Rhubarb at the Farmer's Market
Last week was a pretty easy cooking week for me. I didn’t go to the farmer’s market because I had plenty of fresh produce from my last trip and I ended up cooking enough over the weekend to last until Saturday. But a week without cooking and without the farmer’s market had me really itching to go this morning. I arrived as soon as it opened.
What a great week it was to go! There were wonderful cheeses, baked breads, several grass fed/pastured/organic meat stalls, and of course, the vegetables. I walked in and rhubarb immediately caught my eye. My dad used to grow this in his garden in Alaska when I was growing up. I ate rhubarb cobblers, pies, crisps, and sometimes, I’d just go into the garden, pick a stalk and eat it raw, dipping the stalk into a bowl of sugar with each bite, to offset the tartness. How wonderful is rhubarb! I could hardly contain my excitement and bought 2 lbs. Now, what to do with it all? This is the kind of problem I like to have!
Then the asparagus. Waves and waves of asparagus, all bundled up. Every stall had a huge selection. I had to get some of that. I also got some sweet potatoes, inspired by Delicious by Nature, some radishes, and some apples. I got enough greens for a couple of salads, so I grabbed a cucumber to help round out the salad.
On my way out, I spied another section of the Farmer’s Market I hadn’t seen before. There were never this many stalls before, so there was one section set a bit apart from the others. There was the mushroom stall. I love mushrooms, and I try to eat some regularly. The man there was very friendly and helpful. I got a bunch of portobellos.
Then it was off to my farmer’s pickup, where in addition to some beautiful fresh eggs, and dairy, I got a pint of wild morels he foraged on his farm land! How amazing is that?
What a fantastic morning, and all of this by 10am. But still, by the time I got back home, I still had an ache in my heart. Fiddlehead Ferns -I wanted some. Desperately. And the farmer’s market I went to failed to have any. A huge disappointment. No matter, I put my food away and set out again, this time for the biggest and best farmer’s market the NYC area has to offer – Union Square.
I saw the fiddleheads right away. Bright and green and curled up – they looked delectable. I was greedy and bought a whole pound. I was going to turn around and leave, but I just couldn’t bare to. So many more treasures awaited! I saw wild arugala and got that. It was right next to the ramps, and being out of leeks, I got ramps as well. Then I saw nettles, and since my last experiment went so well with them, I wanted to try something else with them! Sensing a theme with wild ingredients (morels, ramps, fiddleheads, arugala, and nettles), I got dandelions as well. I finished it off with another sunchoke since I enjoyed it in my salads so much last time.
What an amazing day! All of this from local farmers using sustainable farming practices. It truly feels good to support them. My final haul:
- Rhubarb
- Asparagus
- Sweet Potatoes
- Radishes
- Salad greens
- Apples
- Cucumbers
- Portobellos
- Milk
- Eggs
- Morels
- Fiddlehead Ferns
- Wild Arugula
- Ramps
- Nettles
- Sunchoke
- Dandelions
I think I’ll be cooking the radishes tonight (and the greens since I don’t like anything to go to waste).