First Farmer's Sighting!

I must confess that we aren't responsible for discovering the first farmers this year - I knew there were farmers showing up because of Twitter. (Yep, I'm a twitter-head. You can follow me here if you are into that sort of thing.) With the winter markets still going strong, and with my Saturday morning writing group, we just haven't been haunting the market in search of early produce.

But we got up early today and headed to the North Market, and were not disappointed. There were two farmers outside: Toad Hill and Somerset Herbs. We put off buying herb plants (my pot of herbs seems to be dead, but I want to give it another few weeks before writing it off and buying new ones) but picked up a lettuce mix, eggs, and dried tomatoes from Toad Hill.

Inside the market we found some duck legs from North Market poultry (a back-up Easter dinner, since my mom has laryngitis and may not feel like company tomorrow), bacon and pork chops from Blue's Creek, the obligatory cinnamon roll from Omega (along with some day-old cross buns, since they hadn't baked the fresh ones yet), Honey Vanilla ice cream from Jeni's, and a few local products at the Greener Grocer: ramps (yay!), milk from Snowville Creamery, and shitake and cremini mushrooms (we also picked up some spinach, but I can't remember where it was grown.)

Market day means market lunch, so we had a Greek omelet with the eggs, spinach, and dried tomatoes, as well as some feta cheese from an earlier winter market. I am slowly but surely learning to like egg yolks, and this was my second omelet in two days. It was pretty darn good!

Dark Days of Winter Challenge - week 13

I had great plans to make a very healthy meal this week - plans that were slightly foiled by the amount of butter I used, alas. It was tasty, though!

This meal featured locally farmed trout from Freshwater farms of Ohio. I pan-fried it with fresh lemon juice (not local) and herbs. My second attempt at cauliflower puree was fantastic! I used two small potatoes along with the cauliflower, plus cream and butter and caramelized shallots. Sadly, that was the last of the cauliflower from my freezer. Other side dishes included corn with shallots and butter, green beans with even more shallots and butter, and carnival squash with, you guessed it, butter (along with maple sugar and curry powder. And without shallots.) I've been experimenting with flavorings for roasted squash, and I have to say that maple and curry is a definite winner (cumin is also pretty good, and cumin with coriander is on deck for the next batch.)

So how are your supplies holding out? My freezer is still packed to the gills, and we've been getting fresh lettuce and greens and the odd potato (sweet potatoes this week!) from the winter farmer's market. I have a ton of small, slightly wrinkly and sad potatoes that I bought in the fall, so hopefully they will become soup this week. And plenty of squash are still around, of course - it's about time to roast one of the big ones (probably a marina de chioggia.)

One Local Summer - Week 8

This week's meal featured meat cakes! Roughly based on the idea from here, my version is basically a flat, round meatloaf (this time I made it with sweet onions and an egg from Elizabeth Telling Farm) which is then topped with mashed potatoes (these were lightly mashed red thumb potatoes, which were a lovely shade of pink) and bacon sprinkles. The meat cake has become a staple in our house, a kind of vegetable-free shepherd's pie, only much groovier. Side dishes were corn on the cob and pole beans with onions. The pole beans were a 0-mile food, right from the garden!

Non-local ingredients were salt, pepper, breadcrumbs, and Worcestershire sauce.

One Local Summer - Week 7

This week's designated meal was a main course of BLT's (well, okay, they were actually "BL's" because I don't like tomato on sandwiches) with corn on the cob and zucchini capaccio, based on Eric Ripert's excellent blog recipe at at Avec Eric. The bacon was from Blues Creek, zucchini from Paige's Produce, and corn from... well, I forget the farm's name but it was grown in Circleville Ohio (~40 miles.) Non-local ingredients were olive oil, salt, pepper, and Parmigiano cheese (I had some local Gouda but the dish really called for the imported Parmigiano Reggiano, so I used it.)

I made the mistake of turning the oven on for the zucchini, since my toaster oven only holds so much. Bad choice! I am not touching the oven again until fall is in the air.

New market craziness - Columbus Square farmer's market

I ventured over the the new Columbus Square Farmer's Market today, as it is quite close to my house and much closer than the morning market in Pearl Alley (through some weirdness with the city the Pearl Alley Grower's Association doesn't do the Pearl Alley market anymore.) It did, however, require that I miss out on the samosas and chai from Pearl Alley, which is quite a sad thing.

I missed the ribbon-cutting ceremony by a few minutes, but boy was this market packed! There were 4 farmers, Meadow Maid cheese, and a concession truck that was still setting up when I left. The lines for a couple of the farmers, most notably the one with berries and corn (being worked by one person), were extreme. I waited in line for a good half hour for my dozen ears of corn and a cilantro plant. The traffic getting in and out of the area was also really bad, but nothing a slight detour to a different entrance to the area wouldn't fix. (The market is in the lot of a big strip mall/out-lot area. I do not advise using the entrance closest to the market as it was completely congested today.)

Other than corn and berries there were also plenty of potatoes, onions, and summer squash; kohlrabi and cabbage were also to be found, as well as honey and the aforementioned cheese. I hope the market grows and shoppers become a little more savvy - it was clear that many of the patrons were not frequenters of this type of market.

marketing report!

I actually wrote down prices today, so I will include them. I swore I wouldn't buy too much this week, since I am leaving for Chicago on Thursday and will be working 14 hour days until then. But alas, I could not resist!

Snap peas (finally) 2 X $3 (a pint, I think)
snow peas $3/pint
hakurei turnips $2
plum purple radish $2
garlic scapes $2
green onions $2
shitake/oyster mushroom mix $5
strawberries $4.75
strawberries $4
grape tomatoes $4
red thumb fingerling potatoes $3

Chicken ~$5 for boneless split breast
chicken chorizo ~$10 for 6 links
thinly-sliced ham ~$5
baguette $3.95

So that totaled around $61 and some change. This is not counting the coffee, cinnamon roll, donut, cookies, or booze (not local, but a nice bottle of gueuze and a strange ale with hibiscus.)

There were not long lines for strawberries this week! It helped that several vendors at almost every market had them. I am starting to feel a little strawberried-out. There was still asparagus available, but I am actually a little tired of it.

Meal plans: for my OLS meal I plan to do a stir-fry with the garlic scapes, scallions, snow peas, mushrooms, and chard from the garden. If I have time this week I'll roast a chicken and the fingerlings and turnips (if not they will keep until next week.) There will be plenty of ham sandwiches - darn, wish I'd bought some cheese for that. Radishes and butter on baguette, as well as ham sandwiches on baguettes. Ah, if only I had some brie! And salads, of course. Must eat more salads.

What's in season in your area?

The most beautiful lettuce ever

I picked this up Wednesday at the Westerville market. The girl said the variety was red sails, but I think it might be red frills (or so says my google image search.) When I caught sight of it I said, "I don't know what it is but I want it!" Something that colorful has to be good for you, right? :-)

We were going to have it for a dinner salad tonight, but I ran out of steam. Dinner ended up being short ribs (braised in soy sauce, scallions, cilantro, sesame seeds, rice wine vinegar, and lime juice) over lime-cilantro rice (hey, at least the cilantro was local!) with mixed braising greens with garlic, soy sauce, and rice wine vinegar. The greens were quite bitter, so I was sad that it is not the time for leeks (leeks are an instant sweetener for bitter greens! It's almost magical.)

Marketing report!

I've been a bit lax with the marketing reports!

Strawberry season is in full swing here, and my fridge is packed full. I need to make strawberry granita this weekend. I made yogurt last week and have been eating a nice big bowl of local strawberries, yogurt, and granola for breakfast every morning.

Today's other finds included a mix of shitake and oyster mushrooms (destined for risotto), spinach and lettuce, grape tomatoes, braising greens, asparagus, green garlic, carrots (yay!), and a beautiful bouquet of stir-fry greens (mustard, tatsoi, and a bunch of other ones, including the yellow flowers of the han-something-something green, or something-han-something. I forget.) We also got some chicken legs and grass-fed T-bone steaks (which made me remember why we don't eat steak - quite pricey!) Oh, and a loaf of bread. And some ice cream. And bacon and chorizo (the latter will be in my One Local Summer dish this week.) Oh, and cheese - Gretna Grillin' cheese and some sort of chipotle cheese.

Notable local meals of late: calypso beans and chorizo; grass-fed burgers with raw milk cheddar and arugula microgreens; salads and salads and more salads (complete with baby snow peas from the garden); the odd braised greens with green garlic; grilled cheese and fried cheese.

Speaking of fried cheese, I think I need to go and cook some right now!

A wonderful market day!

Today was the Cinco d'Ohio festival at the North Market, which marks the official start of the farmer's market season. A number of the vendors were selling things other than vegetables, but I guess it is still a bit early in the season for most farmers.

That did not, however, prevent us from bringing home a large haul. The items I am most excited about are: FISH!!! Locally produced fish, no less, from Freshwater Farms of Ohio. I've been meaning to drive out there, but they saved me the trip (it's uncertain whether they'll be at the market throughout the season.) We picked up some beautiful trout fillets and some smoked trout as well. The next bit of excitement involved fresh morels (wheee!) at $10 a pint, and the first of the asparagus! You can tell that this was a multiple exclamation point kind of a market day. I also picked up some spinach, watercress (never used that before!), baby leeks and scallions, and some ramps from the Greener Grocer (which I have also never cooked before.) Originally I was planning for a risotto with ramps and morels, but instead they may both adorn some cooked trout.

On a brief foray to the Clintonville plant sale/preview market we picked up some thin young hothouse (or hoophouse) green beans, as well as some potatoes.

I am so excited to have fresh local produce again! My own strawberry plants are in bloom (not that I've ever had a strawberry from them, I think the rabbits get them) so hopefully strawberry season is close!

It's beginning to look a lot like.... spring!

Despite the impending white doom falling from the sky (well, rain and snow mix through Monday night) it appears that spring has sprung. The forsythia are blooming like crazy and most of the shrubbery is in leaf. My seeds starters are mostly doing well (except for a few stubborn varieties) and I can't wait to get them out to the garden. The pole beans win the "coolest-looking sprouting plant" award; I'll try to get a picture later today (but there's not a lot of light on this grismal Saturday.)

We went to two markets today - the North Market and the Worthington winter market. Getting to the North Market was rather tricky - the half marathon was today and many streets were blocked off. We finally made it there, and found 2 farmers (Combs and Toad Hill) plus herbs for sale (Somerset Herbs, I think) and Gypsy Bees. We stocked up with 2 bags of spinach, one each of lettuce and arugula, a dozen eggs, and sweet woodruff and (salad) burnet to plant.

Salad burnet is an amazing herb, tasting a little like cucumbers. I may have to buy a few more plants! It apparently goes very well in dips, and I am all about the dips these days. (Making your own dips is easy-peasy. I'll try to post some recipes, even though they are a)not usually local and b)involve things like "add some of this and a little of that.)

Inside the North Market we picked up a cinnamon roll and cupcake from Omega Artisan Baking, and some ham and polish sausage at Blue's Creek. And coffee for me, because I was a bit of a crankypants.

We made a brief stop at our Co-op (Clintonville Community Market) to pick up some dried dill, rolls from Eleni Christina Bakery, and a bottle of Clos Normand Brut for me (if you haven't tried French fermented cider I heartily suggest that you do. It is an entirely different experience than English hard cider.)

Our last stop was to the Worthington winter market, which continues to do a brisk business. By the survey they were conducting it seems like it may be a weekly occurrence next year! Hopefully more vegetable vendors will be on board. This week we bought potatoes, onions, garlic, and snow peas from H-W Organic Farm; feta and garlic and herb cheese from Meadow Maid (really good local cheese from grass-fed cows, and I believe most varieties are rennet-free); and some ground beef from Long Meadows (which was swamped, and Ed was working solo today.) I was thrilled to see mushrooms from Toby Run there, so I picked up a small container of oyster 'shrooms.

The folks from FLOW (Friends of the Olentangy Watershed) had a table at the Worthington market. This is the organization that sponsors a cost-share rain barrel program (you get a rain barrel for $30 - sorry, all of the workshops are full this year, but you can get on a waiting list. We're going next weekend, since I managed to be on the ball and sign up a few months ago.) Anyway, FLOW does a lot of interesting and cool things, so you locals should check out their web site and consider volunteering (they have stream clean-ups coming up in the next few months, where they pick up garbage and remove invasive foreign plants like honeysuckle and garlic mustard.)

So what am I going to do with all this food? This will be a "semi-local" meals week, with sausage-stuffed portabella mushrooms, udon with shiitake, spinach salad with warm bacon dressing (an Alton Brown recipe), pasta salad with baby spinach (Try it! It makes a great addition) and lots and lots of salads. Maybe some arugula pesto if I get very industrious.

winter farmer's market report

We got up early this morning and headed to the North market, in part to get in practice for the farmer's market season, and in part to see if anyone had ventured out yet (The market starts in April, but a few farmers had mentioned coming before that for a Saturday or two.) They hadn't (except for the guy from Gypsy Bees, who had a table inside) but we didn't let that slow us down.

We started with a cinnamon roll and hot cross buns from Omega Artisan Baking. I procured a latte from the coffee shop (the price jumped up by almost $1, thus removing its "cheapest latte in town" status. Le sigh.) and after demolishing the cinnamon roll we jumped right into shopping. Cottage ham and pork chops from Blues Creek. A boneless, skinless chicken breast and stock from North Market Poultry (for chicken piccata; since I forgot to have it butterflied I guess I will be learning to do that myself.) Grape tomatoes, a cucumber and lemon from the Greener Grocer (not local, sigh.) Sugardaddy's brownie cream cheese ice cream from Jeni's. Angel hair pasta from Pastaria.

Next we headed up to Worthington for the winter farmer's market. It was pretty much the same as usual, but 2silos were there with eggs (unfortunately I bought some from Raven Rock before I saw them) and the vegetable people (H-W Organic) had snow pea pods! I spent $22 on veggies: four huge onions, 2 bunches of scallions, potatoes, snow peas, baby lettuce and baby spinach. I bought 2 blocks of cheese from the Ohio cheese people (raw milk jack and garlic and herb) and a 1/2 gallon of apple cider from Gillogly Orchards. You can probably guess that pork chops with apples, onions, and apple cider will be on the menu this week. I also picked up a small rosemary plant. I hope I don't kill it!

Can it be spring? Can it be strawberry season, or at least asparagus season? We have kept vegetable and fruit buying to a minimum this winter, and I am starved for fresh fruit. Tasty fresh fruit.

There are no big Easter plans here at Green Leanings. I will be making deviled (local) eggs and a pasta salad (with local cheese and spinach) for an early potluck, and possibly some chicken piccata for us later in the evening. I don't like egg yolks so making the deviled eggs should be... interesting. They always look so pretty; maybe if I add enough flavoring I'll find them to be edible. I love egg whites, but have never liked the taste and texture of yolks.

market day!

Another successful market day! Saturday is the biggest market day in Columbus; in fact, we go to three markets in a row which are conveniently all located on or near High Street.

At the North Market we met up with friends and had some coffee and ice cream (both from local companies) with our shopping. Here's the haul:

Fruit CSA share: small watermelon, 4 apples (2 honeycrisp, 2 cortland?), ground cherries (like little tomatillos, and totally new to us.)

Other North Market buys:
-italian sausage and peppered bacon $7.41
-rocket microgreens $3
-locally milled pancake mix $4.50
-raspberries $4.50
-blackberries (it's the end of the season, *sigh*) $4.50 each I think
-goat cheese (I think they are slightly out of my 100-mile radius, but it's still Ohio) $6.95 and worth every penny
-fresh angel hair pasta
-rosemary and cilantro $1 each
-mango ice cream to take home, and frosttop (local root beer company) and sweet corn with blackberry sauce to eat there. Jeni's Ice Cream is beyond fabulous!

Clintonville market:
Not a thing! 2silos wasn't there, so no eggs. Sippel was out of the amazing sun gold tomatoes (everyone was talking about how good they were, so no surprise there.)

Worthington:
-2 fresh pasture-raised chickens ($15.50 for the pair, which wasn't too bad a price. They are small, though.) No eggs, she had sold out. :-(
-6 pound bag of red ruby popcorn $6
-mixed beans (kidney, lima, green) $4.50
-edamame ($2 this week! I got 2)
-10 pounds of canning tomatoes $5
-green and yellow beans $2.25
-honeycrisp apples $4
-2 ears of corn $1

I've included the prices to help me keep track, and to let you know what prices are current here in central Ohio.

My plans for the next few days include roasting both chickens and making a huge pot of stock with the remainders, making pasta sauce, and steaming edamame. I will be traveling to North Carolina on the 13th, so I need to prep some snack foods and a lunch to keep me local (at least from where I started!)