Mt. Pleasant Farmers' Market » Newsletter

May 19 – Strawberry Smoothies

Mrs. Higgins — Fri, 18 May 2012 21:22:41 +0000

New: Havarti cheese and Pohu oyster mushrooms at Earth Spring Farm, perfect bun-size sausages at Groff’s Content.

Is it a coincidence that Bike To Work Day falls right smack during our super-abundance of strawberries? I’m no holy man, but I think there might be some cosmic righteous alignment going on. Because what could be a better biker’s recovery drink than homemade Strawberry Milk? Bubble together on the stove a 1/3 cup of sugar, a cup of water and a cup of strawberries, preferably the slightly unsightly ones, the overripe ones or the tartish ones, 10 minutes. Strain the syrup into glasses of chilled whole fat cow milk or delicious almond milk, save the solids for pancake topping or homemade fruit-at-the-bottom yogurt cups to send to school. Include a cherry chocolate granola bar from Atwater to crumble on top, if you really love them.

Events:

Mt P Market Buskers this week are our neighborhood musical tradition of accordion duo Lamont Park Deluxe at 9am and Olivia Mancini at 11a with her lovely voice and guitar.
Farmers’ Market Bike Clinic: Tent, tools, pump, stand, and helpful neighbors get together every Saturday to help each other out. Ask your bike clinician for an Rx for 10% off all your bike needs at Old School Hardware across the street – they’re stocked up on all the essentials like inner tubes, pumps, tools, lights, and more!

Local Foods:
Pleasant Pops: Strawberry n’ Cream, Strawberry Ginger Lemonade, Strawberry Banana, Chongos (Mexican Sweet Cream and Cinnamon). Yum!

People’s Bao: Chinese steamed buns with tender, slow roasted heirloom Berkshire pork shoulder or duck confit or savory Pennsylvania shiitake mushrooms and market fresh greens, and hopefully a homemade Ginger Ale!

V Picnic Club: Every other week, so this is Jill’s week off…

Earth Spring Farm: Mushrooms are back! Pohu Oyster mushrooms are mild flavored with delicate texture. Gorgeous red and green lettuce heads, maybe some red butterheads too, gotta look under the row covers. Lots of pre-washed loose spinach and baby rainbow Swiss chard. Asparagus. Radishes: Easter egg and the sell-out Shungiku. Curly Siberian, Red Russian, regular Curly and black Toscano kale. Large, tender collard greens. Scallions, chives. Garden starts in adorable clay pots: lettuce, beans, chard, spinach. Amish cheese: havarti, cheddars and jacks, in plain and herb flavors.

Groff’s Content Farm: Plenty of good Spring lamb, all cuts of pork, pork sausages, bacon, lots of good beef steaks, roasts and ground beef. Eggs. Complete raw meat dog food. Tallow soaps.

Reid Orchard: A variety of Pennsylvania strawberries. Fuji and Cameo apples. Canned goods like preserves, apple butter, apple sauce. Chemical free garden starts with great advice on what grows well where, including what’s a good container plant (for tomatoes try Beefsteak, Celebrity, Patio, Roma Window Box, Sweet Million Cherry, Black Cherry, Tigerella, Sun Sugar, Sugary, Super Sweet 100, or Green Zebra; or try several herbs and lettuces) and great herbal tea combos (like soothing and refreshing: Kentucky Colonel Spearmint + Pineapple Sage + Lemon Verbena. Lettuce starts: Italian Misticanza mix and All American Wildfire Mix. Hot and sweet peppers plants, heirloom tomato plants, cherry tomatoes, veggie starts and hundreds of herb starts.

Quaker Valley Orchards: New strawberries and greenhouse cucumbers! Fresh green and purple asparagus, Fuji apples, popcorn, honey, Honeycrisp apple sauce, tomato sauce, apple butter, dried apples, apple cider, canned peaches, and jams in Tart Cherry, Blueberry and Blackberry.

Richfield Farm: Strawberries, asparagus, spinach, radishes, rhubarb and spring onions. Herb garden starts and lush flower hanging baskets.

Truck Patch Farms: Strawberries and asparagus. Spinach, curly kale, dino kale, mesclun, swiss chard, Red Detroit beets, spring onions, garlic chives, regular chives and mint.

Truck Patch Farms Meat Department: All cuts of pork. Eggs. Chicken parts. Boneless turkey breast and turkey bacon. Try ground turkey in white chili for more flavor.

Atwater’s 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!

May 12 – Rhubarb and Asparagus and Cheese

Mrs. Higgins — Fri, 11 May 2012 21:04:53 +0000

I was trying to explain rhubarb to a customer last weekend and found myself fairly stumped. How DO you describe it? I settled for “icky raw, tart and unusual cooked, if you’re not into pies, just cook it in water and sugar and put it on anything”. I think that’s roughly true – you can strain off the syrup and use that in spritzers and cocktails, and the remaining compote can be dolled up with orange or lemon zest, strawberries, cardamom, or get really creative with Earl Grey tea or something wackier. Spoon over ice cream, pound cake, pancakes, even oatmeal! Or turn in into a curd, just like lemon curd with egg yolks and butter, for pouring on shortbread and make an elegant cookie, per this Rhubarb Curd Shortbread recipe from Food52.com. Better yet, grab brilliant neighborhood food blogger Mrs. Sokol and make her cough up her rhubarb ideas from Weekly Greens, including Rhubarb Mojitos and Spiced Rhubarb Chutney on Pork Tenderloin (or just for dipping your naan).

Events:

Mt P Market Buskers are a mystery this weekend! Think you got what it takes to sit in the shade and strum a guitar? There’s a sign up sheet on the bandstand, we’ll get you on the calendar!
Farmers’ Market Bike Clinic: Tent, tools, pump, stand, and helpful neighbors get together every Saturday to help each other out. Ask your bike clinician for an Rx for 10% off all your bike needs at Old School Hardware across the street – they’re stocked up on all the essentials like inner tubes, pumps, tools, lights, and more!

Local Foods:
Pleasant Pops: Strawberry Pop with berries from Quaker Valley Orchard, Strawberry Ginger Lemonade, Chongos (Mexican Sweet Cream and Cinnamon), and the Cucumber Chili is back!

V Picnic Club: Thai Red Curry Tofu Scramble Burritos, Kale Salad with Lemon Tahini Dressing (back by popular demand), Apple Ginger Tea…and maybe a surprise dessert if there’s time.
This season, VPC has taken steps to reduce plastic use, transitioning to paper cups and paper containers and a new product called the ecotensil for those who can’t wait to get home!

Earth Spring Farm: Lovely lettuce mix, radishes, kale. Garden starts in adorable clay pots: lettuce, beans, chard, spinach. Amish cheese! Mike is working on the Eshes about coming down some weekend to talk about dairying, cows and cheesemaking with interested customers. No mushrooms this week, Mike texted me the words, “drought gap”. You’ll have to ask him what that means…but the ’shroom room is looking good and will have some wonderful varieties coming!

Groff’s Content Farm: Plenty of good Spring lamb, all cuts of pork, pork sausages, bacon, lots of good beef steaks, roasts and ground beef. Eggs. Complete raw meat dog food. Tallow soaps.

Reid Orchard: Kathy says they picked the first of their Pennsylvania strawberries this morning! Winter apples: Fuji, Cameo, and Golden Rush. Canned goods like preserves, apple butter, apple sauce. Sustainably grown garden starts: no chemicals, no hyper-fertilization, no growth regulators, just
sun + time + natural fish fertilizer. Hot and peppers plants (like Purple Beauty and Serrano del Sol), heirloom tomato plants (like Cherokee Purple and Green Zebra, but others less familiar like Hillbilly and Big Rainbow, Japanese Black Trifele, Abe Lincoln Original), cherry tomatoes (like the pink and sweet Rosalita cherry and the coveted Sungold), veggie starts (like Black Zucchini, watermelon, more!), hundreds of herb starts, mints you’ve never heard, 10 different kinds of basil, ground cover thymes, eatin’ thymes, and much much more.

Richfield Farm: Strawberries, asparagus, spinach, radishes, rhubarb and spring onions. Garden starts: award winning herb starts…8 varieties of thyme, 8 varieties of basil, dozens of mints, sage, cilantro, lavender, and pretty echinacea flowers. Also, lush hanging baskets of nasturtiums and petunias.

Truck Patch Farms: Strawberries and asparagus. Spinach, curly kale, dino kale, mesclun, swiss chard, Red Detroit beets, spring onions, garlic chives, regular chives and mint.

Truck Patch Farms Meat Department: All cuts of pork. Eggs. Chicken parts. Boneless turkey breast and turkey bacon. Try ground turkey in white chili for more flavor.

May 5 – Opening Day! Strawberries and Mushrooms!

Mrs. Higgins — Wed, 02 May 2012 17:10:43 +0000

I’ve been asking our farming friends what they thought of the “winter”. Bryan of Truck Patch Farm said this seems to happen about every five years and remembers wearing shorts in the winter at Dupont Circle Far Mar back in 2006 or so. Mike Nolan of Earth Spring Farm says he’s looking at more produce in the ground than ever before – and a new lease on 40 acres of certified organic land. His methods are already well beyond organic, but now he can work more quickly towards the official status. This crazy weather has been great for early field prep – you need dry days to get out there and turn under the winter cover crops, lay out rows, establish new fields, and seed without ruining the soil. Strawberries were almost frighteningly early – a cooler April helped slow them down so we’d still have some in May.

The most thrilling report from the winter is Earth Spring Farm’s successful establishment of a mushroom room. Sorry, I mean, “a ’shroom room, dude”. Dude! This season, Mike will be bringing four varieties of oyster mushrooms, shiitakes and lobster mushrooms! Great protein quality, close to meat. Used in Chinese medicine as an immune tonic for at least 3000 years. But most importantly, delicious! Saute them briefly and add them to soup, any vegetable side dish, tacos, burgers (with or without the ground beef!). Last week, I made a delicious Thai Coconut style soup with oyster mushrooms and asparagus that the kids loved.

Other great news: Atwater’s gonna bring bagels this weekend! Groff’s Content has a new litter of pigs. People’s Bao is bringing homemade ginger ale. Truck Patch has been exploring the world of turkey in depth and finding that it’s a richer flavor and great value – try subbing it in some of your traditional chicken dishes.

Also, it’s time to get your garden on: Richfield Farm, Reid Orchard and Earth Spring Farm always have good, sturdy herb, flower and veggie starts for you to plant in your gardens or containers. It’s hard to pick just one kind of thyme!

Events:

Mt P Market Buskers Stephen Fishman and Kay Campbell will play for our opening day!
Farmers’ Market Bike Clinic: Tent, tools, pump, stand, and helpful neighbors get together every Saturday to help each other out. Ask your bike clinician for an Rx for 10% off all your bike needs at Old School Hardware across the street – they’re stocked up on all the essentials like inner tubes, pumps, tools, lights, and more!

Local Foods:
Pleasant Pops: The Pops have had a busy winter plotting and planning a retail space to open soon! But they’ve also been freezing up delicious frozen pops for our opening day…expect to find Summer Strawberry, Strawberry Ginger Lemonade, Chongos (Mexican Sweet Cream and Cinnamon), and something new!

People’s Bao: Not only is Peter serving his yummy Chinese steamed buns with tender, slow roasted heirloom Berkshire pork shoulder or duck confit or savory Pennsylvania shiitake mushrooms and market fresh greens, but this year he’s opening the season for us with a homemade Ginger Ale!

V Picnic Club will start next week, so happy to have them back. Jill will be around at market this Saturday so you can grab her and say how excited you are to have yummy vegan take out food!

Earth Spring Farm: Dove Oyster mushrooms! Fleshy, perfectly round, smooth edges, delicate dove grey color, sweetly shrimp-like flavor, little shrinkage, hold their shape when briefly cooked, good in everything. Cheese. Lovely lettuce mix of baby Lollo Rosso and red and green oak leaf. Radishes. Chives. Garden starts in adorable clay pots.

Groff’s Content Farm: Plenty of good Spring lamb, all cuts of pork, pork sausages, bacon, lots of good beef steaks, roasts and ground beef. Eggs. Complete raw meat dog food. Tallow soaps.

Truck Patch Farms: Strawberries! Both Earli-glo and Dar Select. Asparagus thick and thin. Spinach, curly kale, dino kale, mesclun, swiss chard, Red Detroit beets, hopefully some spring onions, garlic chives, regular chives and mint.

Truck Patch Farms Meat Department: All cuts of pork. Eggs. Chicken parts. Boneless turkey breast and turkey bacon. Try ground turkey in white chili for more flavor.

Quaker Valley Orchards: Lots of fresh green and purple asparagus, Fuji apples, popcorn, honey, Honeycrisp apple sauce, tomato sauce, apple butter, dried apples, apple cider, canned peaches, and jams in Tart Cherry, Blueberry and Blackberry.

Reid Orchard: Fuji, Cameo, and Golden Rush apples, canned goods like preserves, apple butter, apple sauce. An amazing selection of sustainably grown garden starts! Hot peppers plants and heirloom tomato plants (cherokee purple, san marzano plum, green zebra, black cherry and more), hundreds of herb starts, mints you’ve never heard, basil, ground cover thymes, eatin’ thymes, and much much more.

Dec 14 – Support DC Greens by shopping at Whole Foods

Mrs. Higgins — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 22:24:40 +0000

The non-profit school gardens org DC Greens is taking us under their wing to increase the number of farmers’ markets offering double dollars on food assistance programs like food stamps (aka EBT, aka SNAP), WIC (Women, Infant, Children) and Senior FMNP (Farmers’ Market Nutrition Program). You know we only do that wireless ATM machine thing for the food stamps angle, and you’ve all been very generously supporting the market’s capacity for food stamps with your debit surcharge for wooden tokens. Overcoming the technical obstacles to the use of food assistance programs at farmers’ markets has been the first step, but we’re finding nationwide that the real difference in healthy foods getting to low income families is when double dollars are offered on site.

So they got Whole Foods to offer one of their 5% days at both the P Street and the Wisconsin Ave store. That’s a real coup! And you can support this effort…effortlessly, by doing a little pantry stocking Wednesday, December 14th: any shopping you do at Whole Foods will translate into a substantial donation to DC Greens. Not sure what to buy? Here are some ideas from our handy dandy Pantry List:

A miniature potted rosemary – that’ll work as a Xmas tree too!
A year’s worth of olive oil
An enormous wheel of raclette cheese to melt at the table with friends
Wine, sake, plum wine, cider, beer
A year of yummy Ayurdevic toothpaste and sustainably made toothbrushes
Presents! Amaryllis bulbs, bath salts, bamboo cutting board, salad tongs, sushi making kit
Sustainably caught shrimp
Avocados

If you’re looking for some culinary inspiration, there’s an exciting lineup of local chefs doing in-store cooking demos throughout the day, including John Melfi of Blue Duck Tavern, Peter Smith & Gina Chersevani of PS7 (ask about her cocktails, oh man), and Ris LaCoste of Ris. For a complete listing of chefs and the demo schedule, check out the DC Greens events page.

Post Season Stuff

Mrs. Higgins — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 19:44:53 +0000

Still grinding through the last tubs of Thanksgiving leftovers? I have two things to take your mind off the slowly desiccating stuffing: first, Historic MtP is having a party tonight, and second, I wanted to remind you to put off as much grocery store shopping as you can ’til Dec 14th.

Historic Mount Pleasant’s annual Holiday Party is tonight, Friday, December 2 at 7pm at 1770 Park Rd. Renew acquaintances along with your membership at a convivial evening in an historic MtP setting. Buffet and cash bar. Members only, but you can renew or obtain a 2012 membership at the door or at HistoricMountPleasant.org for only $35.

Save the date for the Whole Foods 5% Day on Wednesday 12/14. All day, at both the P St and Wisconsin locations, Whole Foods will donate 5% of sales to DC Greens, the awesome far mar and school gardens org that will use the money to fund bonus dollars programs for WIC and SNAP (aka EBT, aka Food Stamps) at Mount Pleasant Farmers’ Market for 2012. If you’ve got pantry items to buy and you can wait a couple weeks, please do! Olive oil, flour, wine, spices, cake decorating stuff, nuts, toothpaste, and more – check out this handy list. I’ll remind you of this one more time and then no more nagging.

Nov 19 – End of Season, Happy Thanksgiving

Mrs. Higgins — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 23:23:35 +0000

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:

Pick up your pre-ordered birds and chat with Bryan at Truck Patch or Bob at Groff’s Content about storage and prepping before Thursday.
Pick out apple cider for the kids and teetotalers at your dinner. Forget to put it in the fridge and have a really memorable dinner.
Outsource some of your Thanksgiving chores to V Picnic Club and snap up their Cranberry Sauce, Wild Rice Stuffing, and Mushroom Gravy.
Stock up on easy storage items: potatoes, sweet potatoes, turnips, rutabagas, onions, pumpkins and apples.
Stock up on pantry items: Quaker Valley Orchard’s jams and tomato sauce, Reid Orchard’s jams and butter, Truck Patch Farms’ canned heirloom tomatoes.
Stock up on sausages and steaks, lamb and pork, bacon and ground beef for your freezer.
Not hosting this year? Pick out some healthy delicious food for the week before you’re faced with that wretched airplane food on your way back home. Pick up some Cherry Glen goat cheese or a Groff’s Content tallow soap as a hostess gift, or moist Triple Ginger Cake from Atwater, a selection of crisp and unusual apples to show off, and some carrots for snacking while traveling.

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.

Nov 12 – Second To Last Market Day

Mrs. Higgins — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 16:21:20 +0000

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.

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 5 – Stuffed Pumpkin

Mrs. Higgins — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 18:32:46 +0000

New this week: Groff’s Content is back in pork sausages and also has Muscovy ducks available! Green tomatoes at Truck Patch make wonderful pies, fried slices with eggs for breakfast, or delicious chutney.

Help bring double dollars to the market for food assistance programs like WIC and food stamps by making a miniscule donation to DC Greens on Wednesday, Nov 9th for Greater Washington Give to the Max Day. It doesn’t matter how much you give, but if we get the greatest number of individual donors, we win a huge cash prize. If you’re willing, put it on your calendar now and donate to DC Greens, the non-profit that will sponsor a double dollars program at MtP!

Since Barbara Kingsolver wrote about a disastrous pumpkin tureen attempt in Animal Vegetable Miracle, I’ve been too daunted to try it myself. But there seem to be messages popping up in my life to try it after all:

Market manager Stef Gans had a copy of Bon Appetit out a couple weeks ago and I flipped it open right to a Pumpkin Cheese Soup recipe with advice on picking gourds that don’t collapse during the roast – that pretty blue Jarrahdale that showed up on your neighbor’s porch for decoration? I’m not saying you should steal it, but you might stalk them or ask leading questions until you determine whether they intend to eat it before the squirrels do. Quaker Valley Orchard has some of the thick fleshed varieties you want.
Knit Clinic guest hostess Elizabeth Woys moved to Arizona but she’s still thinking of us and sent this more casserole-y style Stuffed Pumpkin which I’m going to make with the rest of that poor Swiss chard in the back yard.
I went to a Halloween party last Sunday and Mary Elizabeth brought a delicious beef and potato stew served in a roasted pumpkin that had everyone racing for spoons. Great use for rutabagas and turnips too, and if you want to skip the meat, use a little porcini powder for instant umami boost. She said she did some scraping out of the raw pumpkin’s interior to add pieces of pumpkin to the soup, but I think you could also just scrape the sides as you served it.

So now my sister knows part of the Thanksgiving menu for this year! Am also seriously considering Mrs. Fox’s harebrained idea of adding cannellini beans to sauteed Brussels sprouts, though I don’t usually clutter my vegetable sides with anything but garlic, salt, bacon, Parmesan or nuts. But this sounds really delicious, especially if we sprinkle the Pecorino on top and give it a quick broil before it hits the table.

Events:

DC Honeybees is a non-profit dedicated to the growth of beekeeping and bee colonies in an urban environment. They will come to market this Saturday to talk to you about honeybees and how you can combat Colony Collapse Disorder with your own hive! They help manage first-year hives and mentor novice beekeepers. Actual bees on hand if it’s not too cold for them!
No one plays from 9-11, so feel free to bring your favorite instrument and try your hand at public performance! Then from 11-1 Stephen Fishman will play.
Farmers’ Market Bike Clinic: This really is the perfect biking weather so get your steed in optimal shape! 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:
V Picnic Club: Tofu Scramble Breakfast Burritos are back by popular demand, and guest baker Gimme Dem Cupcakes in Pumpkin Spice and Peppermint Chocolate.

Pleasant Pops: Done for the season! November is a hard month for icy pop treats. But not if you’re inside – consider calling them about catering a party over the winter with fun flavors for adults too!

Groff’s Content Farm: Fall lamb – all cuts and roasts! Order your pasture raised Broad Breasted Bronze Thanksgiving turkey, 4.50/lb, probably in the 10-18 pound range (it’s not an exact science when they’re still out there fluffing their feathers and bickering over grubs). I’m going to try a small turkey this year AND one of her Muscovy ducks for the big dinner – an original native of the Americas! It’s also kosher according to Israeli poskim, though still non-kosher in the US. All pork cuts, pork sausages, bacon, ham. Beef roasts, sirloins, ground beef. Eggs and whole chickens. Complete raw meat dog food. Tallow soaps.

Truck Patch Farms: Sweet carrots and green tomatoes and maybe some Brussels sprouts. White and Cheddar cauliflower, romesco, and broccoli. Spinach, mesclun, arugula. Kale, Swiss chard. Yellow, red, and white onions. Yukon Gold potatoes. Butternut and acorn squash. Cilantro and Italian parsley.

Quaker Valley Orchards: Beautiful and edible squashes and pumpkins: Acorn, Ambercup, Butternut, Spaghetti, Kabocha, Jarrahdale and Cinderella, plus decorative gourds. 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.

Earth Spring Farm: Hopefully a few more of those amazing sweet carrots! Green cabbage, Napa cabbage, escarole, broccoli and broccoli rabe. Dehydrated tomatoes. Collards, curly kale, Toscano kale, a few bunches of carrots, spicy arugula, green and purple mustard greens, baby bok choy, lettuce, lettuce mix, endive, daikon radish. Carnival and acorn squash. Walla Walla, Red and White Spanish and Cippolini Onions and Red Pontiac, Kennebec and Eva potatoes and purple, orange, and white sweet potatoes. Peppers and eggplant. Cut herbs: Chocolate and Orange Mint, peppermint, pineapple sage, oregano, sorrel, thyme, chives.

Richfield Farm: Rutabagas and Brussels sprouts and turnips. Savoy cabbage, green cabbage, purple cabbage. Sweet potatoes, potatoes, onions, string beans, broccoli, cauliflower (white, golden, purple, green), collards, kale, swiss chard, kohlrabi, tatsoi, turnips with greens, tender greens, butternut squash, acorn squash, delicata squash, green bell peppers, eggplant, cherry tomatoes, heirloom and field tomatoes, cut flowers.

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.

Oct 29 – Vegetable Gratin Gratitude

Mrs. Higgins — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 15:55:44 +0000

New this week: Granny Smith apples. Lamb and duck. Sweet Pumpkin pops. Worms in your bao (see below). Earth Spring Farm has dehydrated tomatoes – just like sundried but without the nutrients baked out – plus broccoli rabe, escarole, purple mustard greens, Napa cabbage, sorrel and the new Eva potato: a bright white, creamy potato that mashes well.

Have I ever told you the story about how I met Susan Planck, the woman I met on a train who got me this gig as a farmers’ market manager? She changed my life, maybe she can changes yours too with this turnip recipe she just sent me: Turnip Pancakes, made like potato pancakes with grated turnips, salt, eggs, and flour, fry in butter, serve with huge salad, go out and work on the farm for 17 hours, sleep like a baby. A good baby, that is.

I’m thinking I need more instant hot vegetable side dishes this month to go with the salads. Enjoy riffing on gratins with whatever vegetables you prefer using these basic concepts:

400 degree oven.
gently simmer thinly sliced potatoes (and/or sweet potatoes, turnips, butternut squash, rutabaga, celeriac, parsnips, even apples) in cream (and/or milk, half n’ half, chicken or vegetable broth) for 10 minutes.
layer in buttered pan with sauteed leeks (onions, garlic, mushrooms), meat (bacon, sausage, optional), additional veggies (small cauliflower florets, finely chopped kale), cheese (cheddar, gouda, chevre), fresh herbs (parsley, rosemary, thyme), spices (nutmeg, paprika), ending with a potato layer and pouring on the rest of the liquid.
sprinkle top with breadcrumbs mixed with parmesan and/or nuts.
bake ’til bubbly and browned and cooked tender, 30 minutes.
now the hard part: let it cool, and stick it in the fridge and heat it up to serve it the next day. Like lasagne and chili, it’s even better as leftovers!

Use whatever you found at market: Butternut, Apple and Walnut Gratin or Sweet Potato and Pecan Gratin (no marshmallows), or Potato, Bacon, Goat Cheese and Leek Gratin, or Vegan No Problem Can The Carnivores Have Seconds Too Gratin with Sweet Potatoes, Coconut Milk, Ginger, Garlic, and Cilantro. Sounds like Thanksgiving side dish deliciousness and ease to me!

Events:

Olivia Mancini plays from 9-11, then from 11-1 Jeff Rezmovic will play. Both will gladly accept nips from your flask to keep their poor strumming fingers limber!
Farmers’ Market Bike Clinic: Now that the biking weather is fully upon us, get your steed in optimal shape, and chat with folks about winter biking. 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:
Pleasant Pops: Honey Crisp Apple, Sweet Pumpkin, Peaches n’ Cream and Mexican Sweet Cream Chongos, plus Mexican hot chocolate – ask for a cayenne kick if you like it spicy!

People’s Bao: Peter’s going Halloweeny this weekend and will stuff his yummy Chinese steamed buns with oogly googly noodly worms…and 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. Hot Rotten Cider too!

Groff’s Content Farm: Fall lamb is now in: all cuts and roasts! Order your Thanksgiving turkey…or turkeys? Several small birds would make a lovely presentation! Julie has pasture raised Broad Breasted Bronze turkeys at 4.50/lb, probably in the 10-18 lb range. Or consider a Muscovy duck for the big dinner, she has some upwards of 6 lbs, not as fatty, but dense with flavor. Plus, all pork cuts, pork sausages, bacon, ham. Beef roasts, sirloins, ground beef. Eggs, chicken parts, and whole chickens. Complete raw meat dog food. Tallow soaps.

Truck Patch Farms: White and Cheddar cauliflower, maybe some romesco, carrots, spinach, mesclun, arugula, kale, Swiss chard, eggplants, beets, yellow, red, and white onions, Yukon Gold potatoes, butternut and acorn squash, broccoli, cilantro, Italian parsley. A few more tomatoes with this nice weather.

Quaker Valley Orchards: A few Jack o’ Lantern pumpkins are left and decorative gourds. Lots of the beautiful and edible squashes and pumpkins: Acorn, Ambercup, Butternut, Spaghetti, Kabocha, Jarrahdale and Cinderella. Red and green Bartlett pears, Bosc pears. New apples this week are Granny Smith, York Imperial, and Fuji, plus several from previous weeks still coming. Red and white sweet onions. Tomato sauce, applesauce, apple chips, jam, canned peaches, honey, and popping corn on the cob. Delicious cider and a fresh batch of apple butter!

Earth Spring Farm: Green cabbage, Napa cabbage, escarole, broccoli and broccoli rabe. Dehydrated tomatoes. Collards, curly kale, Toscano kale, a few bunches of carrots, spicy arugula, green and purple mustard greens, baby bok choy, lettuce, lettuce mix, endive, daikon radish. Carnival and acorn squash. Walla Walla, Red and White Spanish and Cippolini Onions and Red Pontiac, Kennebec and Eva potatoes and purple, orange, and white sweet potatoes. Peppers and eggplant. Cut herbs: Chocolate and Orange Mint, peppermint, pineapple sage, oregano, sorrel, thyme, chives.

Reid Orchard: Regular and UV-treated Apple cider, Cherry-Apple, Grape-Apple and Pure Pear cider. New apples this week are Black Twig and Winesap, plus the 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.

Oct 22 – Navet Jaune

Mrs. Higgins — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 15:01:41 +0000

New this week: Rutabagas and Brussels sprouts and turnips.

The rutabagas are back! Aka, the swede or navet jaune or yellow turnip. If you love turnips, then you are probably already dancing in your seat, but if you’re new to rutabagas they are:

one of the funniest words at market,
great as strongly flavored roasted french fries,
a root vegetable, not as spicy as a turnip,
mashed with potatoes for a pretty golden color and extra flavor,
boiled in milk and mashed solo ala this Smoky Whipped Rutabaga recipe.

Have some fun with it as soon as you can stop jumping up and down with joy that Brussels sprouts are back in too.

Events:

Visit Grey DC this Saturday nearby at 1365 Kennedy St NW from 3-7 and try out muffins and breakfast tacos made by your neighbor Leran of The Brunch Farm, using cilantro and poblanos and other fresh and seasonal produce from MtP Far Mar!
Someone plays from 9-11, maybe it’s you, bring your squeaky violin or your mouth harp and throw down some tunes for us! Then from 11-1 Sligo Creek Stompers will warm you up.
Farmers’ Market Bike Clinic: Tent, tools, pump, stand, and helpful neighbors get together every Saturday to check out your bike and help you tune it up. 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:
DC’s Field To Fork Network: Bread for the City will be representing the urban farm network with information about their programs in city gardening, rooftop farming, and low income outreach.

V Picnic Club: Bringing back the popular and delish Tofu Scramble Burritos and Cinnamon Buns with regular or pumpkin icing, and…a sneak preview of the new juice truck hittin’ the streets in two weeks! Juice Revolution will be juicing to order all organic Carrotini, Green Ohm and Purple Rain – pay at the VPC booth, catch the vegetable pulverizing action up on the bandstand.

Pleasant Pops: Apple Cinnamon, Peaches n’ Cream and yummy Mexican hot chocolate!

People’s Bao: 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. Peter’s going to bring extra extra extra this week, so even you ne’er-do-wells sleeping in will get some!

Richfield Farm: Rutabagas and Brussels sprouts and turnips. Savoy cabbage, green cabbage, purple cabbage. Sweet potatoes, potatoes, onions, string beans, broccoli, cauliflower (white, golden, purple, green), collards, kale, swiss chard, kohlrabi, tatsoi, turnips with greens, tender greens, jack o lantern pumpkins, butternut squash, acorn squash, delicata squash, green bell peppers, eggplant, cherry tomatoes, heirloom and field tomatoes, cut flowers.

Reid Orchard: Regular and UV-treated Apple cider, Cherry-Apple, Grape-Apple and Pure Pear cider. There should be some of those big, fat, tasty Concord grapes plus some new Catawba grapes. The amazing selection of apples continues with the addition this week of Granny Smith. Pears are still in abundance. Apple butter, pumpkin butter and some neat flavored jams.

Truck Patch Farms: Cheddar cauliflower and carrots. A few tomatoes. Spinach, mesclun, arugula, kale, Swiss chard, eggplants, beets, green beans, okra, onions, carrots, Yukon Gold potatoes, butternut squash, broccoli, cilantro, 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. Beef: a little liver, soup and dog bones, and sweet bologna. Pre-order at order@truckpatchfarms.com for chickens. Eggs.

Groff’s Content Farm: Order your Thanksgiving turkeys! Pork cuts and pork sausages. Beef, beef sausage, eggs, pork, ham, chicken parts, and whole chickens. Complete raw meat dog food. Tallow soaps.

Quaker Valley Orchards: Jack o’ Lantern pumpkins. Acorn, Ambercup, Butternut, Spaghetti, and Kabocha squash. Jarrahdale and Cinderella and Jack B Little pumpkins. Decorative gourds. Red and green Bartlett pears, Bosc pears. Mutsu, Northern Spy, Jonagold, Golden Delicious, Cortland, Gala and Honeycrisp apples. Red and white sweet onions. Tomato sauce, applesauce, apple chips, jam, canned peaches, honey, and popping corn on the cob. Delicious cider and a fresh batch of apple butter!

Earth Spring Farm: Cauliflower, green beans, collards, curly kale, Toscano kale, beets, carrots, spicy arugula, baby mustard greens, lettuce, endive. Carnival, acorn and kabocha squash. Onions and potatoes and sweet potatoes. Radishes, peppers and eggplant. Great selection of cut 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.