Beans with Hickory Nuts and Feta, page 123

Bonus day. Yesterday while at the Columbia Farmer's Market I ran into Bernadette Dryden, author of the book we're working through, Cooking Wild in Missouri. I haven't had a chance to speak with her since we started the Woods to Food project. We had a nice visit about the book and our project. In fact, I had the book under my arm like a minister with his bible when I met Bernadette. I wanted to source the book so I could buy ingredients related to the recipes.
Speaking of the market, I LOVE Saturday mornings in Columbia and our family's little routine. It now starts with us all piling in the car and stopping by Kaldi's for a latte to go. They make awesome lattes. Then it's a bee-line to the farmer's market before the latte cools off for breakfast burritos and pastries and sometimes, OK often, honey ice cream. Ice cream for breakfast! Now there's a Saturday morning for you. Our boys have friends whose parents sell at the market. So a little gang of fellas run around the periphery of the market playing tag, sword fighting with cattails, or playing make believe games in the bushes and nearby dirt piles. There's most often lovely live music, and it's always a treat to see people you know while at the market. This Saturday I chatted with two of my cousins, my aunt, a coworker, Bernadette, our neighbor, waved to a friend, and helped my friend Jen for a bit in selling cheese in her market stall. Oh, and then we buy produce, this week apples and spinach. It's a rich, fresh happy time.

Cousin Laurie with dinner and honey mushrooms

We have finally got a small pile of hickory nuts shelled and there are several hickory nut recipes. I settled on beans with hickory nuts and feta because our good friends make wonderful, fresh feta that I could pick up at the market (Goatsbeard Farm). We have quite a few tomatoes in the garden, I happen to have lemons in and red peppers are in season so making this dish I was able to use several local or home grown ingredients. We had my cousin and her family over for dinner last night and served the dish (actually I used lentils rather than beans. Lentils are what is shown in the book's photo for this dish) with pork chops from a county fair pig we bought, a baguette from Uprise bakery (so good!), wild mushrooms and a mixed green salad. My cousin's husband has been roofing for a week and has lost 5 pounds from his already slim body so it was nice to see him fill his plate with a second round of the lentil dish. If you like lentils, I certainly would recommend this dish. I know you'll be very pleased. And if you have a farmer's market in your area, Fall is a great time to enjoy the bounty of what Missour's farms and gardens have to offer.