Farmer's Market Haul, July 4th

The July 4th holiday is a big one. And like most holidays, it has its own food associations and traditions.  Strawberries, certainly, and cherries are two.  Both are patriotic colors and come into season around early July.  Pies, cakes and other pastries made with these red fruits or in combination with blue ones like blueberries are on the dessert menu.  Grills are fired up as summer is perfect grill season.  The problem is when these fruits come from conventional farms that use a lot of pesticides, when the meat on the grills comes from factory farms where the animals are fed an improper diet and kept in inhumane conditions.  The problem also manifests itself in the white bread hamburger and hot dog buns, the potato chips fried in vegetable oils, and all the rest of the processed foods that help fill out the picnic.

I celebrated my independence from the industrial food system by going to the farmer’s market bright and early and purchasing the bounty that you see in the photo above.  Going shopping is a pleasure rather than a chore if you have a farmer’s market or a farm that you can buy directly from.  I love talking with the people running the stalls – often times it is the very farmer him/herself!  And just seeing all of the wonderful food and thinking of all the possibilities with the ingredients fills me with optimism.  Cooking food isn’t so bad either.  In the summer you can rely heavily on salads which don’t require a hot stove or hours in the kitchen.  And even in the winter, roasts and soups provide delicious meals and many leftovers with very little effort involved.  And when I do rely on packaged foods or convenience foods, they can be purchased from ethical companies that source good ingredients and create the food in a way as to keep the nutrition in.

Want some examples?  Look no further than the rest of the posts on this blog, or read many of the food blogs linked on the right.  Or stay tuned as I blog over the next few weeks about some of these foods in more detail.  Below the jump you’ll see what I purchased on July 4th and a description based on what I know so far of these foods.

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Sorrel Avocado Soup

One of my goals when going to the farmer’s market is to try new foods.  I always try to get something that I’ve never eaten before, never cooked with before, or I have limited experience with.  It broadens my palate and stretches my creativity in the kitchen.  Recently, my new ingredient was sorrel.

Sorrel is a really neat green leafy vegetable.  It looks quite similar to spinach, with its rich green color and broad smooth leaves.  The taste is tart and a bit lemony.  When cooked, sorrel falls about completely, which is why it is commonly used as a sauce or in soups.  It does not look very attractive cooked as it turns into a muddy green color – but at least the taste is good!  It can also be eaten raw, but because the flavor becomes more tart with age, younger leaves are best eaten raw. The flavor of the older leaves can add flavor to soups and sauces.

For my recipe, I also used ramps, nettles and fiddleheads since I’m still enamored with these wild vegetables.  The avocado lends a rich creamy texture to the soup without any dairy.  I used beef stock because that was all I had, but chicken stock would probably be preferable to give it a lighter taste.  To make this a truly vegan soup, the ghee could be replaced with coconut oil or even olive oil if you cooked at a lower temperature and the stock could be replaced with vegetable stock.

This post is part of Try it Tuesday.

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Wild Pesto

There is just something exotic about eating something that was harvested from the wild.    On top of that, we know that wild food by definition cannot be genetically modified, nor can it have pesticides on it.  However, when eating wild game, fish caught from the ocean, or plants harvested from the wild, one must be sure that everything is taken in a sustainable manner.  If we over harvest, over fish, or over hunt, there will be nothing left for future generations.  Of course, much like sustainable farming, if we harvest food from the wild in a sustainable way, we are ensuring that it will be around for years to come.

One of my recent Farmer’s Market finds was wild arugula.  Wild arugula seems to have a smaller leaf than the cultivated arugula I’ve had, but the overall taste seems pretty much the same.   It just has that wild mystique.

I also got some ramps, which I’ve been working my way through.  Ramps are like wild leeks or green onions.  I find their flavor to be somewhere between a leek and garlic, so I’ve been using them in place of just about anything that calls for garlics, leeks, or onions.  They are wonderful, and edible from the bulb to the leaves.

A great way to put these together is in an arugula pesto.  An arugula pesto is very similar to the regular basil pesto, just with the distinctive peppery arugula bite.  It is wonderful on pastas, salads, or as a way to dress up some baked chicken.  It is an incredibly versatile ingredient, and it should last a good week or two in the fridge, or several months in the freezer (freeze in individual serving sizes for ease of defrosting – I like using ice cube trays).  Make a couple batches and keep them handy in the freezer.  It makes for an incredibly easy meal when you don’t feel like cooking.

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Radishes at the farmer's market

What do you do with a chicken breast to make it more exciting?  I thought about this last night and decided to make a cream sauce.  The end result was fantastic.  This cream sauce would probably work with fish and vegetables as well.  It is a pretty free form recipe.  Once you’ve made the roux to your liking, everything else is just included in quantities your taste buds see fit.

The roasted radishes are wonderful and extremely easy.  I always thought I didn’t like radishes.  I don’t like their spicy bite.  Then my uncle taught me to roast them.  Roasting them takes the bite away and leaves a sweetness behind.

Finally, I hate kitchen waste, always wanting to stretch my dollar and prevent usable things from ending up in the garbage.  The radishes came with green tops, so they must be eaten as well.  Radish greens, like radishes, have a bit of a bite that is diminished with longer cooking.  If you don’t have radish greens, other spicy greens like mustard could be used in this recipe.

Recipes for all 3 dishes below.

This post is submitted to Real Food Wednesday.

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