Last Post – For awhile!

My dearest readers,

Today is my last day at work… for a little while at least! Today is my estimated due date, and I am headed out on maternity leave! It’s pretty heady & exciting stuff – but as I live on the opposite end of the island from the Union Square Greenmarket, the likelyhood of me getting to the market three times a week in the next few weeks is low. Part of the reason I am able to do this so regularly, is because the firm I work for is located right on the Square! However, expect a cute Greenmarket picture in about 6 or 7 weeks* featuring a locally grown baby!

Today it’s supposed to alternate between sun and thunderstorms. Strange! I decided to procure my last office lunch at the market: Pecorino fresco from Dancing Ewes farm. The lady says it’s a less aged version of the hard pecorino cheese we all love on pasta. Very creamy and she says it melts beautifully! I won’t be melting it at lunchtime, but I will be eating it on hunks of Bobolink’s Roasted Garlic & Duck Fat bread. Babies need fat for their brains, and who am I to deny my child the best? 😉 All this will be followed by a pint of or so of Berried Treasures TriStar/Wild Strawberries cross. YUM.

We are still working our way through a giant pork roast I bought, and I have only had fresh favas once this season. At Yunno’s, I stocked up on favas (and I saw that the Queens County Farm Museum had some too), and got some spearmint too. A few sprigs are in my water glass now gently flavoring my water. I also picked up a box of mini orange & wild cranberry scones from Wild Hive as an afternoon treat for my coworkers for being so lovely to me all through my pregnancy!

There was tons of fruit today – no peaches, but raspberries, blueberries, strawberries, and cherries abound. There’s even sour cherries if anyone would like to try making Sour Cherry Cordial. It’s truly magnificent stuff after it ages a year or so.

So, that’s it for now. I’ll be back regularly sometime in the Autumn, and perhaps sporadically through the summer. For now: have a marvelous summer full of food and joy!

All my love,
baconbit

*He’ll be born in the next week or two, but I am expecting that it may be 6 or 7 weeks before I come down to show him off at the office! 🙂

At LAAAAAAAAAAST!!!!

My love has come along! My lonely days
are over! And life is like a soooooooooong!

Honey Hollow Farms is back – AT LAST – with yellow chantarelles and big ol’ bags of dried mushrooms, beautiful herbs, and all manner of good things. They said the rain had kept down production on the farm so they just stayed home, “vacationed” a bit, and did other work around the farm. Lydia (I think that is her name) said the garden is so flooded that she practically sinks to her knees in mud when she goes into it! Here’s to hoping for a week or two of sun. That would be nice, wouldn’t it?

Naturally, I bought some mushrooms.

Today was the Day of Fruit at the market! I saw the first raspberries of the season at two different stalls (I can’t remember who right now) and Keenan Farms had blueberries and the first peaches of the season. YUM! I bought a couple of those, as well as some garlic scapes at Keith’s for a quiche I am going to make tonight. Mmm. Quiche.

We are starting on that glorious climb when there’s more produce than you can shake a stick at, and all the seasons begin to come together! We still have strawberries, I see leftover apples from last fall, the first peaches and raspberries – and garlic scapes and bulbs of garlic too – basil and tomatoes, early spring cheeses and late fall ones – it’s a great time to be at the market. Today is not raining – but still nice and cool. A good Wednesday for a shop!

~baconbit

Split Fruit

It’s been raining for weeks now, and one of the hazards of eating locally is the weather. While our greens and cucumbers are lovely – the poor fruit! Today I bought Phillips cherries and half of them were split. It’s not anyone’s fault – just the rain is drowning the trees and the fruit gets all swollen! I’ll eat through these and wait for drier and hotter days, safe in the knowledge that later on the season the fruit will be juicy AND flavorful!

No strawberries at Yunno’s or Maxwells today – just at Phillips and some of the other larger growers.

Today was a bread and egg run at market. Wednesday I’ll stock up on veg!

~baconbit

Favas!

Today I saw – and bought – fava beans from Yunno’s. I adore them! I will be roasting a big hunk of pork I got on Wednesday tomorrow (it’s sloooooowly defrosting in the ‘fridge) and peeling and mashing my favas. I may even mix them with a bit of the garlic scape spread I got on Wednesday for a bit of zing – or I may put the spread on the roast (YUM) when I spear it with the fresh roasemary.

Tonight’s dinner is simple: cucumber & radish salad (Yunno’s) with hunks of bread (our Daily Bread), boiled eggs (pullets from Yunnos), a quarter of a wheel of Shepard’s Valley “Baby Shepard” cheese followed by Berried Treasures TriStar strawberries.

Today I also picked up a half pint of the wild strawberries from Berried Treasures. They are expensive at $10 per half pint – but I will not be eating them out of hand. Instead, I’ll make a small batch of wild strawberry cordial with them. When you have something like this, try to use it in the way that will make it last as long as possible. My sour cherry cordial from last year is finally ready to drink. Fantastic!

I asked at information today about Honey Hollow Farms. They are fine! Just with all the rain they haven’t had enough produce to make coming to market viable. Let’s hope for a few days of sun on Monday and Tuesday, so we can have a flush of beautiful mushrooms next week!

~baconbit

New Fruit!

The most exciting thing happened today: I saw cherries and blueberries at Keenan’s today, along with strawberries! The fruit selection is expanding! I love it! Summer fruit is my favorite.

One of my favorite things to do with summer fruit is make what I call “Fruit Pizza”. I like to have this in the evening with a salad for dinner, or cold (or reheated) in the morning for breakfast. Or even for a dessert, or as a finger food. I first made this later in the summer, with plums, but I think it would be marvelous with blueberries or strawberries, and if you wanted to do the work of pitting – cherries! Really, any fruit will do. This is barely a recipe, but use it as a base to play off of.

Fruit Pizza
Make or buy pizza dough. Whole wheat? Plain? Your choice, of course.

Get yourself a half pound of fresh ricotta. Maybe the Buffalo milk ricotta, or Shepard’s Valley sheepsmilk ricotta. You want fresh ricotta, not pressed ricotta salada. OK?

Get a pint to a quart of berries of your choosing.

Mix a tablespoon of brown sugar or honey into the ricotta. If you want to get fancy – put in a tablespoon of chopped fresh herbs – maybe lavender buds (YUM). Lavender and honey is particularly divine. Season berries with another tablespoon of sugar or honey.

Spread out your pizza dough. I do it on a cookie sheet covered with tinfoil and use a little spray canola oil. You can do it however you like! Top pizza with berries and rictotta. Heat in a 450 degree oven until ricotta is lightly browned, or the edges of your dough are.

EAT and love it!

*******

In other news: Still no Honey Hollow Farms. I am bereft! And worried! Are they OK?

~baconbit

Berried Treasures, Indeed

Today I stoppped off at Berried Treasures to see what I could see. I spied TriStar Strawberries that they have been back-crossing with wild strawberries. Yum! I got a box, and contemplated the *teeny weeny* half pints of Real Wild Strawberries. Just gorgeous at $10/ half pint. I may indulge later. On the tart side, they are bursting with flavor. Perhaps I will get some and either use them in a cordial or a soda syrup. I also saw black mint, a plethora of baby potatoes, fresh chammomile (sp?!) and lovely fresh herbs. Stop by.

The Milliport Dairy folks have BEEF JERKY! I love beef jerky! I got a pack. At $7 a pack it’s pricey – but you can try before you buy. Mmm.

Lots of gorgeous greens today everywhere at the market – and heirloom tomatoes are starting to come in. Check the North side of the market for those. For myself today? Young summer red onions from Yunnos and summer Tuscan Kale. I’ll be having that tonight with pasta and some fresh garlic, pine nuts (from my freezer) and maybe some chopped up dried apricots (not local).

Have a great weekend all!

~baconbit

‘Scape from the Future

I kept seeing signs last week saying “Garlic Scapes are Here!” – but I never saw any actual garlic scapes!

Today I saw that Maxwell’s had them at $6/lb – along with pretty strawberries and rhubarb. I bought some scapes, but had already bought my strawberries at Yunno’s, along with some eggs. Both stands had shelling peas! My favorite.

Over the weekend I made mac n’ cheese at home – the real McCoy as they say – with fresh shelled sweet peas from the Greenmarket. Fantastic! Tonight will be leftovers and a cucumber salad. I may throw the garlic scapes into a quiche for us to eat for lunch this week. With fresh strawberries for dessert! What, really, could be better than that?

Don’t know what garlic scapes are? They are the unopened flowers of the garlic plant. They are gently garlickly – almost like garlic & asparagus together – but they don’t make your pee smell weird. I like to quickly sauté them and then put them in quiches! Others like to just serve them sauteed with butter. Experiment, and see what you like best.

It’s cool and overcast today. A nice day for the market.

~baconbit

More Morels

Today, Honey Hollow Farms busted out the yellow morels again. “Callo! Calleigh! She chortled in her joy!” Oh yes, I am the Jabberwhocky of Mushrooms.

Naturally I bought a pint ($10) and eyed the ‘A’ grades at $49/lb, and the ‘B’ grades at $39/lb. There was a sign saying he had oyster mushrooms too, but I did not notice them among the bounty. He had angelica (herb) and wild stinging nettles, ramps and fiddlehead ferns.

Ramps and asparugus are pretty much everywhere at this point. Berried Treasure had green garlic, and a big bag of just ramp bulbs, as well as bundles of the wild edible with green attached. If you are interested in pickling ramps, I’d get some of the solo bulbs for that especially. I saw some rhubarb there and bought a couple of stalks to pair with the GORGEOUS red strawberries they are selling at Keenan’s. Quarts are $7. I bought 2, because I knew I would not be able to resist eating some in the afternoon!

Lots of rhubarb, lots of ramps, and lots of asparagus all around. Between Valley Shepard and the Buffalo milk people, you can hit up the hydroponics folk for fresh tomatoes, basil and arugula. Pick up a demi-baguette at Bread Alone, and voila! Lunch!

It promises to be a gorgeous day out. Take a walk to the Greenmarket!

~baconbit

Friday Market

Lots of beautiful farmed mushrooms at John Maduras today including two kinds of oyster mushroom. Lots of greens today from several vendors, and Yunnos had a few cukes up by the register. The Buffalo milk people had a huge stack of gorgeous cannolis! Go get one!

Looking for interesting meats? Grazin’ Angus Acres has marrow bones, Tamarack Hollow has pigs feet, and Bobolink has crusty bread to serve with both of them.

And tons of fresh plants and herbs everywhere.

Have a good weekend all.

~baconbit

Sing for SPRING!

Today was one of those glorious days at market where magic happens.

First of all, HONEY HOLLOW FARMS IS BACK! My favorite eggs! And gloooooorious mushrooms! They have started off the season with a bang – $10 pints of yellow morels. Choose-your-own are priced at $39/lb on the high end. I could not see the low end price as I was blocked by very excited and joyous people 🙂

Of course I got a pint of morels, as well as a pint of fiddleheads, and a bunch of ramps. My dozen eggs as well – I love their eggs. The closest eggs in quality I’ve found at market so far are Yunno’s pullet eggs – bright orange yolks, no sulfur, and if you drop one on the floor the shells are so thick they don’t crack. Fantastic flavor.

Then I sauntered over to Arcadian Pastures where at long last they had RABBIT! I have been waiting breathlessly for the return of rabbit for weeks now, and what joy that it’s finally here! Tomorrow night is my “datenight” with my husband. We’ll be having rabbit with morels and ramps in white wine, served with sauteed fiddleheads, toasted baguette (from Bread Alone) and the last of our sheepsmilk cheese with truffles.

Tonight though he’s going out – so I’ll be feasting alone on sheepsmilk ricotta raviolis ($6.50 from Shepard’s Valley) and asparagus. Gotta remember to pick up asparagus at lunch – it’s everywhere 🙂 As are ramps! Tons of people have them, and they are now $2.50 a bunch at every stand. Stock up.

Other fantastic meals leapt to my eye today as well! Cayuga Farms has their huge selection of beans, and they are situated very close to Tamarack Hollow who had ham hocks. I see a love match in my future…. I’m still working on last week’s beans though! So we’ll see!

It’s a beautiful day. Go out, and eat!

~baconbit