New this week: Atwater Pies, Pumpkin Bread and Stuffing Sticks. Quaker Valley customer appreciation apple sale! Truck Patch Farms has jars of their lovely whole heirloom tomatoes, soaking in their own juice and a bit of basil.
Thanksgiving to-do countdown:
- Order your turkey (and your duck?). If you don’t have room in your fridge, don’t worry, it’ll be cold enough during the week before Thanksgiving that your fresh bird can live on the back porch in a cooler with a regular rotation of ice packs. Or you can try Truck Patch Farms’ technique of putting it straight into brine in a big 5 gallon pot with plenty of room so you can add ice occasionally – the bird will only take up as much salt as it can and being submerged in brine will preserve it.
- Get some Atwater Pumpkin Breads now to let them get stale for an amazing bread pudding. Or they’ll freeze up just fine for the big dinner.
- Buy some Atwater pies and eat them now before you have share them with your guests, and before you’re too full to really enjoy them.
- Roast any pumpkins you’ll want for homemade pumpkin pies (or pumpkin custard for the bread pudding above).
- Buy big boxes of potatoes, sweet potatoes, and onions – they’re already dug, it’s not like you need them “fresh”. They store just fine, ideally 55 degrees, dark and low humidity, with a little dirt on them, keep onions separate. You don’t want to be scrambling on the last weekend before Thanksgiving should everyone sell out!
- Make pie crusts and freeze.
- Make room in your fridge during the week for the Thanksgiving shopping list.
What to eat NOW? Mrs. Fox says her Wine Braised Red Cabbage goes great with all the seasonal, warm-feeling, non-poultry meats that you can enjoy before we enter the turkey-this, turkey-that time, like pork chops, applewurst sausage or roast pork shoulder: saute shredded red cabbage, apple, onion and bacon in butter until crisp, then braise ’til tender in old red wine and a bit of vinegar, then add shredded potatoes and a bit of honey.
Events:
- Sierra Club Sustainable Metro DC is tabling at market this week.
- Kay Campbell plays from 9-11, then from 11-1 Dr. Wittenberg is back with his rousing and warming folk songs.
- Farmers’ Market Bike Clinic: Cool weather biking in falling leaves is divine. Tent, tools, pump, stand, and helpful neighbors get together every Saturday to help each other out. Get an Rx for 10% off all your bike needs at Old School Hardware across the street – inner tubes, pumps, tools, lights, and more!
Local Foods:
Atwater’s Bread: Ten and five inch Pumpkin, Pecan, Sweet Potato, Apple Cranberry and Apple pies. Stuffing sticks – perfect breadstick-y items for use in stuffing. Pumpkin bread. Naturally leavened, hand shaped loaves like Peasant Wheat, Caraway Rye, Cranberry Pecan, Kalamata Olive, traditional San Francisco Sourdough, Ciabatta, Country White, Chili Cheddar, Spelt, Sunflower Flax, more. Ned Atwater does slow fermentation with carefully tended starters and wild yeast, organic stone ground flour from a family mill in North Carolina. Also yeasted breads like the slightly sweet, traditional Irish Struan bread. Great scones, muffins, cookies, brownies, granola, bagels and delicious soups to take home!
Quaker Valley Orchards: Customer appreciation special! Apples for 2 dollars a pound, or fill a Quaker Valley shopping bag with 20 lbs for 30 dollars! This week and next, store cool and dry, and if you run out, you can find them at Dupont Circle on Sundays or Silver Spring on Saturdays over the winter. Lots of edible pumpkins. Red and green Bartlett pears, Bosc pears. Several lovely apple varieties. Red and white sweet onions, potatoes, sweet potatoes. Cider, apple butter, tomato sauce, applesauce, apple chips, jam, canned peaches, honey, and popping corn on the cob.
People’s Bao: Yummy Chinese steamed buns with tender, slow roasted heirloom Berkshire pork shoulder or duck confit or delicious savory Pennsylvania shiitake mushrooms, with a dose of Truck Patch Farms’ delicious and tender arugula.
Groff’s Content Farm: All cuts and roasts of fall lamb. Broad Breasted Bronze Thanksgiving turkeys, raised on pasture, 4.50/lb, order now! Muscovy duck. All pork cuts, pork sausages, bacon, ham. Beef roasts, sirloins, ground beef. Eggs and whole chickens. Complete raw meat dog food. Tallow soaps.
Earth Spring Farm: Rutabaga, topless beets, purple top, red scarlets, and hakurei salad turnips. Sweet, multicolored carrot bunches with Chantenay and Purple Haze and others. Green cabbage, escarole, broccoli and broccoli rabe. Dehydrated tomatoes. Curly kale, Siberian red kale (it turns red with the frost!), spicy arugula, green and purple mustard greens, bok choy, lettuce, daikon radish. Walla Walla, Red Candy Apple and Cippolini onions. Red Pontiac, Kennebec and Eva potatoes and Beauregard, Red Georgia, and White Hernandez sweet potatoes. Chives and other cut herbs.
Richfield Farm: Rutabagas and Brussels sprouts and turnips and multicolored beets. Savoy cabbage, green cabbage, purple cabbage. Sweet potatoes, potatoes, onions, broccoli, cauliflower (white, golden, purple, green), collards, kale, Swiss chard, tatsoi, tender greens, butternut squash, acorn squash, delicata squash, cherry tomatoes and field tomatoes. Maybe some of Ian’s sister’s lovely dry flower bouquets!
Reid Orchard: Regular and UV-treated Apple cider, Cherry-Apple, Grape-Apple and Pure Pear cider. Amazing apple selection, and Bartlett and Bosc pears. Apple butter, pumpkin butter and some neat flavored jams.
Truck Patch Farms: Jarred heirloom tomatoes are back in! Sweet carrots, beets with tops, green tomatoes, white cauliflower, romesco, broccoli. Spinach, mesclun, arugula. Kale, Swiss chard. Yellow onions. Yukon Gold and white potatoes. Sweet potatoes. Butternut and acorn squash. Cilantro and Italian parsley.
Truck Patch Farms Meat Department: Thanksgiving turkeys for order! Ask about their Winter Meat CSA. Pork: pork steak, shoulder butt, boneless shoulder roast, bone-in and boneless loin roasts, smoked bacon, sliced and slab, fresh slab bacon, uncured hotdogs, amber hams, smoked ham slices, and a variety of sausages – Sage in ropes, loose and little links, Hot Italian ropes, Maple little links, Sweet Italian, Bratwurst and Applewurst. Pig feet, tails and hocks, fat back, lard, salt pork, fresh and smoked jowl. Spare ribs and country ribs. Pre-order at order@truckpatchfarms.com for chickens. Eggs.
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.
Nov 19 – End of Season, Happy Thanksgiving
Last market of the season is always fun! Picking up good foods for your Thanksgiving meal, enjoying a tot in your hot cider on the bandstand, sampling biscuits n’ gravy with Truck Patch Farms’ delicious sausage gravy or V Picnic Club’s scrumptious vegan nutritional yeast gravy (yum! hard to say which is my favorite!), saying sayonara, comparing winter plans, and promising to potluck together this year!
To do list:
One last Bike Clinic of the year! There’s still lots of nice riding weather left in 2011, come share and learn strategies for winter biking too. Bring down your parts box or extra bikes – we’ll have a little biker yard sale going on! Old School Hardware will continue to stock your most essential bike needs, like locks and lights – get a last Rx from the Bike Clinic and stock up on those items at 10% off.
I’m going to spam y’all in a couple weeks with a reminder for the 5% day at Whole Foods on 12/14 to support DC Greens, the non-profit that’s going to hook us up with the sweet double dollars for WIC and Senior Farmers’ Market Nutrition Program and SNAP (food stamps) use at market. These food supplement programs have done wonders for getting fresh fruits and vegetables to low income folks, and are especially effective at catching kids early and developing a palate for fresh, healthy and delicious foods. Meanwhile, if you’ve got some serious stocking up to do on pantry items, like flour and spices, try to put it off ’til the 14th – both the P St and Georgetown Whole Foods will donate 5% of all sales from that day to us. At market tomorrow, you can pick up the awesome little Best Of pantry list that we put together for you.
Local Foods:
V Picnic Club: Lots of vegan, seasonal delights to eat right away or save for your Thanksgiving meal! Mini Pot Pies (swooooon!) can be heated up at home in the nuker or oven, Cran Apple Sauce, Mushroom Gravy, Wild Rice and Apple Stuffing, Cupcakes by Gimme Dem Cupcakes and complimentary Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies (with fresh pumpkin not canned!) as a thanks to all our customers and helpers who made this season possible! Also, check out their new business logo! If you want to be in touch during the off-season (mmm, catered holiday party that everyone can enjoy?), email jilleckart@hotmail.com.
Atwater’s Bread: Stuffing sticks, pumpkin bread and pies. Naturally leavened, hand shaped loaves like Peasant Wheat, Caraway Rye, Cranberry Pecan, Kalamata Olive, traditional San Francisco Sourdough, Ciabatta, Country White, Chili Cheddar, Spelt, Sunflower Flax, more. Ned Atwater does slow fermentation with carefully tended starters and wild yeast, organic stone ground flour from a family mill in North Carolina. Also yeasted breads like the slightly sweet, traditional Irish Struan bread. Great scones, muffins, cookies, brownies, granola, bagels and delicious soups to take home!
People’s Bao: Yummy Chinese steamed buns with tender, slow roasted heirloom Berkshire pork shoulder or special Thanksgiving “turduckey” confit or delicious savory Pennsylvania shiitake mushrooms, with a dose of Truck Patch Farms’ delicious and tender arugula.
Truck Patch Farms: Beautiful jars of heirloom tomatoes. Collards and Brussels sprouts on the stalk. Sweet carrots, beets with tops, green tomatoes. Cauliflower, romesco, broccoli. Spinach, mesclun, arugula. Kale, Swiss chard. Great big boxes of good storage items: yellow, white and red onions, Yukon Gold and white potatoes, sweet potatoes, butternut and acorn squash. Cilantro and Italian parsley.
Truck Patch Farms Meat Department: Pick up your Thanksgiving turkey! Sign up for winter delivery notifications. Pork: pork steak, shoulder butt, boneless shoulder roast, bone-in and boneless loin roasts, smoked bacon, sliced and slab, fresh slab bacon, uncured hotdogs, amber hams, smoked ham slices, and a variety of sausages – Sage in ropes, loose and little links, Hot Italian ropes, Maple little links, Sweet Italian, Bratwurst and Applewurst. Pig feet, tails and hocks, fat back, lard, salt pork, fresh and smoked jowl. Spare ribs and country ribs. Eggs.
Groff’s Content Farm: All cuts and roasts of fall lamb. Pick up your Thanksgiving turkey or Muscovy duck. All pork cuts, pork sausages, bacon, ham. Beef roasts, sirloins, ground beef. Eggs and whole chickens. Complete raw meat dog food. Tallow soaps.
Earth Spring Farm: Rutabaga, topless beets, purple top, red scarlet, and hakurei salad turnips. Hopefully some carrot. Green cabbage, escarole, broccoli and broccoli rabe. Dehydrated tomatoes. Curly kale, Siberian red kale (it turns red with the frost!), spicy arugula, green and purple mustard greens, bok choy, lettuce, daikon radish. Walla Walla, Red Candy Apple and Cippolini onions. Red Pontiac, Kennebec and Eva potatoes and Beauregard, Red Georgia, and White Hernandez sweet potatoes. Chives and other cut herbs.
Quaker Valley Orchards: Customer appreciation special still going: apples for 2 dollars a pound, or fill a Quaker Valley shopping bag with 20 lbs for 30 dollars! Store cool and dry, and if you run out, you can find them at Dupont Circle on Sundays or Silver Spring on Saturdays over the winter. Lots of edible pumpkins. Several apple and pear varieties. Red and white sweet onions, potatoes, sweet potatoes. Cider, apple butter, tomato sauce, applesauce, apple chips, jam, canned peaches, honey, and popping corn on the cob.
Richfield Farm: Rutabagas and Brussels sprouts and turnips and multicolored beets. Savoy cabbage, green cabbage, purple cabbage. Sweet potatoes, potatoes, onions, broccoli, cauliflower (white, golden, purple, green), collards, kale, Swiss chard, tatsoi, tender greens, butternut squash, acorn squash, delicata squash. Dry flower bouquets.
Reid Orchard: Regular and UV-treated Apple cider, Cherry-Apple, Grape-Apple and Pure Pear cider. Amazing apple selection, and Bartlett and Bosc pears. Apple butter, pumpkin butter and some neat flavored jams.
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.