Local food in DC under the trees on Saturdays

New this week: Collard greens, cabbage, cauliflower. Place your Thanksgiving turkey orders with Truck Patch or Groff’s Content Farm for delivery on the last market day of the season (Nov 19th, we always finish up on the last Saturday before Thanksgiving which I remember by saying “you want to shop for the big meal, and then you don’t want to eat again until May”).

So I went to Italy for a wedding for the last week and everyone said I was going to be amazed by the food. It was an absolutely lovely trip to the coastal village of Positano, and the food was very good, but it was not the promised epiphany – turns out if you’re a regular at the farmers’ market, you are probably already eating as well as the Italians. The difference is that even a fast food sandwich from the mini-mart is a handmade work of art with a beautiful deep red tomato sliced right onto the fresh bread with fresh buffalo mozzarella and basil leaves and a drizzle of good olive oil. And still possible here in DC with ingredients from the market! The most favorite thing I ate there besides lots of local caught squid, was a sauteed greens dish (I think it was escarole, but the menu said endive) with dried grapes, olives and capers. Keep it simple, keep it fresh, have a handful of yummy adds in your pantry (nuts, dried cranberries, parmesan or managerette Stef’s salted anchovy discovery), chop a head of garlic using this life changing magic garlic peeling technique that my adorable and brilliant husband showed me last week, simmer up some some quinoa, saute some veggies, and you’ve got a meal.

So, just as a total aside, if you’ve been fantasizing about starting a small farm, I’ve got a lead for you from the Planck’s, whom you old-timers might remember as one of the original vendors at the Mt P market. They’re retiring and selling off 10 acres of essentially organically farmed land with a little house for about 350k. Fifty miles west of the city in Loudoun County near Brunswick, MD, home of the last stop on the MARC train and the stupendously cool Beans in the Belfrey coffee shop. The best part is that all the neighbors are other super cool farmers who have barn stomping dance parties and use sustainable farming practices. I’d jump all over it myself except I think I’m gonna move back to California where the strawberries never go out of season. If you’re interested, I’ll put you in touch with Chip and Susan!

Events:

• AC Valdez plays from 9-11. Then from 11-1 Someone Else will play…maybe you? Bring your uke on down to market and give us a spontaneous busking!
• 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!
• WeatherizeDC wants to Weatherize Mount Pleasant! WeatherizeDC volunteers are organizing a Mt P neighborhood weatherization project. By coming together and weatherizing as a group, homeowners can use their bulk purchasing power to bring down the cost of weatherization services, making it more affordable to reduce your carbon footprint, save money on your energy bills, build community and create green jobs. Find one of their volunteers in the bright blue shirts at market and ask them about the project!

Local Foods:
DC’s Field To Fork Network: Neighborhood Farm Initiative is the source of all those awesome free seeds, plus a great real urban farm – ask them all about their project!

Pleasant Pops: Honeycrisp Apple and Peaches n’ Cream.

People’s Bao: Chinese steamed buns with tender, slow roasted pork shoulder or duck confit or delicious savory Pennsylvania shiitake mushrooms, with a dose of Truck Patch Farms’ delicious and tender arugula.

Earth Spring Farm: Nice mid-size cauliflower are perfect for a couple cooking at home. Fresh green beans with great snap. Young, tender collards and Toscano kale on sale for 3 dollars a bunch. Baby beets. Maybe some small carrots if Mike can bear to dig some out early. Spicy arugula, baby mustard greens, red butter head lettuce and some other lettuce varieties, endive. Carnival, acorn and kabocha squash and sweet potatoes. A few pints of tomatoes still straggling out of the fields. Onions: leeks, Red Candy, Walla Walla onions, Red Tropea, and skinny Ciopollini. Kennebec and Purple Viking potatoes. Easter Egg radishes, Red Cherry radishes and Shungiku, the long, hot, sweet, red radish. Sweet and hot peppers and eggplant. Chives, Orange, Chocolate and Pepper mint, oregano, pineapple sage, English thyme, rosemary and stevia.

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!

Richfield Farm: Savoy 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, peppers, eggplant, cherry tomatoes, heirloom and field tomatoes, cut flowers.

Truck Patch Farms: Peppers are almost over, put some up while you can! Can – put up…get it? A few more tomatoes left, at this point, you can just get any old tomatoes and roast them with onions and garlic and olive oil and salt to concentrate the flavor in a delicious sauce. Spinach, mesclun, arugula, kale, Swiss chard, collards, eggplants, beets, green beans, okra, onions, carrots, Yukon Gold potatoes, butternut squash, broccoli, cilantro, basil, parsley.

Truck Patch Farms Meat Department: Have you ordered your pasture raised, hormone- and antibiotic-free Thanksgiving turkey? Ask Liam about having a bird delivered fresh on the last day of market, under 4 dollars a pound! Also 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: 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.

Reid Orchard: Regular and UV-treated Apple cider, Cherry-Apple, Grape-Apple and Pure Pear cider. Pears, apples, and hopefully a few more grapes. 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.

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!