Old Town Di(sh)patch: Ribs with Peach BBQ sauce

Peach season is in full swing, and I have been experimenting with all the ways to use this wonderful fruit. From peach salsa, peach chutney, baked peaches with ice cream, to peach pie, I am trying it all. In this market di(sh)patch, hear about Saturday finds and farm stand gossip at the Old Town Alexandria farmers market or scroll down for ribs with peach barbecue sauce recipe.

Saturday morning was strangely cool for the first weekend of August in Washington, DC. The skies above looked to punish market goers with rain, but thankfully the dark clouds were merely an empty threat. I began my shopping trip at the Bigg Riggs booth. Their variety of plums continues to please with large red plums, small extra sweet purple plums, and small yellow plums. I can't decide which variety I like best; lucky for me they were selling them mix-and-match and I purchased a few of each. They also were selling multicolored peppers (yellow, purple, and green) which are all actually green peppers, just in different stages of ripeness. I bought one of each color because when it comes to the farmers market I am a compulsive shopper. I guess there are worse things to consume in bulk.

Calvin of Bigg Riggs also took the time to read everyone's responses to my recent post about frozen veggies and has started the process of flash freezing fresh vegetables. This winter, his vacuum packed frozen vegetables will be available at the Old Town Alexandria farmers market. I'll be sure to post a reminder about this after the fun of summer fresh local produce has subsided and we're all drowning in apples, more apples, winter squash, and oh- more winter squash.

And more news from Calvin! Alexandria City has approved the opening of a NEW Wednesday afternoon market near the King Street Metro. This market will begin next Wednesday, August 13th and run through October 29th. Market times are 3-7PM. I can't wait to check it out.

I moved on to Spring Valley Farm and Orchards where earlier strong winds had blown the tent down and prompted a quick fix of a broom rigged to hold it up-- which was quite a sight, I might add. As usual, their produce selection was top notch with a wide selection of peppers, ripe red heirloom tomatoes, eggplants, fresh basil, bi-color sweet corn, squash, eggplants, peaches, nectarines, new potatoes, and much more. I filled my arms with so much produce that multiple people stopped to ask me if I needed assistance. In an attempt to prove my market adeptness (or pure stubbornness), I handled it all myself.

At this point the bag was getting heavy. I needed meat, and sadly Smith Family Farm- my usual go-to vendor for grass fed ground beef- was not at the market. They recently told me that they would not be selling at Old Town anymore due to the early hours requirement (vendors often get on the road at 1 or 2 AM in order to park and set up by 5:30 AM). Thankfully, you can still find Smith Family Farms at many other markets including the Alexandria West End Market and the Wednesday Foggy Bottom market in DC.

Ribs seemed like a good hearty replacement for burgers so I headed over to Babes in the Wood. This vendor describes his pig farming practices as "beyond free range" since his pigs roam freely on his 75 acres of woodland and forage their own food, mainly acorns, roots, and fruits. The farm has 2-3 pigs per acre, which allows the pigs plenty of room to be happy and also helps them to live in harmony with the environment. For those interested in ethical issues surrounding your food, Babes in the Wood certainly goes above and beyond. I purchased two racks of spare ribs. Typically, these are separated when you buy them, but he sells them in full racks- meaning you get a little more meat. Personally, I prefer baby back ribs because they are leaner, but these still made for a good meal.

Peach Barbecue Sauce

My favorite sauce for ribs is an Asian-inspired sauce I found on Epicurious this winter. Of course, this sauce has no local ingredients. I really wanted to make a sauce that was at least locally inspired.  Taking note of my bag full of peaches, I wondered whether there were any recipes for peach barbecue sauce. With a quick little web search, I found three or four recipes on-line. The first recipe had poor reviews- many people complained of too much mustard. The next recipe I found at Fine Cooking Online required no mustard and seemed to have a nice list of ingredients. Here is the Peach BBQ recipe I used. I pretty much stuck to the recipe, although I did add a little extra fresh peach. This recipe also calls for ground cloves. A tip: if you only have whole cloves available in your house, you can use a coffee bean grinder to make ground cloves. (Just make sure you wipe out any stray coffee grounds first!)

Making the Ribs

After the barbecue sauce was complete, I salted and peppered the ribs in the refrigerator for about 30-45 minutes. At this time, I pre-heated the oven to 450F.

The recipe I used for Asian-inspired ribs this winter was especially tasty because the ribs roasted for an hour in foil packets full of pineapple juice. Obviously, I have no local pineapples at my disposal, so I decided to try another fruit juice to see how it would work. As I've mentioned previously, we have a never ending watermelon on our hands, so I simply diced and seeded about 2 cups of watermelon, then pureed it in a blender.

I placed each rack of ribs on a piece of foil, then folded up the edges to make a boat shape. I poured about 3/4-1 cup of watermelon juice over each rib, placed the ribs in the oven and roasted them at 450F for one hour. The house smelled wonderful- always a good sign.

After the hour was over, I removed the ribs from the oven and turned on the broiler. I then drained most of the watermelon juice from each foil packet, placed a fresh piece of foil on a baking sheet and returned the ribs to the baking sheet. At this point, I brushed the ribs with peach BBQ sauce and placed them in the broiler. Every few minutes, I turned the ribs and brushed them with extra sauce, as needed. After about ten minutes in the broiler (5 minutes for each side of the ribs) they were nicely browned and the sauce had thickened to a nice consistency.

We served these with some fresh corn, some leftover salsa verde, and our variety of market plums as a light dessert.

The peach barbecue sauce was delicious, especially if you like a sweet sauce on your ribs. I have some left-over, and plan to see how it works on chicken.

Stay tuned for other peach recipes- coming soon!