Labor Day Weekend = Caribbean soda time!

In honor of the West Indies day parade, we'll be bringing strictly island flavors for all the Caribbean people! (or any and all island dwelling, or island loving people)  The West Indies = the islands in the Caribbean.  The name derives from Columbus, who thought he was on the west side of India when he arrived.  The history of the region is fascinating and tumultuous, heavily shaped by colonialism and the slave trade, but that's a whole other topic for another time, we're here to talk about fruit!  Caroline is from Hong Kong and I'm half Puerto Rican (a part of the West Indies of course). Both are tropical islands that love their fruit, so tropical flavors are especially fun for us.  Please come out and taste!

The flavors at the Brooklyn Flea this Saturday will be-

Sorrel

Ginger and Lime

Cherimoya (sweetsop)

more about the flavors after the page break...

Plum and Raspberry flavors for Saturday!

The flavors this week will be-
Vanier Plum with a hint of Rosemary
Raspberry and Ginger

Both the plums and the rasperries are from red jacket orchards and both were excellent but the fall raspberries in particular were fantastic, pick some up if you see them at any farm markets!

The back of the car after my early morning farm market run. 

Plums & blackberries for this Saturday. And a Pie in the Park benefit on Sunday

It's become hard to figure out what fruit to use - everything looks so great at the greenmarkets.
This week we've decided to go for yellow plums from Red Jacket, and have paired it up with our beloved ginger.

So succulent and juicy...

And blackberries are in season too - we get ours from Phillips Farm in south NJ. We'll be debuting our blackberry cream soda this Friday. 

In other news, I attempted a sweet corn and basil soda last week. Corn was everywhere when I was in N. Carolina and its just starting to come into season up here. Still need to figure out how to balance out the flavors, but hopefully a sweetcorn flavor will make its appearance at some point.  Sweetcorn is used frequently in south-east Asian desserts, often in conjunction with coconut or tapioca.  Check out this recipe for ice kacang, a Malaysian shaved ice dessert.

This week we can be found at our usual spot at the Brooklyn Flea (right next to Porchetta and Good Batch). In addition our yellow plum & ginger will be available at the worthy Pie in the Park event in Prospect Park, organized by Lauren Cucinotta.  All proceeds will go towards our other Flea neighbors, Scratchbread who are running their own Kickstarter campaign to secure their own retail space (keeping our fingers crossed as their retail location is a couple of blocks from our apartment)

Dates and events for August

Just a quick post to say we will not be at the Flea this Saturday (August 7th) but we will be back in force for the rest of August, including selling at L Magazine's Summerscreen in Williamsburg on Wed August 11th for their screening of Point Break!