New this week: Tamarind and Honey Lavender frozen pops! Pure Pear cider at the Reid Orchard stand. Broccoli. Carnival squash, sweet potatoes and bok choy.
Oooh, it’s almost like a nip in the air! I’m busting out the hoodies and socks and thinking about curried squash, pears and apples, and heartier beers. And that’s just for school lunch! Kidding. But for those of you who followed my advice last June to start a sour cherry liqueur, I just checked and it’s time to decant and enjoy! I mixed some of the grey, booze-saturated fruits in with the 4 cherry pies I just baked for the husband’s birthday (thank goodness Mrs. Parsons didn’t listen to me and she put HER cherries in the freezer for me to borrow now – already pitted too, now that’s friendship).
Mrs. Fox submitted this Pear Pizza dessert from some fancy French cooking class she took before she had kids and had to learn how to make bright yellow macaroni and cheese and jello (that’s right, her broccoli-chomping, whole wheat kids LOOOOOVE jello). Roll out your plain old easiest pie crust and lay on a pizza pan with the edges crimped. Top with prettily fanned out ripe or even slightly underripe Bartlett pears (6 to 12, depending on size of pear and pizza) marinated in lemon juice and zest, brandy, and sugar. Mix the juices from this marinade with candied ginger, pear jam, a couple eggs, a couple tablespoons of butter, salt, and slivered almonds and spoon over the pears – this will make a glaze-like custard when baked at 325 for a whole hour and a half. Or do a Pear Pizza for dinner with your favorite pizza crust and whatever combination of the following your larder yields: pears, walnuts or pinenuts, gorgonzola or goat cheese, bacon, caramelized onions and served with a heap of arugula thrown on top for the last minute of cooking.
I need to make this night-before Slow Cooker Baked Apple Breakfast – try Smokehouse, Cortland or Jonathan varieties for their firmer flesh, though Honeycrisp, Fuji and Gala are good pie apples too.
Events:
- Someone plays from 9-11…maybe it’s you? Bring an instrument and see if we need some spontaneous busking! Then Matt Haygood plays from 11-1.
- 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 your ride all ready for the CulturalTourismDC BikingTown DC bike tours of DC next weekend! 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: New flavors! Tamarind, Honey Lavender. Repeat favorites: Peach Hibiscus, Cinnamon Peach Vanilla.
DC’s Field To Fork Network: Neighborhood Farm Initiative will be hosting the Network’s booth this week – stop by to learn about urban farming, pick up some free seeds, get advice on organic urban farming, see what’s growing up at the demonstration farm at the Fort Totten Metro.
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: Carnival squash and sweet potatoes and bok choy. Leeks, Walla walla onions, Red and White Spanish onions, Red Tropea, and skinny Ciopollini. Garlic. Kennebec potatoes are a great all-rounder: roast or mash. Sweet and hot peppers including Lipstick, Red Ace, and Carmen, bell peppers, jalapeños, serranos. Bright Lights Swiss chard, kale, eggplant, basil, chives and Orange and Chocolate mint.
Reid Orchard: Regular and UV-treated apple cider, Grape-Apple and Pure Pear cider. Red Bartletts and Asian Pears. Last week for yellow peaches and nectarines, second to last week for white peaches. New apples: Jonathan, Fuji, and Elstar; returning apples: Honeycrisp, Gala, Gold Supreme, Ginger Gold, Smokehouse, McIntosh, Jonamac, and Cox Orange Pippin. Seedless and Concord grapes, yellow and white peaches, yellow nectarines, blue Italian plums, red pluots (plum+apricot). Apple butter, pumpkin butter and some neat flavored jams.
Truck Patch Farms: Peppers hold up beautifully in the rain: Jalapeños, Habaneros, Chesapeake Fish, Serranos, Cherry Bombs, Pimientos, Anchos, Green Bell peppers, Purple Beauty, Golden Cal, Big Red and Queen Bell Peppers. The tomatoes took a beating in that rain and will need some time to bounce back, but the fields are recovering with spinach, mesclun, arugula, kale, Swiss chard, eggplants, beets, basil, a few squash, green beans, and okra, yellow onions, and maybe some red and white onions and potatoes!
Truck Patch Farms Meat Department: Eggs. Pork: only the early bird gets the tenderloins, the rest of us can make do with equally excellent pork chops, 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, sweet bologna, and a few packages of ground beef. Chickens available by pre-order, email order@truckpatchfarms.com.
Groff’s Content Farm: 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: Bartlett pears, Encore, Cortland, Gala, Honeycrisp, Smokehouse and Ginger Gold apples, Asian pears. Sweet onions and red potatoes. Niagara and Concord grapes. Plus tomato sauce, applesauce, apple chips, jam, canned peaches, honey.
Richfield Farm: Broccoli, peppers, zucchini, summer squash.
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 and bagels. New this year are delicious soups to take home!
Sept 24 – Potatoes and Broccoli
New this week: Tree-ripened Shinseiki Asian pears – way better than those weird, crisp, wet, flavorless things at the grocery store, these are round and yellow and pretty and sweet. Also, Bosc pears and radishes.
I can’t say it enough times (I think this is the third time in two years): Roasted Broccoli is a revelation. Cut broccoli into its major florets, with lots of stalk, toss with olive oil and salt, roast at 425 or whatever, for 20 minutes or whatever, amaze your friends (at least the ones that aren’t busy finishing off your sour cherry liqueur – ooooh, you didn’t make any? sorry, you gotta get on that next year). Anything else is bonus: sprinkle the broccoli with Parmesan cheese in the last 5 minutes of roasting, toss with chopped garlic and/or lemon zest, sprinkle with lemon juice at the end, or slivered almonds in the last few minutes.
My go-to woman Mrs. Fox brought an excellent Roasted Potato Salad for my husband’s birthday party: roast together potatoes, red peppers and garlic in olive oil and salt, toss potatoes with vinegar while still hot, then dress potatoes and peppers together with an emulsion of olive oil, the roasted garlic, salt, vinegar. She used green bell peppers from her CSA, which I usually hate, and it was still lovely, I think the roasting made them something else. Then she picked purple basil from my daughter’s herb garden for garnish – yum!
Events:
Local Foods:
V Picnic Club: Raspberry Zinger Sandwich with locally made Raspberry Jam, Rice Fluff and Toasted Coconut on Grilled Bread. Toasted Faux Ham and Cheese Sandwich. Seasonally Flavored Homemade Almond Milk.
Pleasant Pops: Summer Peach, Tamarind, Honey Lavender. Cinnamon Peach Vanilla.
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: Radishes and loose leaf arugula. Carnival squash and sweet potatoes. Cherry tomatoes. Kale and bok choy. Onions: leeks, Walla walla onions, Red and White Spanish onions, Red Tropea, and skinny Ciopollini. Garlic. Kennebec potatoes. Sweet and hot peppers including Lipstick, Red Ace, and Carmen, bell peppers, jalapeños, serranos. Eggplant, chives and Orange and Chocolate mint.
Reid Orchard: Regular and UV-treated Apple cider, Grape-Apple and Pure Pear cider. Bartletts pears and Husui and Shinseiki Asian pears. Last week for white peaches. The tarter Fall apples are starting with Northern Spy and Macouns. Plus, Jonathan, Fuji, Elstar, Honeycrisp, Gala, Gold Supreme, Ginger Gold, Smokehouse, McIntosh, Jonamac, and Cox Orange Pippin. Plums, pluots, grapes. Apple butter, pumpkin butter and some neat flavored jams.
Truck Patch Farms: Peppers galore: Jalapeños, Habaneros, Chesapeake Fish, Serranos, Cherry Bombs, Pimientos, Anchos, Green Bell peppers, Purple Beauty, Golden Cal, Big Red and Queen Bell Peppers. The tomatoes took a beating in that rain and will need some time to bounce back, but the fields are recovering with spinach, mesclun, arugula, kale, Swiss chard, eggplants, beets, a few squash, green beans, and okra, yellow onions. Maaaaaybe some red and white onions, potatoes, winter squash, broccoli, and the last of the tomatoes, but the rain’s really limiting the harvest.
Truck Patch Farms Meat Department: Fresh chickens available this week if you pre-order at order@truckpatchfarms.com. Eggs. 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.
Groff’s Content Farm: 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: Acorn, Butternut, Spaghetti, and Kabocha squash. Red AND green Bartlett pears, Bosc pears. New apples are Cameo and Golden Delicious, plus Cortland, Gala, Honeycrisp, Smokehouse and Ginger Gold apples. Red and white sweet onions and red potatoes that are pink inside, great roasters. Seeded grapes. Tomato sauce, applesauce, apple chips, jam, canned peaches, honey, and popping corn on the cob.
Richfield Farm: Broccoli, peppers, zucchini, summer squash, butternut squash, 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.
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 and bagels. New this year are delicious soups to take home!