Grapevine has moved

No doubt some of you have noticed that there hasn't been anything posted here for a while. Our website had a major overhaul and the newsletter archives are now posted on that site. The Grapevine can be found here. We'll keep this site up for the archives. Thanks for reading and see you at the market.

Grapevine May 31 2009 Market

this week
- What's Coming To The Market?
- Cooking Ideas - Slacker Boccone Dolce

We've got another good weekend coming up. Unger Farm returns to the market this week. Liepold Farm will be in the next week or two. Other market favorites will be returning in the next few weeks as we get closer to summer.

Don't forget to visit our newly redesigned website. The site is more interactive and you can leave comments. We'll be adding recipes, photos, volunteer opportunities and more. Check it out.


See you on Sunday!

Eamon Molloy
Market Manager

What's Coming To The Market This Week?

The nice warm days and evenings we've enjoyed have not only been good for Little League games but berries as well. Unger Farm returns to the market this week with strawberries. Happy Harvest, Deep Roots Farm, Rick Steffen Farm and Stephens Farm should all have strawberries as well. You should also find morel mushrooms, arugula, asparagus, spring onions, pea shoots, lettuce, beets, carrots and rhubarb as well. There will be a wide assortment of vegetable starts, herbs, perennials and bulbs. Gales Meadow Farm returns to the market for the last time this season with a wide variety of certified organic vegetable starts, especially pepper plants.

Pine Mountain Ranch recently began processing chickens on the ranch and is now offering fresh and frozen whole chickens along with its usual supply of bison, yak, elk and beef. Other meats at the market include Sweet Briar Farm (pork) and Draper Girls Country Farm (lamb and goat).

Check the availability list for the complete list of who's coming this weekend and what they expect to be selling. The list is posted Thursday afternoon and updated through the weekend. For Sunday morning updates, check Twitter feed either on our website sidebar or on our Twitter page.

IN
Gales Meadow Farm (last week for the season)
Happy Harvest
Unger Farm

OUT
Ancient Heritage Dairy (back next week)
Blossom Vinegars (back June 28)
Kookoolan Farms (back June 28)


Cooking Ideas - Slacker Boccone Dolce
Strawberries are starting to come into the market in a big way so I thought it was time for a strawberry recipe. I love the name of this recipe. As Carrie explains in her introduction to the recipe, "boccone dolce" means "sweet mouthful". The slacker part comes from using store bought meringue cookies. You can use any berry in this recipe.Enjoy!

Slacker Boccone Dolce
By Carrie Floyd, from the Culinate Kitchen collection

Ingredients
Chocolate sauce
4 oz. semi- or bittersweet chocolate, roughly chopped
2 Tbsp. water
¼ cup cream
1 Tbsp. unsalted butter
1 Tbsp. Grand Marnier
1 tsp. vanilla
Bocconi dolci
3 pt. fresh raspberries, strawberries, or marionberries, washed and dried
1 pt. whipping cream, whipped to soft peaks and lightly sweetened
2 cups meringue cookies, gently crushed with a rolling pin
1 high-quality chocolate bar, for shaving

Steps

1. Make the chocolate sauce: Place the chopped chocolate, water, and cream in a heavy saucepan. Over low heat, melt the chocolate, stirring often. Once the chocolate has melted, turn off the heat and whisk in the butter, Grand Marnier, and vanilla. Pour sauce into a pitcher and allow to cool to room temperature.

2. Prep the bocconi dolci: Place half of the berries in a medium-sized shallow bowl and crush them with the back of a big spoon (if using strawberries, slice all of them into a bowl). If the berries are not particularly sweet, sprinkle them with sugar.
3. Whip the cream into soft peaks; sweeten with a spoonful of sugar as you’re whipping the cream.

4. Place the meringue cookies on a clean counter and gently — you still want chunks of meringue, not pulverized bits — crush them with a rolling pin.

5. With a vegetable peeler, shave curls of chocolate from the chocolate bar. (You can also use a box grater to grate smaller bits of chocolate.)

6. Assemble the bocconi dolci: Spoon a large spoonful of whipped cream onto a plate or into a pretty glass. Top with ½ cup crushed meringue. Top meringue bits with a large spoonful of the crushed berries and a small handful of the whole berries. Drizzle chocolate sauce over the berries. Add a dollop of whipped cream, a few whole fresh berries, and a sprinkling of the shaved chocolate.

Grapevine May 24 2009 Market

this week
- What's Coming to the Market?
- Vote For Your Market
- Cooking Ideas - Artichokes with Caper Mayo

Looks like we've a sunny Memorial Day weekend ahead. The warmer temperatures are good for the strawberries too.

Now that our redesigned website is up and running, we will be migrating the archives for the availability list and the Grapevine to the site. Just click on the Grapevine or Availability List category on the right side. I am publishing on the blogs and the new site for now but will move completely to the website on July 1. We'll maintain the old sites as they are but will not be publishing to them after the June 28 market.

See you on Sunday!

Eamon Molloy
Market Manager

What's Coming To The Market This Week?

Arugula, spring onions, pea shoots, radishes, lettuce, beets, carrots will be readily available this week. Asparagus will be in good supply including the white and purple varieties. As for fruits, you will find apples, pears, and strawberries. There will be a wide assortment of vegetable starts, herbs, perennials and bulbs.

Check the availability list for the complete list of who's coming this weekend and what they expect to be selling. The list is posted Thursday afternoon and updated through the weekend. For Sunday morning updates, check Twitter feed either on our website sidebar or on our Twitter page.

IN
Ancient Heritage Dairy
DeNoble Farm
Fraga Farm
Happy Harvest

OUT
Gales Meadow Farm (back next week for the last time this season)
Kookoolan Farms ( back June 28)
Red Dragon Nursery (back next week)

Vote for Your Favorite Market

American Farmland Trust has announced its first vote for “America’s Favorite Farmers Markets” contest. The contest is a nation-wide challenge to see which of America’s 4,685 farmers markets can rally the most support from its customers. The goal is to promote the connection between fresh local food and the local farms and farmland that supply it. Market shoppers will vote to support their favorite farmers’ market at www.farmland.org/vote starting in June. Results will be announced during Farmers’
Market Week August 2 - 8, 2009.

The contest is a fun way to promote local markets local food. The Hillsdale Farmers' Market is registered for the contest which opens June 1.

Cooking Ideas - Artichokes with Caper Mayo

DeNoble Farm is back with week with artichokes. Here's a pretty easy recipe from Carrie Floyd from the Culinate recipe box. Enjoy!

Artichokes with Caper Mayo (from Culinate Kitchen Collection)

Ingredients
2 large artichokes
2 lemons, halved
1 tsp. herbes de Provence, or ½ tsp. each dried thyme and rosemary
1 tsp. black peppercorns
1 bay leaf
½ cup mayonnaise
1 clove garlic, minced or pressed
2 Tbsp. capers
~ Salt
~ Fresh ground black pepper to taste

Steps

1. Fill a medium-large pot (large enough to just hold the artichokes) over halfway with water. Squeeze the juice of one lemon into the water (reserving the squeezed lemon halves), then add a generous pinch of salt, the herbes de Provence, peppercorns and the bay leaf; bring to a boil.

2. Meanwhile, prepare the artichokes by first pulling off their tough outer leaves, cutting off the pokey tips of the leaves with either a knife or scissors, trimming the stems, and rubbing the cut surfaces of the artichoke with the squeezed lemon halves.

3. Once the artichokes are prepared, add them to the water, stem-side down. Cook, partially covered, at a gentle boil for 35 to 45 minutes. The artichokes are done when a leaf can be easily pulled off and when the bottom is tender enough to be pierced with a paring knife. Remove artichokes from the water and drain, upside down, in a colander. If you are serving them warm, let them drain a few minutes first; otherwise, drain, then chill.

4. While the artichokes are cooking (or chilling), make the caper mayo. Squeeze the juice of the remaining lemon into the mayonnaise; stir. Add garlic and capers and blend well; season to taste with salt and pepper.

5. To eat: Remove leaves one at a time from the artichokes and, as you do so, dip the bottom of each leaf into the caper mayo and scrape with your teeth the meaty part of the leaf. Once you get to the middle part of the artichoke, remove the purple leaves and choke (the fuzzy center) with a paring knife, to reveal the heart. The heart, once trimmed of the choke and any fibrous strings of the stem, is the best part.



You can find a printable version of the recipe here.

Grapevine May !7 2009 Market

this week
- What's Coming To The Market This Week?
- Cooking Ideas - Penne With Asparagus and Morels

Wow, three Sundays in a row without rain. I guess we being rewarded for all those snowy, icy winter market sessions.

As we move closer to summer, more vendors will start returning to the market. Stephens Farm returns this week. They will be bringing strawberries too. Ancient Heritage, DeNoble Farm and Fraga Farm are all off this week and back next week. In other farmer news, Jeff Rosenblad of Happy Harvest Farm was featured in a Salem Stateman Journal article this week. You can read the article and watch a video here.

Greg Clarke returns to Hillsdale this Sunday. Always popular, Greg is looking forward to being back at the market. And we are looking forward to hearing Greg play.

See you on Sunday!

Eamon Molloy
Market Manager

What's Coming To The Market This Week?

Asparagus, morels, radishes, lettuce, kale, spring onions, spinach, raab, broccoli, cauliflower top the list of vegetables you'll find this weekend. You should also find an ample supply of hydroponic tomatoes, shiitake and maitake mushrooms, spinach, arugula and carrots. As for fruits, you will find apples, pears, and strawberries. With the return of Stephens Farm there should be more berries this weekend too. For all you gardeners, there will be a wide assortment of vegetable starts, perennials and trees.

Check the availability list for the complete list of who's coming this weekend and what they expect to be selling. The list is posted Thursday afternoon and updated through the weekend. For Sunday morning updates, check Twitter feed either on our website sidebar or on our Twitter page.

IN
Copper Crown
Greengable Farm
Stephens Farm
Vanveen Bulb

OUT
Ancient Heritage Dairy (back next week)
DeNoble Farm (back next week)
Kookoolan Farms ( back June 28)

Cooking Ideas - Penne With Asparagus and Morels

Asparagus and morels are plentiful this time of year. I've been thinking an easy dish using both of them all week. Pasta is always a safe bet. I like to use penne with this dish because you can cut the asparagus into the same length as the noodle. I'm not the only one thinking about morels and asparagus. Portandia, a market shopper, posted a nice recipe on her blog too. I like pecorino and included it in this recipe but you can certainly not use cheese if you want a vegan dish. Enjoy!


1 lb. asparagus (one bunch) ends trimmed and cut into 1½ inch pieces
3 oz. fresh morels, cleaned and sliced in half
3 cloves garlic, minced
¾ lb. penne
2 Tbsp. olive oil
~ salt
~ pepper
~ Pecorino Romano, grated (optional)

Steps
1. Set a large pot of water to boil and cook penne.
2. In a large skillet, heat olive oil over medium high heat. Add morels and garlic. Saute for about five minutes. Add asparagus and cook until the asparagus is bright green and just cooked.
3. Place cooked penne into a large serving bowl. Add vegetables, stir together, season to taste.
4. If desired, serve with grated Pecorino Romano.

Printable version here.