavor and the texture you get is more like whole fruit pieces. It plays up those aspects. And it’s weirdly delicious. Like it’s fantastic with cheese. It’s great stirred into oatmeal. I became completely addicted. I was giving it to my friends and my family. I just feel like I can’t get enough of it.”
That is the power of peak flavor fresh from the garden!
JOHN SLOCUM
John Slocum is an avid gardener and preserver. When he and his wife, Rachel Weber, bought their home in Oak Park, John wanted to use the yard space in a more productive way.
“I have two semi-dwarf sour cherry trees in the front yard that I planted 14 years ago, and they’ve done extraordinarily well,” Slocum said. “I do like making jam with the cherries and occasionally make a pie, but I’ve discovered two things that I really love doing with the cherries and one is to make a cherry juice concentrate.”
The recipe is simple enough, cook the cherries and strain the solids out. Add sugar and store in the freezer.
“Then last year I discovered cherry bounce. Said to be George Washington’s favorite alcoholic beverage, so it is a Colonial or hundreds of years old type of thing. It’s cherries, sugar and alcohol.”
Fresh cherries go into a jar with – brandy, bourbon or vodka will do, add sugar and spices.
“It’s got a cinnamon stick and an allspice berry and a couple of cloves and a little pinch of nutmeg. You just stir it for a few weeks and then you just put it away for a couple of 3 to 4 months and it’s just it’s like candy, but very high proof candy.”
Another tree in Slocum’s yard fills his jam jars. Red currant trees regularly yield many quarts of tart, red berries.
“They’ve got a lot of pectin. I almost never use pectin in my jams. Originally I think it’s just because I was being cheap and I just didn’t want to like have to buy anything extra and then it became a challenge to like, how close can I get to the consistency I want without using pectin to firm it up.”
His favorite flavor combo is raspberry and currants.
“When I find a tried-and-true combination, I just keep doing it. I’ll put up 30 to 50 jars over the course of the summer and then give a lot of them away. Honestly, the hardest part about it is that fruit ripens in the summer exactly when you don’t want to be over a hot stove for several hours.”
But he says there is an upside.
“We’ve always got a jar of jam in the fridge.”
