Every year I say the same thing: omigod, the kohlrabi is so fun! Richfield Farm has it in abundance right now. Strip off the leaves and blanch them and treat them like collards, if you can stand the heat, then pare away the tough skin, slice the tender green interior thinly, and use like a chip in hummus dip. Or throw in salad. Or saute with stir fry, they’re a lot like water chestnuts.
Sprinkle shelled peas in everything – salad, soup, rice, pasta. Sit with a friend and drink Campari while shelling. Snack on fat, sweet sugar snap peas or delicate snow peas all the time. Fire up the stove once per day to blanch greens for freezing and to boil pasta: toss pasta with peas, arugula, spring onions, bacon, cream and serve hot or cold.
Buy up the rest of the strawberries by the flat and put some away in the freezer because it’ll all be over in the next couple weeks! Same goes for the asparagus. I’ve been pureeing and freezing straight strawberries as fast as I can hull them, and my son wakes up in the morning begging to “just go look” at the popsicles, or even cleverer, “I just want to smell them”. Then he eats five of them before breakfast. He also came up with a brilliant popsicle this week: dump a jar of Quaker Valley Orchard’s blueberry pie filling into a sippy cup full of milk, have mama clean up the spill over, then puree the rest with cardamom and freeze.
Oh, by the way, the ground ham mixed with the ground beef made delicious hamburgers. Next time I’m going to go 1/3 ground pork too, to make it moister, and serve with cilantro mayo and lettuce on a single slice of Atwater’s sourdough.
Events at market:
- Jacob and Friends are back this year with toe tapping Irish music and Second String will give us some bluegrass in the second shift.
- The Farmers’ Market Bike Clinic is always set up and rarin’ to go. If none of your neighbors turns out to volunteer, feel free to use the pump, try out the stand, and see how far you can get on your own!
Local Foods:
The Adelante Co-op – Back by popular demand: tacos con pollo o carne. Also, platos with grilled borracho chicken and beef, market vegetables and salad, El Salvadoran arroz casamiento (rice with black beans) or Puerto Rican arroz con gandules (rice with pigeon peas) and thick, homemade El Salvadoran style tortillas. Horchata to drink and new this week: Chicha morada – an unfermented version of the traditional, maize-based drink of the Incans.
Richfield Farm: New this week: summer squash are here! Sugar Snap peas and snow peas, kohlrabi. Cut flowers are bachelor’s buttons and peonies and sunflowers. Kale, Tuscan kale, collards, chard. Strawberries: Ian says, “if this isn’t the last week, then next week for sure”. Asparagus, head lettuce, spring onions, golfball-size red beets, rhubarb, hanging flower baskets, herb starts.
Smallwood’s Veggieporium: New this week: Napa cabbage – great for a light and tender summer slaw. Come early if you want some bok choy, it’s just starting to come in. Purple and yellow spring onions, broccoli, baby Detroit Red beets with greens, shelling peas and maybe some snap and snow peas. Garlic scapes, hakurei turnips with greens, spinach, salad mix, loose leaf lettuce, and head lettuces, radishes, collards, kale, mustard greens (purple and green), Swiss chard, cut herbs: parsley, sage, cilantro, dill, mint, purple basil, catnip and oregano. Bedding plants: summer squash, cucumbers, melons (Asian and European), sunflowers, cherry tomatoes, regular tomatoes, hot and sweet peppers, okra.
Truck Patch Farms: Second to last week for strawberries, last week for asparagus. Red, white and yellow spring onions, spinach, lettuce, salad mix, stir fry mix, arugula, Swiss chard, curly kale, radishes, cut herbs. Eggs. Pork and beef. Chickens, if you pre-order at order@truckpatchfarms.com. Ground beef and patties, ground pork, loose sausage, and ground ham. Sausages: sage, celery, applewurst, country hot, mild and hot Italian, sweet Italian with fennel, kielbasa, bratwurst. Smoked kielbasa and andouille. Beef steaks, pork chops and tenderloins, spare ribs, baby back ribs, pork shoulder. Breakfast sausages and bacon.
Groff’s Content Farm: Family farm raises 100% grass-fed and -finished lamb and beef on organic fields, pastured Berkshire pork, beautiful pastured eggs and chickens, both whole and cut up. Dog treats and nice big beef bones. Ground beef, nice big sausages, including delicious lamb merguez. Smell the pretty new soap that a neighbor of Julie’s is making from her own beef tallow.
Quaker Valley Orchards: Asparagus. Winter apples. Applesauce, honey, jam, tomato sauce, novelty popping corn-on-the-cob, dried apples, canned peaches. Pie fillings: cherry, blackberry, blueberry and apple.
Reid Orchard: Strawberries and sugar snap peas. Bedding starts for your garden: hot and sweet peppers, corn, zucchini, squash, eggplant, heirloom tomatoes, and a huge variety of culinary and ornamental herbs.
Cherry Glen Goat Cheese Company: Handmade, artisanal goat cheese. Fresh chevre and ricotta cheese and delicious crottins and brie-like wedges of creamy, soft-ripened cheese.
Atwater Bread: Organic sourdough and yeasted breads: Peasant Wheat, Caraway Rye, Cranberry Pecan, Kalamata Olive, traditional San Francisco Sourdough, Ciabatta, Country White, Chili Cheddar, French Baguette, Spelt, Sunflower Flax, and more. Brownies, cookies, scones, muffins, and granola.
Panorama Bakery: Baguettes, croissants, pain au chocolat, mini ciabattas are great for sandwiches, sliced loaves, danishes, sticky buns, apple turnovers.
June 5 – Kohlrabi and Peas
Every year I say the same thing: omigod, the kohlrabi is so fun! Richfield Farm has it in abundance right now. Strip off the leaves and blanch them and treat them like collards, if you can stand the heat, then pare away the tough skin, slice the tender green interior thinly, and use like a chip in hummus dip. Or throw in salad. Or saute with stir fry, they’re a lot like water chestnuts.
Sprinkle shelled peas in everything – salad, soup, rice, pasta. Sit with a friend and drink Campari while shelling. Snack on fat, sweet sugar snap peas or delicate snow peas all the time. Fire up the stove once per day to blanch greens for freezing and to boil pasta: toss pasta with peas, arugula, spring onions, bacon, cream and serve hot or cold.
Buy up the rest of the strawberries by the flat and put some away in the freezer because it’ll all be over in the next couple weeks! Same goes for the asparagus. I’ve been pureeing and freezing straight strawberries as fast as I can hull them, and my son wakes up in the morning begging to “just go look” at the popsicles, or even cleverer, “I just want to smell them”. Then he eats five of them before breakfast. He also came up with a brilliant popsicle this week: dump a jar of Quaker Valley Orchard’s blueberry pie filling into a sippy cup full of milk, have mama clean up the spill over, then puree the rest with cardamom and freeze.
Oh, by the way, the ground ham mixed with the ground beef made delicious hamburgers. Next time I’m going to go 1/3 ground pork too, to make it moister, and serve with cilantro mayo and lettuce on a single slice of Atwater’s sourdough.
Events at market:
Local Foods:
The Adelante Co-op – Back by popular demand: tacos con pollo o carne. Also, platos with grilled borracho chicken and beef, market vegetables and salad, El Salvadoran arroz casamiento (rice with black beans) or Puerto Rican arroz con gandules (rice with pigeon peas) and thick, homemade El Salvadoran style tortillas. Horchata to drink and new this week: Chicha morada – an unfermented version of the traditional, maize-based drink of the Incans.
Richfield Farm: New this week: summer squash are here! Sugar Snap peas and snow peas, kohlrabi. Cut flowers are bachelor’s buttons and peonies and sunflowers. Kale, Tuscan kale, collards, chard. Strawberries: Ian says, “if this isn’t the last week, then next week for sure”. Asparagus, head lettuce, spring onions, golfball-size red beets, rhubarb, hanging flower baskets, herb starts.
Smallwood’s Veggieporium: New this week: Napa cabbage – great for a light and tender summer slaw. Come early if you want some bok choy, it’s just starting to come in. Purple and yellow spring onions, broccoli, baby Detroit Red beets with greens, shelling peas and maybe some snap and snow peas. Garlic scapes, hakurei turnips with greens, spinach, salad mix, loose leaf lettuce, and head lettuces, radishes, collards, kale, mustard greens (purple and green), Swiss chard, cut herbs: parsley, sage, cilantro, dill, mint, purple basil, catnip and oregano. Bedding plants: summer squash, cucumbers, melons (Asian and European), sunflowers, cherry tomatoes, regular tomatoes, hot and sweet peppers, okra.
Truck Patch Farms: Second to last week for strawberries, last week for asparagus. Red, white and yellow spring onions, spinach, lettuce, salad mix, stir fry mix, arugula, Swiss chard, curly kale, radishes, cut herbs. Eggs. Pork and beef. Chickens, if you pre-order at order@truckpatchfarms.com. Ground beef and patties, ground pork, loose sausage, and ground ham. Sausages: sage, celery, applewurst, country hot, mild and hot Italian, sweet Italian with fennel, kielbasa, bratwurst. Smoked kielbasa and andouille. Beef steaks, pork chops and tenderloins, spare ribs, baby back ribs, pork shoulder. Breakfast sausages and bacon.
Groff’s Content Farm: Family farm raises 100% grass-fed and -finished lamb and beef on organic fields, pastured Berkshire pork, beautiful pastured eggs and chickens, both whole and cut up. Dog treats and nice big beef bones. Ground beef, nice big sausages, including delicious lamb merguez. Smell the pretty new soap that a neighbor of Julie’s is making from her own beef tallow.
Quaker Valley Orchards: Asparagus. Winter apples. Applesauce, honey, jam, tomato sauce, novelty popping corn-on-the-cob, dried apples, canned peaches. Pie fillings: cherry, blackberry, blueberry and apple.
Reid Orchard: Strawberries and sugar snap peas. Bedding starts for your garden: hot and sweet peppers, corn, zucchini, squash, eggplant, heirloom tomatoes, and a huge variety of culinary and ornamental herbs.
Cherry Glen Goat Cheese Company: Handmade, artisanal goat cheese. Fresh chevre and ricotta cheese and delicious crottins and brie-like wedges of creamy, soft-ripened cheese.
Atwater Bread: Organic sourdough and yeasted breads: Peasant Wheat, Caraway Rye, Cranberry Pecan, Kalamata Olive, traditional San Francisco Sourdough, Ciabatta, Country White, Chili Cheddar, French Baguette, Spelt, Sunflower Flax, and more. Brownies, cookies, scones, muffins, and granola.
Panorama Bakery: Baguettes, croissants, pain au chocolat, mini ciabattas are great for sandwiches, sliced loaves, danishes, sticky buns, apple turnovers.