April 28, 2007
Arlington Farmers' Market E-newsletter
Where: The intersection of N. Courthouse Rd. and N. 14th St.
When: Saturdays from 9:00 AM to Noon beginning January 6th, 2007.
Fresh at the Market
An annual supply of perennial favorites.
Not only are annual and perennial plants for sale all over the market just now (stop by the Master Gardeners booth if
you confuse the terms - they’ll plant the right idea in your mind), but as the weather finally warms, things are getting
growing. Producers are promising plenty of your annual favorites again this year.
Some growers experienced minor crop damage from recent frosts, others merely suffered a couple weeks setback in blossoming.
Undaunted, farmers continue to experiment with what they grow. Twin Springs Fruit Farm now has arugula, lettuce, and
cucumbers and is beginning to pick tomatoes and eggplant (basil soon after). And this year, it will offer celery, carrots,
and artichokes for the first time.
At Gardener’s Gourmet, spinach and kale are in the fields now, with other hothouse greens available (I bought some
great broccoli). Later in the season, you can expect to see up to 13 kinds of greens at this stand.
There’s a lot more. Stop and smell the roses (embedded in the homemade soap prepared with olive oil) at Mount Harmony;
taste an unusual mushroom from Mother Earth Mushrooms (I sampled a yellow oyster with a light, pure sea tang, so
unlike the tired versions basketed at the grocery store); or visit one of the bakers for a failsafe chocolate chip cookie, a
naturally leavened sourdough loaf from Atwater Breads, or a unique nosh (like Takoma Kitchen’s blue cheese
potato tart, which I unashamedly ate cold in my car though I really meant to take it home and heat it).
The fruit farms will supply peaches, like Toigo Orchards and D & S Farm (which will have strawberries come
June, followed by raspberries and blackberries), but fruit farmers might also offer things like tomatoes, garlic, or salsa
home-made from their crops. So check out every stand - behind what you expect to find, you might spy something like fresh
horseradish, leading to a stellar sauce to accompany those steaks on the grill. (My dad grinds the peeled horseradish in a
food processor with enough white vinegar to make a pleasantly slushy sauce, which he stores in the refrigerator for months;
he serves this straight or mixes it with yogurt to make it "fancy".)
Don’t forget you can make a whole meal here. Between Eco Friendly Foods and Smithfresh Meats, you’ll find beef,
pork, lamb, poultry, and eggs, that you can round out with hard cheeses from Fields of Grace and other products from
Blue Ridge Dairy (whose new cultured European butter will push your own baking efforts toward masterpiece status).
Recipe of the Week
OK, bear with me as I learn how to use this e-mail program. Instead of printing a recipe this week, here are links to some
salad recipes that Food & Wine sent me (they all sounded so good I couldn’t decide which to test out for you, so you choose). Next week I’ll dredge my recipe files for something tried and true, I promise.
Salads
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