• Pickling cucumbers – sliced and sprinkled with salt taste a bit like a pickle but fresh.
• Edamame – boil beans in pod for 7 minutes, toss with salt, be nice to the teacher and provide a little baggie for the shells.
• Corn and Sausage salad – Truck Patch Farms has a delicious smoked kielbasa that you can grill, fry, or eat straight out of the package. I like it sliced up with fresh boiled corn shucked off the cob and sent to school in a little tiffin.
• Apple Sandwich Stacks – apples sliced into discs and layered with slices of cheese, wrapped in a bit of parchment paper and secured with a rubber band. Or a Silly Band ™ if you got conned into that fad.
• Melon Balls – you can pick up a melon baller at the thrift store for a nickle and tell your kids that they’re mini cantaloupe ice cream scoops. Ruby saw some of these at the neighbor’s and begged me to run next door on the first day of school to borrow their baller.

Whether you’re having one last fling of partying and grilling on the long weekend or going out of town, you’ll want to pick something up from market. If you’re into meat, we’ve got hamburger of course, but also ground lamb, and ground pork. Any combo of these will make an outstanding burger with a few adds: oatmeal or breadcrumbs, an egg, minced onion and garlic, fresh thyme, minced parsley, a splash of something at hand…red wine, soy sauce, Worcester sauce, some mystery condiment you find in your fridge. Moosh together with your hands and shape immediately so you only have to get that intimate with it once. Don’t overcook grassfed meats – they’re not as fatty as grain-tortured animals. Also not as likely to be harboring some scary bug – our farmers raise healthy, outdoor, well-nourished, hormone and antibiotic-free animals and know where any additional feed comes from.

Truck Patch Farm’s applewurst sausage is in a new size like a fat hot dog and is receiving rave reviews from kids. And with absolutely no preservatives!

But it ain’t all about meat. If you’ve got a gas grill and want a project, get a ton of peppers while they’re in season and lay them as close to the flame as you can get them until they’re black, then throw them in a paper bag to steam and cool. Instead of knitting or shelling beans while you drink your last peach martini of the summer, spend some time slipping the charred pepper skins off, scooping out the seeds (do it imperfectly), and stashing them in a jar with olive oil. They really are tastier than the jarred version from the store. Red bell peppers are the obvious choice, but poblanos and bananas are even better.

The peach martini is a simple job: squoosh a very ripe peach into a strainer (I eat the handful of pulp), then mix the nectar with vodka and Cointreau and ice. Or bourbon and a little sugar and ice. Or click on the link for a version with white wine.

Local Events:

Gabe Popkin and Friends from our sister city Mt Rainier will fiddle and pluck for us in the 9-11 stretch with toe tapping, smile making traditional music of the Appalachias. Then Lauren Knapp joins us from 11-1 with folk and country music.

Farmers’ Market Bike Clinic: Tent, tools, pump, stand, and helpful neighbors who drag themselves out of bed at some ungodly MtP hour to help you get your steed back in sweet running order. Volunteers show towards 10am or later, but the stuff is out by 9am if you want to mess around with your bike yourself.

Warm and Fuzzies: The knit and crochet hooligans will be with us every week henceforth, offering training, guidance, support, and camaraderie in the yarn arts. Kids welcome! Leave your wee hellion with them while you shop, come back to find she’s gotten a tattoo and learned how to knit with her fingers! http://www.facebook.com/warmandfuzzies.

Local Foods:

Pleasant Pops: Speaking of Melon Balls – the Pleasant Pops are engaged in a full-on melon gala affair: Cantaloupe Watermelon, Watermelon Mint, and Cantaloupe Lemonade, plus popular Peaches & Ginger. Melons from Richfield Farm, peaches from Quaker Valley Orchard. All dairy free this week!

Adelante Co-op: The first major step in our Latino Outreach and Business Incubation Project is accomplished! The delicious grilled chicken served on the platos and tacos comes from a small, local farmer – our very own Truck Patch Farms. Most of the salad and other adds have been purchased all along from the market. Next step: greening the serving ware. But we need help! Please talk to me or Juan Carlos at the grill if you have some good, cost-effective suggestions – we don’t want to have to raise the prices and potentially lose some customers.

Atwater Bread: Organic sourdough and yeasted breads: Peasant Wheat, Caraway Rye, Cranberry Pecan, Kalamata Olive, traditional San Francisco Sourdough, Ciabatta, Country White, Chili Cheddar, Spelt, Sunflower Flax, and more. Brownies, cookies, scones, muffins, and several flavors of granola.

Panorama Bakery: Baguettes, croissants, pain au chocolat, mini ciabattas, sliced loaves, danishes, sticky buns, apple turnovers.

Groff’s Content Farm: More pork in this week! Family farm raises 100% grass-fed and -finished lamb and beef on organic fields, pastured Berkshire pork, beautiful pastured eggs and chickens, whole, cut up or smoked. Dog treats and nice big beef bones. Ground beef, steaks, big sausages. Soap made from their own beef tallow.

Quaker Valley Orchards: Honeycrisp apples are back! Plus Gala, Smokehouse and Ginger Gold apples, Asian pears, plums, peaches, nectarines, grapes, blackberries, and raspberries. Corn, potatoes, onions, tomatoes. Jams, tomato sauce, applesauce, etc.

Smallwood’s Veggieporium: Edamame is a great protein source – Mike’s working with a new variety that is fuzzier and smaller than what you’re used to at the sushi joint, but he’s got them at a great price. Sprite melons are a small honeydew, watermelons, bitter melon. Regular and cherry tomatoes, hot peppers: jalapeños, serranos, cayenne, Hungarian wax, Anaheims, Fish Pepper, bell peppers: green, purple and white sweet, summer and winter squash, onions, potatoes, okra. Herbs: thyme, sage, oregano, lemon, Thai, and Genovese basil, mint. Fresh eggs.

Truck Patch Farms: Tomatoes are winding down, but there are plenty of seconds to be had a bargain. Cantaloupe and nice small seedless watermelons, eggplants, okra, slicing and pickling cucumbers, hot peppers, sweet peppers including red, chocolate and yellow bells! Summer squash and the first of the winter squash – yum, grilled butternut cubes! Green and yellow beans. Salad mix, arugula, spinach, kale and Swiss chard. Cut herbs.

Truck Patch Farms Meat Department: Eggs. Pork and beef. Chickens if you pre-order at order@truckpatchfarms.com. Ground beef and patties, ground pork, loose sausage. Sausages: smoked kielbasa and andouille, Polish sausage, sage, celery, applewurst, country hot, mild and hot Italian, sweet Italian with fennel, kielbasa, bratwurst. Steaks, chops and tenderloins, spare ribs, baby back ribs, pork shoulder. Breakfast sausage and bacon.

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.

Reid Orchard: Apples!

Richfield Farm: Melons, okra, eggplants, hot and sweet peppers, corn, tomatoes, beans. Cut flowers.

Chickens don’t lay as much in the summer heat, and none of our farmers engage in the animal abuse you’d have to carry out to get more eggs out of them, so come early to make sure you get safe, local eggs. Shopping from small farmers like you do at Mt P is what will protect you from industrial ag and its cost-cutting, business-minded motives. To make you feel even better, lemme tell you what I saw in Seattle, San Francisco and Santa Cruz, CA this month at every farmers’ market stand that had them: $8/dozen for eggs. No joke.

Local Events:

Songrise is an all female a capella group that’ll make our lovely early morning even lovelier and Kay Campbell will give us a late morning lift with folk rock.

Farmers’ Market Bike Clinic: Tent, tools, pump, stand, and helpful neighbors who drag themselves out of bed at some ungodly MtP hour to help you get your steed back in sweet running order.

Mount Pleasant Movies in the Park: Mt. Pleasant Main Street is showing Up! this Saturday night in the plaza. Movie starts at dusk, with kid-friendly activities and Mount Pleasant Street sidewalk sale beforehand. Bring a blanket and a pillow! More info from info@mtpmainstreet.org.

Local Foods:

Pleasant Pops: New this week is Cantaloupe Lemonade! Just a little lemon and a lot of local melon! Plus Watermelon Cucumber and Peaches & Ginger. All seasonal fruits from small local farmers!

Adelante Co-op: Juan Carlos is back from Wisconsin to man the grill. Grilled chicken and beef for platos with traditional rice side dishes and market salad.

Atwater Bread: Organic sourdough and yeasted breads: Peasant Wheat, Caraway Rye, Cranberry Pecan, Kalamata Olive, traditional San Francisco Sourdough, Ciabatta, Country White, Chili Cheddar, Spelt, Sunflower Flax, and more. Brownies, cookies, scones, muffins, and several flavors of granola.

Panorama Bakery: Baguettes, croissants, pain au chocolat, mini ciabattas, sliced loaves, danishes, sticky buns, apple turnovers.

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, whole, cut up or smoked. Dog treats and nice big beef bones. Ground beef, steaks, big sausages. Soap made from their own beef tallow.

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.

Reid Orchard: Cresthaven and Blushing Star peaches, Fantasia nectarines, President plums (big and blue), Italian prune plums, Flavor Grenade pluots (wow, with a name like that, I’ve gotta try it). Blackberries, blueberries and red raspberries are winding down. Seedless Canadice grapes and the early Concord Buffalo grapes. A few heirloom tomatoes left. Apples varieties are Gala, Honeycrisp, Golden Supreme, Paula Red, Ginger Gold, McIntosh, Zesta, Summer Rambo, Summer Treat, Gravenstein, Tsugaru.

Quaker Valley Orchards: Honeycrisp apples, Asian pears, lots of plums, peaches and nectarines, sweet seeded Freedonia grapes, white super sweet corn, a few blackberries and raspberries left. Potatoes, onions, tomatoes. Jams, tomato sauce, applesauce, etc.

Smallwood’s Veggieporium: More edamame! Fresh brown eggs. Sprite melon, a nice personal size honeydew, watermelons, bitter melon. Regular and cherry tomatoes, hot peppers: jalapeños, serranos, cayenne, Hungarian wax, and the African-American heirloom Fish Pepper, green, purple and white sweet peppers, squash, cucumbers, onions, potatoes, okra. Herbs: thyme, sage, oregano, lemon, Thai, and Genvose basil, mint.

Richfield Farm: Watermelons and cantaloupes, okra, eggplants, hot and sweet peppers, including red bell peppers, corn, tomatoes, summer squash (running low, enjoy it while you can!), pickling cucumbers, green, yellow, purple, cranberry and lima beans. Cut flowers.

Truck Patch Farms: Tomatoes, melons, eggplants, peppers. Summer squash and green beans. Salad mix, arugula, spinach, kale and Swiss chard. Cut herbs.

Truck Patch Farms Meat Department: 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: smoked kielbasa and andouille, Polish sausage, sage, celery, applewurst, country hot, mild and hot Italian, sweet Italian with fennel, kielbasa, bratwurst. Steaks, chops and tenderloins, spare ribs, baby back ribs, pork shoulder. Breakfast sausage and bacon. Ask Bryan about goat meat.

Fresh edamame from the farm is one of my favorite summer treats! Boil for about 4 minutes in salted water then just pop the little soy beans out of their pod directly into your mouth. Super fun snack and a small cupful has as much iron as a piece of chicken. Smallwood’s has them up at the top end of market.

Lamb is back at Groff’s Content! Hard to get wrong, roasts and chops are easy to cook and ground lamb lends itself to beautiful burgers with fresh herbs, goat cheese, open faced buns, and slabs of heirloom tomato.

Local Events:

Melissa Running will be playing folk music for us, featuring the nyckelharpa, a Swedish kind of fiddle kind of thing with keys sticking out of all over the neck and making an absolutely lovely sound.

Farmers’ Market Bike Clinic: Tent, tools, pump, stand, and helpful neighbors who drag themselves out of bed at some ungodly MtP hour to help you get your steed back in sweet running order.

Farmers’ Market Knit Clinic: Do we want the Warm and Fuzzies back? Oh, yeah, do we ever! What fun! Bring your projects this week and get some help or just come for unbridled praise.

Public Media Corps: Back again with a survey for you to help them out with and information about their efforts to provide broadband Internet access to anyone and everyone.

I have no idea where we rank, but I guess I gotta keep pitching for your vote until Aug 31 for Your Favorite Farmers’ Market at American Farmland Trust. I feel like this organization is doing good things, so it’s worth a visit.

Local Foods:

Pleasant Pops: Fig, Cucumber Chili, Blackberry Basil Cream, Watermelon Cucumber and Peaches & Ginger. All local fruits from Quaker Valley Orchard, Truck Patch, Richfield Farm, Barajas Produce, Trickling Springs Creamery and one unwitting Brookland neighbor.

Adelante Co-op: Wow! They have unearthed la abuelita – Grandma’s recipe for grilled beef with Peruvian spices that, I quote, “makes your mouth go crazy with flavors never tasted before, let’s not even mention that it really melts in your mouth.” Plus Peruvian “borracho” chicken grilled slowly over wood charcoal. Ask for the Peruvian salad with potatoes, beets, celery, tomatoes, olive oil and lime. Freshly made watermelon water – agua fresca de sandia.

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, whole, cut up or smoked. Dog treats and nice big beef bones. Ground beef, steaks, big sausages. Soap made from their own beef tallow.

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.

Reid Orchard: New this week are Cresthaven peaches, an old variety with excellent flavor, large size, and not much blush. White Lady peaches, plums, nectarines, blackberries, Aurora blueberries, seedless table grapes, and Concord type Buffalo grapes – with seeds, wonderful flavor, first picking. Dry weather has given us an outstanding harvest of flavorful heirloom tomatoes. Apples varieties are Paula Red, Ginger Gold, Zesta, Summer Rambo, Summer Treat, Gravenstein, Tsugaru.

Quaker Valley Orchards: Bi-color sweet corn this week! Madison yellow peaches, Sugar Giant white peaches, Arctic Jay white nectarines, Asian pears, and Ginger Gold apples. Fortune plums are large red plums with yellow flesh, Vanier plums are small, sweet, red plums. Blackberries, red raspberries and sweet, red Candice grapes. Potatoes, onions, tomatoes. Lots of Sweet Delight honeydew melons and canary melons. Plus jams, tomato sauce, applesauce, etc.

Smallwood’s Veggieporium: Edamame! Regular and cherry tomatoes, hot and bell peppers, several kinds of basil, squash, cucumbers, watermelons, sweet corn, onions, pretty pink and white canary beans, potatoes, okra, mint, and eggs.

Richfield Farm: Melons, okra, eggplants, peppers, corn, cherry tomatoes, heirloom and hybrid tomatoes, summer squash, cucumbers. Green beans. Cut flowers.

Truck Patch Farms: Heirloom, cherry, and hybrid tomatoes, melons, cucumbers, eggplants, peppers. Summer squash and green beans. Salad mix, arugula, spinach, kale and Swiss chard. Radishes and beets. Cut herbs.

Truck Patch Farms Meat Department: 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: smoked kielbasa and andouille, Polish sausage, sage, celery, applewurst, country hot, mild and hot Italian, sweet Italian with fennel, kielbasa, bratwurst. Steaks, chops and tenderloins, spare ribs, baby back ribs, pork shoulder. Breakfast sausage and bacon. Ask Bryan about goat meat.

Atwater Bread: Organic sourdough and yeasted breads: Peasant Wheat, Caraway Rye, Cranberry Pecan, Kalamata Olive, traditional San Francisco Sourdough, Ciabatta, Country White, Chili Cheddar, Spelt, Sunflower Flax, and more. Brownies, cookies, scones, muffins, and several flavors of granola.

Panorama Bakery: Baguettes, croissants, pain au chocolat, mini ciabattas, sliced loaves, danishes, sticky buns, apple turnovers.

Local Events:
Latino Family Day: Music and food from the southern continents. Samplings of El Salvador, Dominican Republic, Peru, Argentina, Mexico and other representatives. Ask Juan Carlos up at the grill just how many varieties of potatoes they have in Peru. Then ask him again, because you won’t believe he really just gave you a number with that many 0’s in it.

Compost Cab: Beep beep! Back early this month, Compost Cab is offering their free monthly compost drop off service again this weekend. Bring your bags of kitchen scraps and check out the terrific trouble free, rat-free, smell-free ideas Jeremy has for collecting compost on your countertop or under your sink. Weekly pick up service also available, maybe even for your apartment – ask for advice on helping your landlord offer composting to the whole building!

Public Media Corps: This local advocacy and service organization is working to build broadband Internet access for ALL and close the growing “opportunity divide”. They have a survey they want to run by you at market and talk to you about ways they can help Mount Pleasant.

Farmers’ Market Bike Clinic every week, rain or shine, minor repairs, sometimes a full free tune up, but watch closely and learn how stupid easy it is to keep your bike in trim! Sorry if sometimes no one is there right at 9am, but it’s run entirely by neighbors doing it for fun. There’s always a nice bike pump though, so top off your tires while you’re waiting.

Farmers’ Market Knit Clinic: Like the Bike Clinic but for knitters and crocheters! The Warm and Fuzzies will be setting up a table at market next to Manager Jessica’s booth to teach and advise on all things needle, hook, and yarn! Get help with a problem pattern, learn how to make your first cap, move to the next level with intarsia, or just sit together and show off your English knit vs. American knit hand positions. This makes me happy, I’m so jealous I’m not there this week.

You have until Aug 31st to vote for Your Favorite Farmers’ Market at American Farmland Trust. Man, I read about the battle between Seattle’s Ballard Far Mar and New York’s Rochester Far Mar on the Ballard Farmer’s Market blog and it’s just kind of horrible! We ain’t like that around here, if the Bloomingdale Far Mar beats us out again this year, I’m sending them a bunch of organic flowers and my warm congratulations, and I’m still shopping there. I’m also gonna check out this bad boy Ballard Far Mar on Sunday, and today I’m visiting the Friday Harbor Farmers’ Market to see if they still have the loveliest bouquets I’ve ever seen in my life.

Local Foods:
Pleasant Pops: New this week: Figs and Cream – with figs from Brookland, as local as it gets unless you show the boys your fig tree in MtP! Cucumber Chili is back, Blackberry Basil Cream, and Peaches & Ginger. Thanks to Quaker Valley Orchard for the peaches and blackberries, Richfield Farm for the cukes, Barajas Produces for the jalapeños, and Trickling Springs Creamery.

Adelante Co-op: Delicious Latino foods, hot from the grill, tasty traditional beverages, local produce in the salads, and soon to be ditching the Whole Foods “free range” chicken in favor of local chicken! That’s the whole point of this partnership, baby steps towards a local food Latino vendor. Talk to Juan Carlos at the grill about what you love and what you’d like to see, he’s very receptive, not to mention charming and delightful.

Quaker Valley Orchards: Yellow, white and Donut peaches, yellow and white nectarines, Satsuma plums, Ginger Gold apples, Sugar Cube cantaloupes and a few watermelons, blackberries and raspberries, potatoes and onions, sweet corn and tomatoes, lovely white seedless grapes.

Richfield Farm: Watermelons, cantaloupes, honeylopes, and other melons. Okra, white, purple, and long Japanese eggplants, green, white, purple, and pale green bell peppers, sweet banana peppers, poblanos, jalapeños, sweet corn, cherry tomatoes, heirloom and hybrid tomatoes, summer squash, cucumbers. Green, yellow, and roma beans. Cut flowers.

Smallwood’s Veggieporium: Big and cherry tomatoes, hot and bell peppers, Italian, Thai, and Lemon basil, squash, cucumbers, watermelons, sweet corn, onions, pretty pink and white canary beans, potatoes, okra, mint, and eggs.

Truck Patch Farms: Mounds of heirloom, cherry, and hybrid tomatoes. Sugar Baby watermelons, red seedless watermelons, and cantaloupes. Speaking of watermelons, don’t forget to tease the fat lady behind the tomatoes about swallowing a watermelon seed – pregnant women never get tired of that joke! Regular slicing and pickling cucumbers, long skinny Asian cucumbers. Black, purple and white eggplants, both Italian and Asian. Hot peppers and bell peppers. Summer squash and green and yellow beans. Greens might be a little low, the creek has run dry and Bryan can only get enough water to them to keep them alive, but otherwise there should be a bit of salad mix, arugula, spinach, kale and Swiss chard. Radishes and beets with their greens. Cut herbs.

Truck Patch Farms Meat Department: The smoked kielbassa and andouille are back! 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: Polish sausage, sage, celery, applewurst, country hot, mild and hot Italian, sweet Italian with fennel, kielbasa, bratwurst. Steaks, chops and tenderloins, spare ribs, baby back ribs, pork shoulder. Breakfast sausage and bacon. Ask Bryan about goat meat.

Reid Orchard: New peaches this week have cute names like the yellow “John Boy” and the white “White Lady”. Plus yellow nectarines and yellow donut peaches. A variety of European and Asian rootstock plums, blackberries, seedless grapes, those amazingly sweet late harvest “Aurora” blueberries, and a wide variety of heirloom tomatoes. Apples: Paula Red, Ginger Gold, Zesta, Summer Rambo, Summer Treat, Gravenstein, Sansa, Tsugaru – often Caitlin lays them out in order of tartness, ask her which one will be your favorite this week!

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 and smoked. Dog treats and nice big beef bones. Ground beef and steaks, nice big sausages. Soap made from their own beef tallow.

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, Spelt, Sunflower Flax, and more. Brownies, cookies, scones, muffins, and several flavors of granola.

Panorama Bakery: Baguettes, croissants, pain au chocolat, mini ciabattas, sliced loaves, danishes, sticky buns, apple turnovers.

Vote for Your Favorite Farmers’ Market at American Farmland Trust.

Local Events:

Mount Pleasant Movies in the Park: Mt. Pleasant Main Street is showing Ride The Divide about an epic mountain bike race. Tabling by local orgs and businesses and music from Second String start at 7pm, movie starts at dusk, like 9ish? Bring a beach chair and/or blanket and a pillow for the kids. Suggested donations of $5-$10 will go to local organization Neighbors Consejo. To volunteer, contact Katharine at info@mtpmainstreet.org. Co-sponsored by CricKet and the Mt Pleasant Business Association.

Olivia Mancini plays from 9-11 and The Mountaineers will play 11-1.

Farmers’ Market Bike Clinic every week, rain or shine, minor repairs, sometimes a full free tune up, but watch closely and learn how stupid easy it is to keep your bike in trim!

Neighborhood Farm Initiative, next week my favorite urban gardening project, will be hosting an evening of film and food Thursday, August 12th at the Letelier Theater. Showing Corner Plot about one man’s dedication to work his land and enjoy the farm life inside the beltway. Details and presale tickets at www.brownpapertickets.com/event/119951.

Local Foods:

Pleasant Pops: New this week: Watermelon Mint. Plus the freaking awesome Blackberry Basil Cream, Straight Up Strawberry and Peaches & Ginger. Thanks to Quaker Valley Orchard, Richfield Farm, Truck Patch Farm, Trickling Springs Creamery, and Toigo Orchard for supplying ingredients.

Adelante Co-op: Plates with pollo borracho (drunken chicken) on the grill cooked with wood charcoal and NEW Peruvian seasoned beef steaks with arroz con gandules (Puerto Rican rice with peas) and arroz casamiento (Dominican rice with beans). Chicken tacos with tomatoes, cilantro, lettuce, radish, Brazilian-spiced sauces and Salvadoran green tomato spicy sauce. Cold drinks: Chicha Morada (refreshing Incan drink) and something else tasty, sandia? or lemonade!

Richfield Farm: Watermelons, cantaloupes, honeylopes, and Lambkin melons – a Spanish Piel de Sapo type melon, a bit like honeydew. Okra, white, purple, and long Japanese eggplants, green, white, purple, and pale green bell peppers, sweet banana peppers, poblanos, jalapeños, sweet corn, cherry tomatoes, heirloom and hybrid tomatoes, summer squash, cucumbers. Green, yellow, and roma beans. Cut flowers.

Smallwood’s Veggieporium: Melons, peppers, cherry tomatoes, potatoes, green beans, beets, summer squash, and cut herbs.

Truck Patch Farms: Bryan’s heirloom tomatoes have still not seen one little drop of (organic certified) sprays yet, despite this abusive weather! Black Crim, Cherokee Purple, Pruden’s Purple, Amana Orange, German Striped, Aunt Ruby Green, Wapsinki Peach, Great White, and more. He’s been canning the Aunt Ruby Greens (blanch, skin, remove seeds, throw in canning jar with basil leaves and garlic clove) and he says they’ve been coming out great – just right tart and sweet. Chocolate Cherry, Sungold, and Sweet Millionaire cherry tomatoes – last week the Sungolds hit the perfect awesome stage of candy sweet. Bryan keeps the tomato plants so dry that the leaves start to curl, but it makes for the most intense flavor. His hybrid field tomatoes have good shelf life: Big Beef, Mountain Glory, Valley Girl. Sugar Baby watermelons, red seedless watermelons, and cantaloupes. Regular slicing and pickling cucumbers, long skinny Asian cucumbers. Black, purple and white eggplants, both Italian and Asian. Hot peppers and bell peppers. Summer squash and green and yellow beans. Greens: salad mix, arugula, spinach, kale, Swiss chard. Radishes and beets with their greens. Cut herbs – my favorite lemon basil, purple basil and more intense Genovese and big leaf Italian, and mint, chives, garlic chives, oregano, sage, thyme. Sunflowers.

Truck Patch Farms Meat Department: The smoked kielbassa and andouille are back! 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: Polish sausage, sage, celery, applewurst, country hot, mild and hot Italian, sweet Italian with fennel, kielbasa, bratwurst. Steaks, chops and tenderloins, spare ribs, baby back ribs, pork shoulder. Breakfast sausage and bacon. Ask Bryan about goat meat.

Reid Orchard: Yellow peaches, white peaches, nectarines, Santa Rosa plums (my favorite!), and Shiro, Methley, and Duarte plums, blackberries, a handful of blueberries, raspberries, lots of the early summer apples, like Summer Treat, Ginger Gold, Paula Red, Zesta (apparently there’s a copyright battle over the breed and the Zestar! name, fascinating) and Rambo. Plus tons more heirloom tomatoes.

Quaker Valley Orchards: Sweet corn, melons, ‘lopes, peaches, nectarines, blackberries, red raspberries, potatoes, Juliet tomatoes, sweet onions, apples.

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 and smoked. Dog treats and nice big beef bones. Ground beef and steaks, nice big sausages. Soap made from their own beef tallow.

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, Spelt, Sunflower Flax, and more. Brownies, cookies, scones, muffins, and several flavors of granola.

Panorama Bakery: Baguettes, croissants, pain au chocolat, mini ciabattas, sliced loaves, danishes, sticky buns, apple turnovers.

Keep up the votes for the Your Favorite Farmers’ Market thing on American Farmland Trust.

Local Events:
Compost Cab: Woohoo! The monthly free compost drop off service is on again this weekend! Your MtP kitchen scraps go straight to awesome local farm project Common Good City Farm. Learn about weekly pick up service from your very own back yard, with clean bucket liners and a promise of free dirt once you’ve contributed enough – like frequent flier miles for compost, I love it!

Lamont Park Deluxe: Oh, the sweet sounds of Rick and Mara’s accordion duet make my heart happy whenever they come to market.

Local Foods:

Pleasant Pops: This week’s new offerings sound like a whole new industry in Frozen Pop Addiction Recovery programs is in our future: Blackberry Basil Cream and Blackberries ‘n Cream (the farmers don’t call ‘em “crack” berries for nothing). Plus, a new variation on the last of those stashed fruits from June: Simply Strawberry. Plus the very popular, even with kids, Peaches ‘n Ginger. All made with locally sourced ingredients! Cream from Trickling Springs, blackberries and peaches from our very own Quaker Valley Orchard, and basil from Truck Patch Farms.

Adelante Co-op: Delicioso! Latino food from the grill. Tortillas, rice con gandules or arroz casamiento. Horchata or chicha morada.

Reid Orchard: Blackberries, white peaches, yellow peaches, white nectarines, yellow nectarines, more new summer apples including Pristine and Zestar! (with the exclamation point – sweet, juicy, crispy apple brought to you by the breeders who came up with Honeycrisp), and maybe 3 or 4 different plums. Plus beautiful heirloom tomatoes with Caitlin’s famous sommelier-style matching advice.

Quaker Valley Orchards: Lots of Fredi’s excellent sweet corn, melons, lopes, peaches, nectarines, donut peaches, blackberries, red raspberries, potatoes, Juliet tomatoes, sweet onions, Ginger Gold apples.

Richfield Farm: Watermelon, cantaloupe, okra, eggplants, bell peppers, poblanos, jalapeños, sweet corn, cherry tomatoes, heirloom and hybrid tomatoes, summer squash, regular and pickling cucumbers. Cut flowers.

Smallwood’s Veggieporium: Watermelons, cantaloupes, Asian melons, okra, eggs, sweet corn, fingerling potatoes, big tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, sweet peppers, hot peppers, mint, purslane.

Truck Patch Farms: Heirloom tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, watermelons, cantaloupes, cucumbers, eggplants, hot peppers, bell peppers, summer squash. Greens: salad mix, arugula, spinach, Swiss chard. Cut herbs.

Truck Patch Farms Meat Department: 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: NEW! Polish sausage, plus sage, celery, applewurst, country hot, mild and hot Italian, sweet Italian with fennel, kielbasa, bratwurst. Steaks, chops and tenderloins, spare ribs, baby back ribs, pork shoulder. Breakfast sausage and bacon. Ask Bryan about goat meat.

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 and smoked. Dog treats and nice big beef bones. Ground beef and steaks, nice big sausages. Soap made from their own beef tallow.

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, Spelt, Sunflower Flax, and more. Brownies, cookies, scones, muffins, and several flavors of granola.

Panorama Bakery: Baguettes, croissants, pain au chocolat, mini ciabattas, sliced loaves, danishes, sticky buns, apple turnovers.

Never ever ever refrigerate a tomato – cold converts all those amazing heirloom-y sugars into starch. Except as a last resort – that is, you cut the tomato and only used half, or you know you’re going out for dinner tonight and it won’t get eaten until late tomorrow, and it’s already on the edge. Truck Patch picks the tomatoes and puts them directly into 60 degree cold storage, then brings them cool to market and now it’s all up to you. Don’t have a cold storage? Me neither, and I don’t even have AC, so my house is about 90 degrees. My options are to find somewhere cooler than my kitchen or eat them faster. About the only thing I can stand to cook these days is gazpacho anyway.

Speaking of too hot to cook: Groff’s Content Farm has a lovely smoked chicken breast for cutting up into cubes in a salad or slicing up for sandwiches on Panorama’s mini-ciabatta with a slab of heirloom tomato. Truck Patch Farms has the ground ham back: mix up a classic church salad with hard boiled egg, mayo, bell peppers, relish, sweet onion: fill up a sandwich with it using Atwater’s Peasant Wheat or mini Struan rolls – I love it, no messing around with the grill! Send me your favorite variations on bánh mì – I’m thinking cold, thinly sliced pork loin roast or chuck roast with vinegar and sugar cucumber slices, shredded carrot and radish, cilantro, mayo on a Panorama baguette. Just leave off the pork to make it vegan-friendly (the mayo was really Grapeseed Oil Vegenaise anyway, ‘cuz canola oil is a GMO, and the other oils used in mayo almost all have problems).

There’s this Vote For Your Favorite Farmers’ Market thing on American Farmland Trust. I assume the winner does something smart like bring a laptop to market and aggressively recruit folks to vote. Our ATM machine barely works in these temps, so I ain’t risking my laptop, but if you want to weigh in, here’s the link for a vote for MtP. Go to their homepage if you want to start over and pick a different market! I was torn between MtP Far Mar and Bloomingdale Farmers’ Market.

Local Events:

DC Bicycle Stations will join the Farmers’ Market Bike Clinic this Saturday offering you a chance to try the adorable European Taga bike – converts from a front-loading trike with a kid seat into a…STROLLER! Or a shopping cart, or a two-seater kid carrier, or with a back-facing infant car seat, or more. It’s like a Transformer for mommies!

Mount Pleasant Movies in the Park: Starting this weekend, Mt. Pleasant Main Street is bringing back movie night! This year’s theme is “Road Trip,” starting with Little Miss Sunshine, the funniest movie I can remember seeing in decades! Bring a beach chair and/or blanket and a pillow for the kids, who will crash out on the bricks under the stars, making it the cheapest, easiest date night you ever didn’t plan! Mark your calendar for the other movie Saturdays: 8/7 Ride the Divide, 8/28 Brave Little Toaster, and 9/11 Salt of the Earth. To volunteer, contact Katharine at info@mtpmainstreet.org. Co-sponsored by Cricket and your local Mount Pleasant Business Association.

A.C. Valdez is back from a sojourn to Georgetown where he quickly determined that he preferred living in Mount Pleasant and playing the charango and guitar for you on Saturdays. I’ve missed his lovely voice and compositions: look for him in the shade in the middle of market from 9-11.

Gabriel Maser and Alex Platt will give us a saxophone/guitar duet for the latter half of market. Sounds dreamy.

Local Foods:

Pleasant Pops: New this week! Watermelon n’ Black Pepper. Wow. If it’s anything like the Cucumber Chili, it’ll be a beautiful combination of refreshment and interest. More of the sold-out Watermelon Cucumber pops, plus Strawberry Cream, Cucumber Chili, and Peaches & Ginger. All made with locally sourced ingredients! Except the black pepper, I suspect…

Adelante Co-op: New this week! Ceviche with fish, lime, sweet potato, and local corn. Fabulous grilled fish tacos with fresh market vegetables or borracho grilled chicken or steak. Rice con gandules or arroz casamiento. Plus horchata and chicha morada!

Richfield Farm: Watermelon, cantaloupe, okra, white, purple, and long Japanese eggplants, green and pale green bell peppers, poblanos, jalapeños, sweet corn, cherry tomatoes, heirloom and hybrid tomatoes, summer squash, regular and pickling cucumbers. Green beans. Cut flowers.

Smallwood’s Veggieporium: Curious melons, demand a taste! Tiny Asian Tigger melons, Sakata Sweet, and dainty European Pixies and Cantaloupes. Perfect single serving size. Bell peppers, cherry tomatoes of all colors, red, white, and fingerling potatoes, green beans, beets, white and sweet onions, slicing and adorable lemon cucumbers, green and yellow summer squash, and cut herbs: mint, basil, curly parsley, purslane.

Truck Patch Farms: A lot more heirloom tomatoes from the field! Black Crim, Prudence Purple, Amana Orange, German Striped. And Chocolate Cherry, Sungold, and Sweet Millionaire cherry tomatoes. Good shelf life hot house tomatoes. Sugar Baby watermelons, red seedless watermelons, and cantaloupes. Regular slicing and pickling cucumbers, long skinny Asian cucumbers. Black, purple and white eggplants, both Italian and Asian. Hot peppers and bell peppers. Summer squash and green beans. Greens: salad mix, arugula, spinach, kale, Swiss chard. Radishes and beets with their greens. Cut herbs – my favorite lemon basil, purple basil and more intense Genovese and big leaf Italian, and mint and chives, oregano, sage, thyme. Sunflowers.

Truck Patch Farms Meat Department: 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: NEW! Polish sausage, plus sage, celery, applewurst, country hot, mild and hot Italian, sweet Italian with fennel, kielbasa, bratwurst. Steaks, chops and tenderloins, spare ribs, baby back ribs, pork shoulder. Breakfast sausage and bacon. Ask Bryan about goat meat.

Quaker Valley Orchards: Yellow free-stone peaches, nectarines, blackberries, a few red raspberries, red currants, lovely watermelons and fancy Asian and French melons, red and gold potatoes, Juliet tomatoes – the Roma style tomato that make Fredi’s amazing tomato sauce, sweet onions, Ginger Gold apples, and sweet corn.

Reid Orchard: Plums, peaches, nectarines, blackberries, apples.

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 and smoked. Dog treats and nice big beef bones. Ground beef and steaks, nice big sausages. Soap made from their own beef tallow.

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, Spelt, Sunflower Flax, and more. Brownies, cookies, scones, muffins, and several flavors of granola.

Panorama Bakery: Baguettes, croissants, pain au chocolat, mini ciabattas, sliced loaves, danishes, sticky buns, apple turnovers.

Events at market:

• Defeat Poverty DC is running a canvassing contest at market this weekend! Stop by their booth to learn about their efforts to raise awareness and community support.
• Farmers’ Market Bike Clinic every week, rain or shine, basically a free tune up, but watch closely and learn how stupid easy it is to keep your bike in trim!

Local Foods:

Pleasant Pops: New this week! Watermelon Cucumber featuring Watermelon and Cucumbers from Richfield Farms. Really? That sounds so weird, but these boys have not steered us wrong yet, the Cucumber Chili is sensational. Returning flavors are Strawberry Cream, Cucumber Chili, and Peaches & Ginger with peaches from our very own Quaker Valley Orchards.

Adelante Co-op: Fresh market vegetables and grilled meat Latino style: platos with rice con gandules or arroz casamiento. Plus horchata and chicha morada!

Reid Orchard: Tons of plums – find out what your favorites is for this week: yellow skinned, sweet Shiro, dainty, bite-size Methley Sugar Plums, the yellow-fleshed blood plum Formosa, or pretty A.U. Amber plums. And, oh the peaches: this week large, semi-free stone Glenglo yellow peaches and low acid Spring Snow white peaches. Plus nectarines, blackberries, a few raspberries, and…Pristine apples! The first of the really tasty eatin’ apples – firmer and less acid than the Transparent and Lodi applesauce apples we’ve had the last couple weeks.

Truck Patch Farms: The first of the heirloom tomatoes from the field! Get ready for weird shapes and intense flavors. Plus the uniform hot house tomatoes and a few more raspberries. Sugar Baby watermelons. Last week for spring onions. Cucumbers, eggplant, and a few hot peppers. Sunflowers, summer squash. Greens: lettuce, salad mix, arugula, spinach, kale, Swiss chard. Radishes and beets and green beans. 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 sausages. Steaks, chops and tenderloins, spare ribs, baby back ribs, pork shoulder. Breakfast sausage and bacon. Ask Bryan about goat meat.

Quaker Valley Orchards: Currants and raspberries. Transparent apples. Peaches, plums and apricots. Red, gold, and blue potatoes, Walla Walla onions. Applesauce, honey, jam, tomato sauce, novelty popping corn-on-the-cob, canned peaches. Pie fillings: cherry, blackberry, blueberry and apple.

Richfield Farm: watermelon, cantaloupe, okra, eggplant, peppers, jalapeños, sweet corn, cherry tomatoes, field tomatoes, summer squash, potatoes, onions, fennel, regular and pickling cucumbers. Yellow wax, green, and roma beans. Cut flowers.

Smallwood’s Veggieporium: lemon cucumbers, purslane, summer squash (yellow straight neck, pattypan, zucchini), and cut herbs.

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 spicy lamb merguez. Soap made from their own beef tallow.

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, Spelt, Sunflower Flax, and more. Brownies, cookies, scones, muffins, and several flavors of granola.

Panorama Bakery: Baguettes, croissants, pain au chocolat, mini ciabattas, sliced loaves, danishes, sticky buns, apple turnovers.

Speaking of basil, try Smallwood’s lovely fresh lemon basil…with olive oil and salt on pasta with cherry tomatoes and the last of the sugar snap peas, it’s the easiest one-dish dinner of the week.

Richfield Farms has roma beans, the star of last year’s Farm-to-School week, blanched briefly and served with Green Goddess dip (roughly mayo + sour cream + olive oil + anchovies + parsley + herbs + onion + lemon), the kids were clamoring for seconds.

I spent the last weekend at a friend’s lake house in West Virginia, swimming and reading trashy magazines – found this recipe from Southern Living for Peach Sangria: cut-up peaches and a small handful of raspberries for color are soaked in white wine or rose, a bit of vodka, sliced lemons and lemon juice, and a pinch of sugar.  Served with a splash of club soda and a mint sprig, I found it more refreshing than heavy red wine sangria.

The berries have only been getting more intense – raspberries are incredibly flavorful, gooseberries send at least 3 different tropical notes zipping around your mouth, and blueberries are abundant and sweet. This customer-submitted recipe has been my breakfast of choice all week: slice a Panorama or Atwater scone in half, spread with Cherry Glen Goat Cheese ricotta, stud surface with berries. Same thing with whipping cream is an instant Berry Shortcake for dessert!

Events at market:

• Latino Family Day! Music with Alex Hiraeta and a friend that was described to me as “you will LOVE him”. Well, that’s a lot of love then, ‘cuz I’m already infatuated with Alex’s crooning voice.
• DC Bike Ambassador on hand to answer all your questions about biking, bike events, and bike advocacy in DC!
• Farmers’ Market Bike Clinic every week, rain or shine, basically a free tune up, but watch closely and learn how stupid easy it is to keep your bike in trim!

Local Foods:

Adelante Co-op: Fresh market vegetables, grilled chicken tacos, platos and the usual special rice dishes.  More horchata and chicha morada.

Reid Orchard: THREE varieties of plums! Several varieties of peaches and white nectarines. Blueberries, red and black currants, red and green gooseberries, red and black raspberries. Apricots. Sugar snap peas. Tart Lodi apples.

Quaker Valley Orchards: Currants and raspberries. Transparent apples. Peaches, plums and apricots. Red, gold, and blue potatoes, Walla Walla onions. Applesauce, honey, jam, tomato sauce, novelty popping corn-on-the-cob, canned peaches. Pie fillings: cherry, blackberry, blueberry and apple.

Richfield Farm: NEW: watermelon, cantaloupe, okra, white, purple and Asian eggplant, green bell peppers, jalapeños. Tons of great, sweet corn – now in its prime! Cherry tomatoes, “Primo” field tomatoes, summer squash, potatoes, Cotton Candy and Candy Apple onions, fennel, regular and pickling cucumbers. Yellow wax, green, and roma beans. Cut flowers are cosmos, sunflowers that last forever, dianthus, and zinnias. Last week for fava beans and blueberries. Maybe a few broccoli.

Smallwood’s Veggieporium: Swiss chard, carrots, red white and blue potatoes, squash and squash blossoms, slicing and lemon cucumbers, red and yellow onions, cherry tomatoes. Cut herbs: purple and lemon basil, mint, parsley, dill, purslane.

Truck Patch Farms: Hot house tomatoes and a few more raspberries. Cucumbers, eggplant, and a few hot peppers. Sunflowers, summer squash. Greens: lettuce, salad mix, arugula, spinach, Swiss chard. Radishes and beets and green beans. 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 sausages. Steaks, chops and tenderloins, spare ribs, baby back ribs, pork shoulder. Breakfast sausage and bacon. Ask Bryan about goat meat.

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 spicy lamb merguez. Soap made from their own beef tallow.

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, Spelt, Sunflower Flax, and more. Brownies, cookies, scones, muffins, and several flavors of granola.

Panorama Bakery: Baguettes, croissants, pain au chocolat, mini ciabattas are great for sandwiches, sliced loaves, danishes, sticky buns, apple turnovers.