Farmers Market Finds: Best of the Summer Season

Yesterday I visited the Ballard Farmers Market to collect fresh groceries after returning from a weeklong visit to Texas. Last week was also National Farmers Market Week (Aug. 3-9) and the Farmers Market Coalition created this clever infographic showing the ways farmers market contribute to a healthy, local food economy. In my view August is the most exciting month to witness the diversity of summer produce from Washington state. With my lengthy shopping list in hand, here is what I ended up buying:

Cassius and Roxy stand with this week’s farmers market finds.

Growing Things Farm (Carnation, WA)

• Scallions
• Squash Blossoms
• Green Beans

Alvarez Organic Farm (Mabton, WA)

• Peppers (padron, poblano chile and sweet yellow)
• Sweet Corn
• Watermelon
• Eggplant

Gaia’s Harmony Farm (Snohomish, WA)

• Raspberries

Collins Family Orchard (Selah, WA)

• Peaches

Skagit River Ranch (Sedro-Woolley, WA)

• Uncured Bacon

Stokesberry Farm (Olympia, WA)

• Chicken Eggs

Marcel at Collins Family Orchard said this year’s peach harvest is the best it’s been in a long time, so I bought 12 pounds with no plan in mind. These are truly spectacular peaches. Some will be enjoyed out of hand, some will go into a fruit tart or pie, and the rest will be sliced and frozen. I’m glad I have another week of vacation to put them up!

This morning I made squash blossom and onion frittata and bacon for breakfast. This is similar to the quiche recipe I posted in 2010. This week’s meals will primarily be vegetarian in order to enjoy this seasonal harvest at it’s best. I’m really looking forward to sitting outside with a big, cold slice of watermelon.

It’s pretty hot in Seattle this week, so my homegrown tomatoes are finally bearing fruit. They’re sweet like candy.

Homegrown tomatoes picked yesterday

 

I’m thankful to live near such an abundant food growing region. My life’s work is to help preserve farming close to home so that future generations can enjoy it. Wherever you live, go out and search for good food like this at your local farmers market. Support your local farms and enjoy.

Garlic Dill Pickles

Garlic Dill Pickles

I have a favorite homemade dill pickle recipe. It’s really basic. The recipe calls for a 50/50 brine (1:1 water to white vinegar), Kosher salt, fresh garlic, and fresh dill fronds. Sometimes I’ll throw in a slice of jalapeno chile to each jar for added heat.

The big difference is the cucumber itself. To me the perfect homemade dill pickle is possible only if I can find several pounds of small Kirby cucumbers that are 3-4 inches long and between 1-1 1/2 inches wide. It’s larger than cornichon but smaller than many commercial Kosher dills which tend to be full sized at 2-3 inches wide and 5-6 inches long.

Unless you grow your own Kirby cucumbers and pick them when they are small, you have to wait for just the right time in the growing season to score them at the farmers market.  I have seen them in specialty grocery stores but they are never any good. These cukes are highly perishable and they begin to deteriorate and become soft even if refrigerated.  Only use firm cucumbers for pickling if you want crisp pickles.

Today only two farms at the Ballard Farmers Market were selling these smaller sized cukes, but only one farm from eastern Washington had exactly what I wanted.  I was so happy that I loaded up on $10 worth of cucumbers (4 lbs.) and 2 bulbs of fresh garlic and I went home and made four quarts of my favorite Garlic Dill Pickles.  I also used the same brine to make a quart of French beans (from last week’s CSA) pickled with garlic and dill or Dilly Beans from my now out of print, ten year-old cookbook, Pickled: Preserving a World of Tastes and Traditions.

Here’s an excellent link to Canning Across America where I reveal how to choose the right equipment and ingredients.  I encourage experimentation but not across the board.  Please be sure to only use clean equipment and do not experiment with acid levels, time or temperatures.

Garlic Dill Pickles 
Recipe adapted from Pickled: Fruits, Roots, More… Preserving a World of Tastes and Traditions (2003), by Lucy Norris
Makes about 4 quarts or 8 pints

• 8 cups white distilled vinegar
• 8 cups water
• 1 cup salt (Kosher or pickling, non-iodized only)
• 4 lbs. small Kirby cucumbers, scrubbed clean
• 8 fresh dill fronds
• 8 garlic cloves (peeled and root tips removed)

Combine the vinegar, salt and water in a large saucepan and bring to boil. Pack each jar first with garlic and dill then pack tightly with cucumbers. Place a wide mouth funnel on each jar and ladle hot liquid brine over the cucumbers remembering to leave at least a ¼ inch headspace. Remove air bubbles with a bubble freer and cap. Process jars in hot water bath for 10-15 minutes (or longer depending on elevation). Remove each jar carefully with rubberized tongs and place them on a towel or cooling rack. Allow the jars to cool and store in dark cupboard for at least three weeks before tasting. Once opened, store them in the refrigerator for up to six months (only using clean utensils when handling).

I have a German Christmas tree ornament about this size

CSA Week 20: Pan Fried Fennel Patties

I picked up my last organic produce share of the 2011 season from Growing Things Farm at Ballard Farmers Market.

Roxy and Cassius are content with the last CSA share of the season

Although more abundant than the first share in late June, the dominant color of produce is green—which I’m happy to see.  In our house we eat a lot of greens. From salads to sautes, green vegetables are part of almost every meal.  This week’s share included:

• 1 bunch green kale
• 1 bunch turnip greens
• 1 bunch arugula
• 1 lb salad mix
• 1 lb Brussels sprouts (freshly cut from stalk)
• 1 yellow winter squash
• 1 large bunch tiny fennel bulbs with fronds
• half dozen eggs

Last night I roasted the Brussels sprouts and served it with baked, wild rocksole and carrot and herbed couscous.  Meals have been built around the contents of the weekly CSA shares.  When it’s time to cook, I look at what we already have, and then build a meal around it.  It takes creative thinking sometimes, but at least the outcome is always fresh.

I have a recipe for panfried fennel cakes that I got from Alice Waters, who at the time was visiting the French Culinary Academy in New York City. It’s a really simple recipe – one that I transcribed in my notebook, that I haven’t seen in her books or online. It’s a really great way to showcase a bunch of tender fennel bulbs, like the ones I got in my CSA share yesterday.

Pan Fried Fennel Patties

• 5-6 small fennel bulbs, chopped fine
• 2 cloves garlic, peeled and minced (preferably crushed in a mortar and pestle with a pinch of coarse sea salt)
• 2 medium eggs (beaten)
• 1/2 teaspoon ground paprika (whatever you prefer though smoked may overpower the fennel)
• 1 cup bread crumbs
• 1/2 cup grated parmigiano reggiano or good quality domestic parmesan cheese
• olive oil
• coarse sea salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste
• lemon

Combine the first six ingredients in a mixing bowl and stir until evenly incorporated.  In a frying pan, heat about 1 tablespoon of oil and wait until it just starts to glisten.  Take a heaping tablespoon-size mound of fennel mixture and make a small patty with your hands.  Place the patty into the hot oiled pan and cook for about 2 minutes on each side until light golden brown.  Depending on the size of the pan, you can cook a few at a time, but be careful not to overcrowd the pan or the patties will be soggy.  As each one is done, lift each patty gently with a spatula and place on clean chefs paper or a smooth towel to drain excess fat.  Sprinkle with sea salt, black pepper and a squeeze of fresh lemon juice.  Serve right away.  Can be reheated but they won’t be crispy.

CSA Week 19: Fresh Shell Bean Gratin

I think it’s exciting to work with vegetables that aren’t commonly found in the produce department.  Take shelling beans.  Typically these little gems are only available dry or canned unless you grow your own. Canned and dried beans are what I grew up with and it’a also what I often use, but to have access to fresh beans is pretty luxurious in my opinion.  In the last two CSA shares Farmer Michaele has included green flagelot shelling beans

Organic Green Flagelot Shelling Bean Pod

and tonight I’m putting them to use before they go bad in a delicious sounding Fresh Shell Bean Gratin recipe from Alice Waters’ Vegetables cookbook that I’ve held onto for years. I found an adaptation of the recipe that I used tonight on Michael Ableman’s Website, Fields of Plenty.

It’s been chilly and wet in Seattle lately and so I had lowered my expectations for this week’s CSA share #19. But I was pleasantly surprised because this is shelling bean season, and fresh cannellini beans– one of my very favorites– were included in my share along with huge orange carrots for roasting or to throw into homemade chile tomorrow night.

When I picked up my Growing Things Farm CSA share today from the Ballard Farmers Market, I was reminded that next week was the last week of our CSA season. Here’s what the nineteenth CSA share included:

Roxy and Cassius are happy with CSA Share #19

• half dozen eggs
• 1 bunch cilantro
• 2 lbs. yellow potatoes
• 1 bunch large orange carrots
• 1 lb. fresh cannellini beans (in pods)
• 1 bunch arugula
• 1 acorn squash

Using last week's turnip greens in the Fresh Shell Bean Gratin from Alice Waters' Vegetables.

Ready for breadcrumb topping: cooked flagelot beans, turnip greens, home-canned yellow tomatoes, onion, garlic and sage.

Fresh Shell Bean Gratin with a salad (by the way those are some of the pickled beets I made this summer)

CSA Week 18 and Growing Garlic at Home

The produce I saw today at the Ballard Farmers Market represents summer (peppers, eggplant and even peaches!), but fall is definitely here and on full display. Today I picked up the eighteenth CSA share from Growing Things Farm and I’m pretty excited about the green flagelot shelling beans that, by the way, I’ve never seen in an American grocery store.  Last week I even mistook them for regular green beans, but Farmer Michaele set me straight.  This week’s box included:

Roxy and Cassius enjoy looking at Week 18 CSA Share from Growing Things Farm

• 1 lb. green flagelot shelling beans
• 1 bunch cilantro
• 1 bunch turnip greens (these are excellent sauteed in olive oil, garlic and red pepper flakes)
• 1 bunch radishes
• half dozen eggs
• 1 lb. purple potatoes
• 1 lb. yellow onions

Growing Garlic at Home

Killarney Red Garlic Seed

I’m growing garlic for the first time ever. The variety I chose is hard neck Killarney Red–which is both delicious and tolerant of the Pacific Northwest’s soggy winter soil.  Fall is the time to plant garlic for next spring’s harvest.  We consume a lot of garlic around here and I figured it was worth a try.  My one bulb of seed garlic will yield  many plants.  I spoke with someone at the Garden Hotline yesterday (a free service operated by gardening experts who can answer any home gardening question) who said that I should plant the garlic as soon as possible. So that’s what I’m going to do today.  You can learn more about obtaining organic seed garlic in your area at the Garlic Seed Foundation website.

CSA Week 17: Carrots!

It’s the countdown to the end of the 2011 CSA season with Growing Things Farm.  Just three weeks to go!  Among other things, this week’s CSA share included some gorgeous white carrots that I will put into a beef stew with red wine tomorrow night.   Here’s what this week’s share included:

• 1 bunch cilantro
• 1 bunch arugula
• 1 lb flageolet shelling beans
• 1 lb tomatoes
• 1 bunch white carrots
• 1 bunch kale
• half dozen eggs

Roxy and Cassius pose with colorful vegetables from this week's (#17) CSA share

After I make the stew, I’ll post photos and a recipe.

CSA Week 16: Downhill slide

Today I picked up my sixteenth CSA share from Growing Things Farm at the Ballard Farmers Market.  There are only four more weeks left of the 2011 season so we’re on the downhill slide.  Farms around here are thinking months ahead.  Winter flooding is common around these parts — the last two years have been particularly harsh.  October is when most farmers I know start preparing for floods.  It’s harder to engage in small talk.

Yes, the farmers market is crowded, but farm sales alone can’t keep a farm in business.  It requires a mix of good soil, rain, seeds, equipment, animals, employees or family support, thriving markets, and a farmers own health to sustain a farm.  Most importantly it takes determination, dedication and community.  In the next few weeks, when you visit a farmers market, tell the farmer how much you appreciate and enjoy the food he or she grows.  Growing food and bringing it to market is not easy, a fact too many of us still take for granted.

Week 16 CSA share included:

• tri-color potatoes
• 1 dozen eggs
• salad mix
• onions
• beans

Cassius and Roxy are excited about this week's share from Growing Things Farm

CSA Week 15: Feeling Lazy

This weekend J and I took the dogs and drove about 2 hours east over the mountains to stay at a friend’s cabin.  We look forward to these weekend getaways mainly because we have no choice but to “unplug.”  There is a house telephone but there is no cellular phone service or internet.  We read books and magazines we’ve been meaning to read, and we listen to music.  We also work outside and take walks with the dogs.  This time we split and stacked a LOT of wood, too.  We earned our grilled steak dinner last night.

Cassius and Roxy walk along the Wenatchee River this weekend

We drove back to Seattle this morning in time to pick up my 15th CSA share from Growing Things Farm stand at the Ballard Farmers Market.  Opening this MacBook just to post this blog and share some photos, I’m signing off as soon as I’m done.  I want to retain the feeling I have at the cabin for a few more hours.  It’s Sunday after all.

Here’s what our 15th CSA share contained:

• Radishes, 1 bunch
• Tomatoes, 1 lb.
• Green Beans, 1 lb.
• Cilantro, 1 bunch
• Arugula, 1 bunch
• Beet Greens, 1 bunch
• Half-dozen eggs

Back home in time to collect CSA Share 15

 

 

CSA Share Weeks 8 and 9

Last Sunday I conducted a pickling demo for the Canning Across America Can-A-Rama kick-off at Pike Place Market but forgot to pick up my eigth CSA share from Growing Things Farm at the Ballard Farmers Market. Farmer Michaele pardoned my ditziness and reserved a replacement bag for me at the Bellevue Farmers Market although many farms, including Growing Things Farm, often donate unclaimed shares to the local food bank.

J and I signed up for 20 weeks of produce and eggs.  My weekly half-share costs $22.25 but it’s worth much more to me in terms of freshness, taste, supporting my local food economy and food safety.  Remember the big egg recall last year?  I have peace of mind knowing exactly where and how my food is grown and I know personally who grows it.  I agree with her values.

Growing Things Farm prices are published on their website and Farmer Michaele  offers latecomers a chance to experience CSA via mid-season sign-ups.

My eighth week CSA share included:

CSA Share Week 8 and my rescue dogs- both 6 years old.

• 1 lb. wax beans
• 1 large fennel bulb with fronds
• 1 lb. summer squash
• 1 large broccoli crown
• 1 lb. beets
• 1/2 dozen eggs
• 1 lb tri-color potatoes
• 2 slicing cucumbers

It’s Sunday afternoon and I picked up my ninth CSA share from the Ballard Farmers Market as agreed.  I’m back on track!  Not a lot of produce diversity yet, but Farmer Michaele explained that we’ll start to see more color later.  It has been a slow growing season.  In fact, I don’t think Seattle temperatures have exceeded 80’sF. Here’s what’s in today’s share:

Growing Things Farm CSA Share week 9 (it's really a half share with a half egg share)

• 2 slicing cucumbers
• 1 lb. salad mix
• 2 lbs. tri-color potatoes
• 1/2 dozen eggs
• 1 lb. broccoli
• 1 lb. cranberry beans

We’re half-way through the season!  More next week…

CSA Week 7: Cold Soup and Hot Pickles

Growing Things Farm Week 7 CSA Share...and two nice dogs

The Ballard Farmers Market in northwest Seattle is in full swing.  Hoping to improve my chances for street parking, I arrived before 10:30 a.m. to pick up my pre-paid share of vegetables and eggs from Growing Things Farm.  Parking was better than last week, but the market was already packed with visitors so I decided to grab what I needed and escape before it got any worse.

Ballard Farmers Market at 10:30. Where did all these people come from?

CSA share week 7 included:

• 2 lbs. summer squash
• 1/2 lb green beans
• 1 bunch red beets
• 1 lb tri-color potatoes
• 1 fennel bulb with fronds
• 2 slicing cucumbers
• half dozen eggs

While J and I have been on the Elimination Diet for 33 days, we have already added back citrus, coffee, corn and soy (I am sensitive to soy).  This Tuesday is the “potato challenge” and we’ll finally get to taste the thin-skinned potatoes from recent CSA shares.  I’ll be surprised if either one of us experiences an adverse reaction.  I’m not sure how I’m going to cook them.  It’s a toss up between roasted or mashed…but a chilled vichyssoise would also be good.  I’ll seek Barbara Kafka’s soup wisdom first.  Due to our temporary diet limitations, I must pull this off without the benefit of cream or butter.  I’ll decide on Tuesday.

3 lbs. of organic jalapeno chiles from Alvarez Farm- perfect in every way

Can-it Forward Day

Chile peppers are not ready in Northwest Washington, but  I located some peppers at Alvarez Organic Farm stall at the farmers market.  They farm is located in Mabton, WA (Yakima Valley) where the air is warm.  I bought 3 lbs. of firm, green chiles–ideal for pickling.

National Can-It- Forward Day is next Saturday, August 13.  Canning Across America members, including yours truly, will be conducting live food preservation demonstrations at Pike Place Market in downtown Seattle.  If you aren’t local, I encourage you to watch live streaming video of the Saturday demos at FreshPreserving.com, from 11:00 AM – 7:00 PM EST.  You can even ask questions and post comments in real time.

On Sunday afternoon at Pike Place Market, I’m presenting a live demonstration of pickled jalapeno slices recipe from my book Pickled: Preserving a World of Tastes and Traditions (2003).  It coincides with the kick-off of Canning Across America’s third Can-a- Rama, a week of home canning parties and seasonal preserving nationwide. For a full schedule of free and open to the public canning demos on August 13th (National Can-It-Forward Day) and on Sunday, August 14, visit Canning Across America or visit Canning Across America’s Facebook page.