Farmer's Market pick of the week

I could have sworn there was a current thread on the Oak Park Farmers Market but I don't see it to add to it. So instead let me start a slightly different thread--your best find at your farmers' market this week.

Mine was the Japanese turnips from the Sandhill Organics stand at the Oak Park market. Their display, which makes the displays at Whole Foods look a little tired and drab, had already seduced me into Chinese cabbage, pea pod sprouts, and leaf lettuce. But then I realized that on one side of me a man was telling one of the salespeople that the Japanese turnips he'd bought the week before were so good he'd just eaten them by the handful and that on the other side of me a woman was telling her saleperson that she'd been cutting up the turnips to put in soup when she put a piece in her mouth and ended up eating them raw instead.
They are wonderful. Like a mild radish but with a better texture. There are darn few things that low in calories that I find myself rummaging through the refrigerator for late at night. But that's what I was doing last night. Better yet, I somehow managed to come home with my order and someone's else's too, so I owe Sandhill some money, but the turnips might last long enough for me to bring them into the office to share.

Ann, even the greens look good on that bunch! Did you cook those too?

--Joy

It's very nice, cept you can't bring dogs in, like you can in the city.

I picked up some tarragon vinegar. It's good.

That is a very nice looking picture of the turnips. They look very delicious. I enjoy radishes so I think I would enjoy those as well if they taste like them.

I live in Canada and have not seen them up around here at the usual grocery store chains. Probably need to get them at a special place.

Japanese turnips come in both round and half-long varieties. Compared to the purple top white globe varieties they tend to grow faster, have a finer texture with less likelihood of woodiness and have a milder flavor with greater sweetness. I grew the half-long type for several years when I had a second garden. The only reason I can think of for growing the purple tops is that the seed costs less, sometimes considerably less. I learned about them from a cousin who often mixed some turnip seed with alfalfa when starting a new field. I had both types picked the same day in October from the same field and never grew purple tops again.

Last week, before Gary's excellent talk on BBQ, I visited the Green City market in Lincoln Park - first time I've been there. I was amazed at the variety of tomatoes available there - I thought it was way too early for tomatoes in this area. (I grow an extra-early variety of tomato in my back yard called "Fourth of July," and even with that I'm lucky to get ripe tomatoes by the fourth of July.)

My usual farmers' market is here in Evanston, and I know they try to be pretty strict about what's sold there - it has to be from a local farm, or other reasonably local source (I guess exceptions are made for Giles Schnierle's Great American Cheeses). But with all those tomatoes, I can't imagine that the vendors at Green City Market source them locally. Does anyone have any info on locally-grown policies at area farmers' markets?

nr706:

The application to be a producer at Green City lists these requirements:

We expect all farmers/producers to adhere to the following criteria:
1. No use of synthetic pesticides, herbicides, or fungicides
2. Products sold must be GMO free
3. Products must be from a small-scale farm or producer
4. Sustainable soil practices must be evident
5. Artisanal products are the main focus
6. Products must be from the local/ Midwest region and reflect the
seasonality of our region
7. The producer or his/her agent must have a personal knowledge/relationship with the products
sold.
8. Reselling of products is not allowed unless approved by the Selection Committee. In such
cases, the above criteria must still be met.

I appreciate the quick reply, but my question remains, how could there be so many tomatoes for sale? (Note that Evanston has early tomatoes, but they're clearly labelled as greenhouse/hydroponic.)

Oh, I agree completely about the tomatoes. I would imagine they're hydroponic, and I'm sure the particular grower will be willing to confirm that.

I wouldn't be buying local tomatoes this early. They're almost certainly either not local or hydroponic..

Got the japanese turnips and stewed them up with a big old handful of garlic scapes in olive oil, water, salt, and pepper, and used them on top of a pizza with mild Italian sausage from Bari and some judicious gratings of a nice Crotonese pecorino from The Cheese Stands Alone.

Cooked it on the grill, I'd always been a little skeptical of this, but my kitchen just heats up too fast to use the oven much in the summer. I am restricted to a little gas grill that doesn't get too hot on my back porch (not good for searing steaks), but I found that letting the dough rise a bit before it hit the grill and keeping the grill on low worked pretty well. A different pizza where the grill was turned up a bit when the pizza was flipped was not so successful, puffed up a whole lot and then got too charred before the dough was done on the inside.

I used the greens to cut some mustards from the garden, as Himself doesn't like straight mustards as much as I do.

My best find, however, were the English peas from Nichols. Every pod tight, with 5-6 peas, sweet, and pretty evenly sized (that is, no oversize ones, I don't mind the undersize ones).

I cooked them the way my Grandma used to, (I've probably shared this before, but it's so good I can't help myself) in milk with new potatoes (unfortunately not local, but pretty good anyway). The peas end up kind of soft in the time that it takes the potatoes to cook, but the whole thing is delicious.

I actually use more milk than Grandma used to, because I use more peas and because when you use more peas you can get more of the delicious milk as a cook's treat. And because we're a household of two instead of 6 (Grandma) or 8 (Ma) so I can afford to use more peas:-)

I cooked some of the peas French style with lettuce and tiny new onions, they were really good too, but don't have that same time-travel effect on me as Grandma's peas and potatoes.

I am always completely able to resist the sugar snaps and the snow peas, give me a good English pea any day. I sometimes wonder if it isn't that the "newer" vegetables have been bred to be, well, mainly, sweet. I have the same issues with corn, and often find I like it better after it's sat in the fridge for a day or two to let the sugars calm down a bit. If I had a big enough garden, I'd grow something like Country Gentleman.

I also like the Appalachian mountains better than what I jokingly call the Rockies to my (third generation) Coloradan husband: "those overgrown adolescent mountains."

Come to think of it, if I get to pick the beans for the vegetable garden, I always end up picking Kentucky Wonder. If you want to cook them crisp-tender, you can pick them small, but if you want slow-cooked beans, there's no way a lot of the newer varieties can hold up to it.

There is one husband and wife team from Indiana (I don't know the name they use, but they're at the east end at Green City and the West side at Daley) at Green City (they're also at the Daley Center on Thursdays) whose tomatoes are hydroponically grown in their greenhouse. In Indiana. I've bought both the vine-on red ones and two different heirloom varieties and they've been pretty darn good for tomatoes in June. I too was shocked to see such good looking tomatoes and the wife confirmed that they were grown in their own greenhouse and that they started them in February. Late August juicy decadence? No. Better than anything you'll find at Dominick's (or Whole Foods for that matter)? Most definitely.

gleam wrote:I wouldn't be buying local tomatoes this early. They're almost certainly either not local or hydroponic..

There were at least two or three booths with lots of tomatoes, and I don't recall any of them claiming to be hydrponic or greenhouse grown. And, this story makes me suspicious.

Last year Chicago started allowing growers to use limited amounts of purchased out of season produce to satisfy customers who don't know when things are in season. Beware at any markets sponsored by the City of Chicago. Some growers are clearly taking advantage of this rule change. I haven't been to Green City this year but am surprised at the presence of tomatoes. I am aware of techniques to produce early tomatoes locally (have used some myself) but the cold weather until fairly recently would have messed these techniques up.

The tomatoes I've seen in the Chicago farmers markets have been from Florida, and are less expensive in the local stores.

2 interesting encounters at today's Farmer's Market (Daley Plaza)

~Cherries are everywhere... I ask a young woman whether she has any cherries that I can use for pie-baking. "Oh no!" she replies "These ones have pits in them. We don't have the other kind."

Ooooooooo Kaaaaaaaay.

Like, the kind that comes from the can?

~Only one stand has peaches, but they're rock hard. I ask how they are when ripe (I am somewhat skeptical that they will be flavorful even when ripe). "Don't know, never tried 'em."

No, thanks, then.


By the way, where *can* I find fresh cherries for pie baking?

Ms.Paris wrote:2 interesting encounters at today's Farmer's Market (Daley Plaza)

~Cherries are everywhere... I ask a young woman whether she has any cherries that I can use for pie-baking. "Oh no!" she replies "These ones have pits in them. We don't have the other kind."

Ooooooooo Kaaaaaaaay.

Like, the kind that comes from the can?

~Only one stand has peaches, but they're rock hard. I ask how they are when ripe (I am somewhat skeptical that they will be flavorful even when ripe). "Don't know, never tried 'em."

No, thanks, then.


By the way, where *can* I find fresh cherries for pie baking?

There is WAY less tart cherries in the markets than sweet cherries. A couple years ago, when I was reporting weekly on Chowhound on the OP market, there was some discussion on this topic. Some of the vendors, specifically Stovers who is at OP and Evanston, will bring frozen tart cherries if asked.

That said, two weeks ago, Skibbes in OP had tart cherries. I expect to see some this weekend, but as I note, there will be a lot less of them than sweet cherries.

Can't be local peaches...

A little patience is in order. The season for tart cherries is shorter than for sweet cherries, which are starting to show up from Michigan. The main reason for the short season is that many varieties of sweet cherries are grown with varying maturities but almost all sour cherries in the markets are Montmorency, which is the only variety used by processors. I suspect that growers for farmers' markets haven't picked up on some excellent varieties such as Northstar because the fruit of all sour cherries is extremely perishable once off the tree. Sour cherries tend to go bad where the stem was attached. The kind of heat we are having could prove to be a real problem with sour cherries.

Second that about the heat. It seems that the few vendors who grow and sell pie cherries have become savvy about selling them pitted and/often frozen. Unless you can rush home and pit your own, you're better off with them.

Montmorency's aren't as good as the ones I grew up with from the backyard tree, that my ma had us take turns pitting from one of those old-fashioned pitters on top of a jar.

But they're what you can get, and I always get some.

Mick Klug had Balaton cherries at the Lincoln Square farmers' market today. This is a classic Hungarian tart cherry, the sort properly used in duck with cherry sauce or cherry strudel. These cherries are quite dark when fully ripe--similar to the deep red sweet cherries. While lower in sugar and higher in acid than sweet cherries, they are sweeter, lower in acid and more flavorful than the common Montmorency sour cherries. These have some similarities to Morello but are a different variety. They are worth seeking out.


I believe that Mick still goes to Green City on Wednesday and Lincoln Park on Saturday. The Balaton cherries were $4/ qt (2 for $7) at Lincoln Square but might be higher at the pricier markets.

At the Thursday loop market this week, D & S growers from Berrian Springs had the best plums of the summer. Purple hearts



They were just as beautiful inside as out



and, as you can see, very juicy.

Wonderful flavor. Look for them. Buy them. (His prune plums were excellent as well).

Funny you should post this. I happened to be downtown on Thursday (where I ran accidently into EC and we commiserated on him not being chosen as one of Whitney Young's most notable grads). I stopped at both the Daley market and the small market outside 311 S. Wacker. Not only did I pick up those plums, I managed to make them into near plum juice by the time I got home as they bounced around amongst my packages. Luckily, the Condiment Queen made one of her soon to be famous clafouti's out of the plum mash. Great plums, great pastry.

I should also noted that the downtown markets are, I think, sorely underappreciated. The markets, especially Tuesday's Federal Plaza market, are as good as any Farmer's Market (except, of course, Oak Park ). Daley has some Amish guys (or near Amish) with about the best nut brittle I've ever purchased. What I always wonder though, is how these markets make it. If you buy a bunch of stuff, how do you keep it for the rest of the day?

Rob

Vital Information wrote: What I always wonder though, is how these markets make it. If you buy a bunch of stuff, how do you keep it for the rest of the day?

There's not much at the market that needs to be refrigerated. Salad greens, I guess, but I can't think off hand of what else. And, for the stuff that does have to be refrigerated, I think it's pretty common to have an office fridge available. We do.

I think the bigger problem is the one you encountered with the plums--packing your bags carefully enough for the stuff to make it home intact on public transit. Oh, and not buying so much heavy stuff that you can't carry it comfortably. But in fact, nearly all my Daley plaza shopping is to feed my office. Thursday I brought back eight pounds of honey crisps, a quart each of two kinds of plums, and a loaf of bread. By the end of the day Friday it was all gone, notwithstanding that we had two birthday parties in the office this week and we had leftover cake from those parties sitting out for noshers as well.

A well-fed staff is a happy staff. A happy staff is a productive staff. There you have it. All I know about management.