Another Farmers' Market

Due to an all-day recording session in San Francisco on Saturday, I was, yet again, unable to visit my usual Farmers' Market. While I do get a lot of goodies in my Wednesday CSA, there are lots of other veggies I like to have available on a regular basis. So I took the opportunity on Sunday morning to try out the market in Belmont. It's much smaller than the one in San Mateo, and with less advertised "organic" produce, but had everything I needed. I bought beets, carrots, tomatoes (first of the season for me!), walnuts, cherries, apricots, yellow plums, and pluots. Hooray for stone fruit!

I had an excellent and productive day at home yesterday. In the kitchen, I turned the remnants of my last batch of crock pot yogurt into yogurt cheese, saving the whey. I put up a quart of beets to ferment on the counter, following the recipe in Nourishing Traditions. Finally, as a treat, I made up some pudding, using real vanilla bean for flavor. I should say, however, that it is more of a honey vanilla pudding, since the honey I have is so strongly flavored. (Not a bad thing for a honey-lover like me.)

Before dinner I went on a nice 6-mile hike/run in the park. I had one of those moments where, emerging from the shade of the trees into the sun of the meadow, I just had to break into a sprint for the sheer joy of being alive and outside. I saw a doe and her fawn, which made me think of all the pregnant ladies I know, especially the one who is going to go into labor any minute now and soon get to nuzzle her new baby for the first time.

Farmer's Market Haul

Another Saturday, another bag stuffed with fresh, fabulous food! First, let's talk fruit. I purchased my first apricots and peaches of the year, along with some more cherries, plus a few navel oranges and kumquats. The apples are almost gone (since their heyday is in the fall, winter, and early spring) but I picked up a couple pounds of seconds for making applesauce. I bought eggs, as usual. Then there were the necessary veggies: leeks, kale, potatoes, asparagus, and peas. Fresh English peas, still in their pods, so sweet and flavorful--just shell, boil briefly to heat through, and melt a pat of butter over the top. Heavenly.

My boyfriend is continuing to make me proud out there at the market, by expanding his tastes to include a lot of new produce. It was so much fun to see the look of amazement that spread over his face when I popped a kumquat in his mouth--he has a new fruit to enjoy! Plus, once summer gets here and the market is overflowing with tomatoes and peppers, I know he's going to become a salsa-making machine.

After the market, we headed over to the park to hit the trail for a nice hike--a good 6 miles all told. No deer sightings, which was not surprising, considering it was the middle of the day. I soaked up a lot of sun, becoming saturated with it in fact, which necessitated the application of a little aloe vera gel later in the afternoon. As we hiked and talked over cooking plans, we discussed additional sorbet possibilities. In addition to the blackberry cabernet sorbet, which was already in the works, we came up with blueberry merlot, blood orange zinfandel, and peaches with brandy. I wonder if I could do something with cherries and kirschwasser?

Have you ever had freshly shelled peas? What's your favorite seasonal item from the farmers' market?

Farmers' Market Haul

Saturday morning was yet another good day for shopping. I started as usual with Fifth Crow Farm, for pastured eggs and baby lettuces. Then it was down to the citrus pusher (long story) where I picked up navel oranges and a couple of avocados. In the next aisle I bought sauerkraut, a 4-lb bag of raw almonds (for making almond butter! and because it is more economical to buy them in bulk and just store in the freezer), and grass-fed cow and lamb parts. Eventually I finished filling up my bag with potatoes, onions, cilantro, asparagus, cucumbers, dill, cherries, and salmon. A very diverse collection, which required two trips around the entire market to find everything and compare prices.

I was actually very proud of my boyfriend. On his earliest visits to the market he would come home with salsa, pumpkin bread, ravioli, etc. That is, all prepared foods, and basically no vegetables. This time he bought for himself some strawberries, bell pepper, onions, potatoes, and asparagus. To be healthier, he's cooking for himself. Apparently there were a few glitches in the actual cooking plan last night, but yay for him for eating his own, fresh food instead of ordering pizza.

We watched the Emma Thompson/Kate Winslet "Sense and Sensibility" on Saturday night, and now my brain is filled with simple empire-waisted dresses. It's already thinking about which fabrics in my stash would be suitable. Of course, I've got a lot of sewing already on my list before I can branch off into the Regency styles, but I expect they will begin to get worked on later on this summer.

Yesterday was the "Bay to Breakers" race in San Francisco. Normally it registers in my boyfriend's brain as "can't drive north today", but since he has a newcomer, me, to show everything off to, we ended up heading down to the park to witness the race aftermath. Tons of people, in very silly costumes, and sometimes no clothes at all, turn out to see and be seen. Fortunately it was a very pleasant, sunny day, and I can think of no better way to spend a Sunday than strolling through a park. We even saw five bison down in their paddock. All told, it was 2 3/4 hours of strolling, covering 6.7 miles.

Farmers' Market Haul

Another Saturday, another successful trip to my local farmers' market. This was a quick trip, mostly because I had done so much stocking up the previous weekend, but also because I was at the start of a busy day.

First big bit of news: I handed over my paperwork to join in on the CSA over at Fifth Crow Farm. For less than $30 a week, I get a nice-sized box of fresh, local produce and a half-dozen eggs. This will be my very first experience in a CSA, and I was slightly hesitant at first, after some of my friends' experiences. What cinched it for me was the reasonable amount of produce being offered in the box--definitely an amount I can eat in a week, considering my love of vegetables and the fact that I cook a lot--and the nice people I've talked to at their market booth. They're really excited about the food they offer, so I want to help them to have a successful farm.

Then I went around the market for some of the usual suspects: greens and nuts. One bunch of collards and two of lacinato kale; then one pound of almonds and two of walnuts. At the almond booth, the lady asked if I wouldn't rather get four pounds for $20 (to save a dollar per pound), and I'm seriously thinking about doing that for next time. Just think--I could make my own almond butter. Here's a link to a recipe by Angela over at "Oh She Glows". I might need to do a bit of math to determine whether it makes $ense to grind up my own almond butter. Way I figure, though, storing the nuts in the freezer means that they'll keep for a long time, and they're definitely a staple in my kitchen, so they'll all get eaten.

Also purchased: limes and dried cherries and . . . liver. From a grass-fed cow.

Time for another n=1 experiment. (Meaning that the experiment is being performed on myself, and I'm the only data point being represented.) In all the years that I was a vegetarian, every time I would complain that my hands were cold, Dad would say that I needed to eat some liver and onions. I mean, it's top on the list of foods recommended to improve your hematocrit. I would know: I've seen that list every time I've tried to donate blood for the past six years. After doing a bit of research, I should have gone for the lamb's liver instead, just because it allegedly has a more mild flavor, so maybe I'll try that next time if this experiment goes well. Needless to say, I will be trying every trick in the book to make the liver as palatable as possible. Plus, it will be smothered, I say, smothered in caramelized onions and possibly a balsamic vinegar reduction as well.

Farmers' Market Haul

Had a great trip to the Farmers' Market in San Mateo on Saturday. I had to do some tricky driving and scheduling to get it done, but I wanted my farm-fresh produce! It was so totally worth it.

Eggs, kale, lacinato kale, chard, cilantro, potatoes, carrots, asparagus, dates, raisins, mixed dried fruit, almonds and walnuts. My bag was overflowing with goodness.

An exciting surprise: Aryeh Frankfurter was performing out there! I stalk him, wherever I find him with his nyckelharpa. He's a fantastic musician and a nice guy, and he gets bonus points for playing traditional Swedish tunes when I ask him to. (You see, the nyckelharpa is the instrument of Sweden.) Now all he has to do is remember my name.