Karen Posted June 30, 2012 Share Posted June 30, 2012 What's your favorite thing to buy at the farmer's market - and then make a delicious meal out of? I'm trying to buy at least one new thing every week but I don't always know what to do with it. Edited to add I have no idea where 'marketin' came from - meant to be 'market', but I'll pretend it's just slang... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kayell Posted June 30, 2012 Share Posted June 30, 2012 Oh my. Everything. I get slightly insane at the farmers market. #1 has to be almost anything I've never tried before. I'm way too curious. Todays haul: Eggs, ground pork, 3 kinds of lettuce, arugula, chard, basil, parsley, garlic scapes, 2 kinds of tomatoes, tomatillos, 2 kinds of cucumbers (found some white ones to try) fresh extra hot salsa, peaches, cherries, cantaloupe. Have beets, green beans and squash from a friends garden. In this weather I'll be making a lot of salads and very little cooking. (I've precooked some meat, there is frozen cooked meat and shrimp in the freezer and tuna and salmon in the cupboard.) Green and tomato/cucumber, cucumber/onion, and beet/carrot. I'll be making some green salsa with the tomatillas and garlic scapes. At least a couple of meals will be Nicoise salad without the potato. Meat and fish often wind up dropped on top of the green salad. Gazpacho is likely. The squash may get julienned, salted, wilted in the microwave, drained and fresh tomato & basil sauced. The green beans will likely be nuked with evoo, garlic and lemon. Fruit eaten raw and plain. Pork will get seasoned as loose sausage sans sugar. Eggs are for breakfast with salsa, green salsa, chard, garlic scapes. If the heat breaks (looks unlikely this week) I'll do a stirfry. I was just thinking this morning that I need to make sure I'm eating as much as possible from the market. Of course, there are the non-local luxuries that I could live without but don't want to. (fish and seafood, coffee, tea, coconut stuff, avocados, citrus, spices, olive oil, balsamic vinegar) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
karacooks Posted June 30, 2012 Share Posted June 30, 2012 Today's haul: Eggs, zucchini, eggplant, cucumber, sweet potatoes. I didn't plant zucchini this year, so I get lots of it to make zucchini chips with. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
befabdaily Posted June 30, 2012 Share Posted June 30, 2012 Today I got just a little because I'm only going to be at home cooking for part of the week. Eggs, shrimp, tomatoes, blueberries, strawberries and brussels sprouts. My eyes are always bigger than my stomach at the Farmers' Market. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LindaLee Posted June 30, 2012 Share Posted June 30, 2012 Tomatoes, blackberries, ground beef, pork steak, a couple of sirloins for my honey for a treat, and organic hot dogs. Yum! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Karen Posted June 30, 2012 Author Share Posted June 30, 2012 My eyes are always bigger than my stomach at the Farmers' Market. Me, too! I consider myself very lucky to have the variety I have at my FM, but I tend to get in a rut. I'm sensitive to so many foods that cooking is no longer fun, and I tend to eat just a piece of protein and fruit/veggies. I'm hoping the Whole30, though not much different, will at least force me to branch out and hopefully enjoy cooking again. I'm ready to make some more complex dishes. Today, I bought some GF burger patties, rump roast, beef kabob meat (not quite sure what cut it is, but since I'll be making kabobs, does it matter?), raspberries, strawberries, cherries, zuchinni, garlic scapes (I discovered these last year and love them!), tomatoes, and chard. Chard is a new one for me, but the farmer gave me some tips. I have company coming to visit tonight - Monday so I hope I have more than enough! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators Tom Denham Posted June 30, 2012 Moderators Share Posted June 30, 2012 I don't go to my Farmer's Market very much, but do go to my local farmer's house every Saturday morning to pick up my CSA veggies and eggs every week. He introduced me to kohlrabi (German turnip). The flesh of kohlrabi is milder than a regular turnip. I like to cut it into cubes and roast it in a cast iron skillet with pork, chicken, or beef. I have been eating a lot of chard lately. A cook at Whole Foods taught me to splash chard with a little vinegar when wilting it. I have been using apple cider vinegar mostly with a little splash of raspberry balsamic vinegar too. The raspberry balsamic is too sweet to use by itself for me. You can cook the chard stems, but I've been feeding them to my dogs. I can dump 20 chard stems on my patio and the dogs will eat every one within about an hour. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Emily Posted June 30, 2012 Share Posted June 30, 2012 Tom, that's funny—we've been giving our dogs chard, kale, and collard stems too and they LOVE them! They get so excited for them! Like Tom, I also get a CSA. I love it—my farm is 50 miles from me and I've visited several times. When I've gone to my local farmer's market lately I've been a bit disappointed; instead of local farmers there seems to be a lot more people selling goods such as specialty popcorns, jellies, and fruits that were grown in California (I live one-thousand miles from California). I've also reminded myself that I have to ask the farmers if their produce was grown organically. There seem to be a fair number of farmers seeing conventional crops at organic prices. So yeah, I've been a bit bummed out about the farmer's market lately. I'm hoping as the harvest season progresses that there will truly be more local, organic farmers and veggies there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
karacooks Posted June 30, 2012 Share Posted June 30, 2012 My old CSA stopped delivering locally and I haven't found one that works for me yet. I keep looking tho. Emily, my farmer's market also has a large number of "crafty" type vendors and so forth, although most of them are locally based. Still, I don't need soap or salsa or jellies. I want local farmers and fruit. Luckily there are a handful of farmers, an apiary, and 2 peach orchards that come to my market on a regular basis. Oh, also we have a local bison farmer and a local beef/pork rancher. I just make sure I stick with them and kind of bypass all the rest. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vickizee Posted July 16, 2012 Share Posted July 16, 2012 Part of my struggle with organic/local is time. Also CSA boxes are expensive. I'm on summer vacation now, but when I go back to work how would I fit it all in? I like to plan my week's meals then shop once. Since starting w30 I've been looking for organic etc. any rips? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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