Bloomingdale Farmers Market this Sunday: APPLES are what's happening

From: Robin Shuster
Sent: Friday, September 20, 2013 1:07 PM
Subject: APPLES are what's Happening
 

Hi BFM Fans:

 

APPLE is the game this week and how many ways can you play it? We will have interesting ideas on the facebook page and the market table every week until Thanksgiving. 

 

REID is apple central and they bring  us more than 75 different varieties of apples throughout the season including heirloom varieties that very few other orchards grow.

                                                                    

Mountain View is really kicking things up this year -- first the baby ginger and now Galangal!  Attila loves to grow exotic herbs. Galangal at Mountain View -- this spicy, aromatic rhizome is sometimes called Thai Ginger.  It looks like a cross between Jerusalem artichoke (sunchoke) and regular ginger, but the flavor is more perfumed and stronger.  You have had it in every Thai curry because it is one of the key elements in Thai spice pastes.  Along with tons of sauteed, pureed shallots.  And bird chiles.  And garlic.  So, make your own spice paste for a yellow or red curry or a Thai curried butternut squash puree.  Try it with bitter melon if you want to go exotic.  

                        

The lovely cool nights have been great for the salads and greens...and make for sweet corn, too... but they do signal the last week or so of peaches.  If you want to make peach jam, you should order a box or bushel at Reid.   Wondering which Apples to eat or cook with?  Read the descriptions on the crates or ask Reid.  I like a mix of sweet and tart for applesauce. But I think you want at least 3 different kinds of apples for a pie to create an interesting mix of texture and to balance sweetness and tart.

                                   

THE BIKE CLINIC is open from 11-1 every Sunday, run by our friends at The Bike House.

       

REID:   raspberries, white peaches (Snow giant), Italian plums, Asian pears, red Bartlett pears, seedless grapes, concord grapes.   Look at this choice of apples: ginger gold, honeycrisp, gold supreme, gala, elstar, pinova, yataka, early fuji, mcintosh, macoun, jonagold, jonamac, cox orange pippen and other heirloom apples), and cider (apple grape, apple cherry and regular apple).  

             

TRUCK PATCH:  Baby arugula, mesclun, chard, kale, spinach.  Lots of colorful large heirloom tomatoes, zucchini and summer squash, eggplant, green and purple beans, cucumbers. broccoli, acorn and butternut squash.  Carnivores: pastured pork in chops and roasts and spare ribs, bacons and  sausages.  Every cut.  Grass ranging chickens and Turkeys. Eggs.     

      

MOUNTAIN VIEW: Besides the Thai Galangal, lettuces, summer squash, cherry tomatoes, green beans, swiss chard, kale, sweet potato, acorn and butternut squash, greens, basil and other herbs.        

                

NUMBER ONE SONS:  The real deal whether you are looking for kimchi, krauts, cortidos or New York style brined pickles  (half sours, super sours, dills, kicky koshers).  Add the dilly beans and the masala beets and you have more choices than you can sample -- but they are all available for sampling at the stand.   These are fermented foods like beer, wine and yogurt.  They weren't pickled with vinegar but by the traditonal process that creates all those good probiota that everyone is always trying to get more of.  So, why bother with supplements when you can just cut up a pickle or add some kimchi to your grilled cheese sandwich?        

                  

KESWICK CREAMERY: Grass fed cow milk cheese and you can taste the difference.  Mixed milk camembert, local cheddars, vermeer, tallegio, dragonsbreath, fetas, quark cream cheese and the best yogurt in the city.  You can sample everything at their stand.     

        

PANORAMA BAKERY:  French baker Damien is from Brittany and he bakes a number of Breton pastries that you won’t find elsewhere for breakfast.  Plus: Baguettes, croissants, sourdough, whole wheat, multi grains, olive oil rolls, brioche and lots more.   All freeze well – just cut them into pieces, wrap each piece in tin foil and freeze in a thick freezer bag. Not a skimpy thin plastic bag or even a sandwich bag.  You want to keep out the freezer burn.  I keep one or two breads in my freezer at all times for spontaneous parties or when Jeff has a sudden sandwich yen.  (And in his case, it is likely to be grilled kimcheese and tomato.)     

      

GARNER:  Watermelons, peppers,  green, yellow and wax beans, kales (green, toscano and redbor), shelled beans (limas, october, black-eyed peas), sweet potatoes, bok choi, red spuds, yukon golds, candy sweet onions, zucchini, white patty pan, yellow patty pan, golden zucchini, grape and cherry tomatoes, heirlooms. spaghetti squash.     

                 

PAINTED HAND:  Sandy is the mistress of bloomingdogs treats --ask any of them.  For us humans, she has naturally browsed goat, rose veal, eggs and lots of cooking advice for all her meats.  I  noticed a good recipe for spicy tomatoes with eggs --a breakfast favorite - shashouka -- at her stand last week.  

          

WHISKED: Hope you voted for Whisked as best pie bakery in DC last week.   You still can!   http://www.readexpress.com/best-of/  We will hear soon if she won.  Did you know that she has Vegan crusts for pies every week?  Apple blackberry Pie with fresh apples and tart blackberries. Quiches this week are the Italian zucchini and the smoky bacon with earthy blue cheese and caramelized onion.     

                 

Spread the word:  We double Food Stamps (SNAP), WIC, SENIOR and PRODUCE PLUS with our bonus tokens  so that everyone in the community can eat locally grown, healthy foods.

                      

See you Sunday

 

Ted, Ted, Carolyn and Robin