Category: Food

Shopping the Farmer’s Market

Farmer’s Markets are in full swing throughout the country. It is mid-summer and produce is bountiful. How do you make the most of your Farmer’s Market shopping?

There are a couple of ways to approach your shopping, depending on your cooking style. Do you like to have a plan for your week’s menus ready and shop for only specific items? Or, do you decide meal by meal what sounds good to you and your family?

For Planners

If you are one of those who starts out the week with a full menu planned, it will be helpful if you know what is in season in your area. In season crops will be fresher and typically lower cost. You can always swap out an ingredient or two if you can’t find what you want or if something else is more economical. 

Ask vendors what they expect to bring to market in the future. Most vendors will be able to give you an idea what is ripening in the near future.

For Impulsives

Take a quick walk around the market and review what is available. Then go back and make your purchases. Think about how much produce your family can realistically eat. 

Once you get home, take a few minutes to wash and store your produce properly so it will last through the week. While you do this is a good time to at least make a mental plan of what dishes you can prepare.

For Both

Consider preserving some of your finds. Early August has tomatoes and peaches plentiful in much of the mid-West. Make peach preserves. Can tomato juice. Peppers are also available and can be combined with those lovely tomatoes for fresh salsa. 

Talk to the vendors. Ask about where their produce originates. Did they buy somewhere else and are re-selling? Did the vendor grow their own vegetables, herbs and fruits? Also ask about how items were grown? Vendors should be able to tell you if pesticides or herbicides are used if they are growing produce themselves? Vendors will also give suggestions about how to use different items.

As you are looking around the Farmer’s Market, be sure to take advantage of non-produce offerings. Most markets include craft vendors as well. Handmade soaps, jams, jellies and baked goods are available offering an alternative to the big box stores. 

Shopping local Farmer’s Markets makes good nutrition and financial sense. Not only are you gaining a fresher product for your table, but your support of local farmers is a welcome boost to the economy. 

Grilled Sweet Corn

It is that time of year in Central Illinois for sweet corn to be available in ample supply. We are growing a lot of our own vegetables but we made the decision not to grow sweet corn. To do sweet corn well and in the quantity we like to freeze, it takes a good size plot. We have the room, but have dedicated our efforts to other crops. 

In our continued quest to eat more local and healthy, what better way than looking around the Farmer’s Market after we set up our own booth? There is plenty of sweet corn available at the 18th Street Farmer’s Market. 

One of our favorite ways to enjoy corn on the cob is to grill it. 

To grill sweet corn, remove the outer dark green husks, leaving the lighter colored inner husks intact. Cut off the exposed silks and any extra cob on the other end. Soak the ears in cold water for about 30 minutes. Just enough time to get the charcoal grill ready to cook.

Throw the corn on the grates, turning every 10 minutes or so until the husk is charred on all sides. Remove from the grill and carefully remove the husks and silks. The best way I have found to do this: hold the cob in one hand protected by a hot pad while stripping away the husk and silk with the other. 

Serve with butter, salt and pepper for a classic summer treat. There are a number of equally good variations to spread on the corn: equal parts butter and blue cheese mixed together, substitute seasoned salt for the salt and pepper, just to name a couple. Another option is prior to grilling, peel back the husks, remove silks and spread with equal parts butter and prepared horseradish.

No matter how you enjoy your corn on the cob, grill a couple extra for this rainy day dish.

Roasted Corn and Potato Chowder

3 medium potatoes, cut into small cubes

2 ears of roasted corn, cut off the cob

2 cups milk

3 Tbsp butter

1/4 tsp Penzey’s Chipotle (ground red)

1/4 tsp Penzey’s Roasted Garlic

1 tsp minced cilantro

1 Tbsp finely shredded parmesan cheese

salt and pepper to taste

Boil potatoes in salted water until fork tender. Drain. While the potatoes are draining, melt the butter in the same pot. Add corn and stir until heated thoroughly. Add Chipotle, Roasted Garlic, salt and pepper. Stir for about 30 seconds until the seasonings are distributed and fragrant. Add potatoes and milk. Heat through over low heat, stirring occasionally. 

Ladle into bowls and garnish with parmesan and cilantro. 

There is always something new to enjoy here at Five Feline Farm. Thanks for stopping by and check in often on Facebook and Twitter to see the latest. 

Garlic Scapes

What Are Garlic Scapes?

Garlic scapes are the tender end of the shoot in hard neck garlic varieties. As the plant grows in springtime, it sends up a shoot that is tender at first and later turns into bulbils. Those tiny bits of garlic are also edible. The scape is this white end and the first 5-6 inches of tender shoot. 

Harvest

When the shoot has a whitish end that looks like a bloom is starting to form, the scape is ready. The green part may be curled back on itself. Snap off the shoot approximately 4-6 inches below the end just as you would asparagus. The plant will snap off at it’s tender point. 

Use

Scapes taste like garlic. The flavor is lighter than garlic cloves but still clearly garlic. Dice and stir into any dish where you would use garlic. Scapes may be sautéed as is, chopped as a garnish for lettuce salad, used to flavor pasta salad, fried with potatoes or any number of dishes where garlic is a complement. Garlic scapes may also be pickled.
This past week we tried scapes in an asian inspired dish.

Beef Curry over Coconut Rice noodles.

6 ounces filet, trimmed of visible fat and cut into thin strips

5 garlic scapes, washed and chopped into a fine dice

1 inch piece of fresh ginger root, finely diced

1/2 can coconut milk

1/4 cup soy sauce

1/2 package rice noodles, prepared according to package directions

2 cups chopped cabbage

2 Tbsp olive oil

freshly ground black pepper, to taste

curry seasoning to taste

Sauté the filet, garlic and ginger until beef starts to lose pink color. Add chopped cabbage, black pepper and cook until tender crisp. Add soy sauce and curry seasoning. Stir until heated through. Meanwhile, in a saucepan heat the coconut milk, add chopped rice noodles, stirring until heated through. 

Serve beef and cabbage mixture over noodles. Add Sriracha sauce if desired. 

The use of garlic scapes is limited only by your imagination. As an added bonus, snapping off the scapes will divert the plant’s energy into bulb development. So not only does the gardener get a fresh taste of garlic in the spring, the fall harvest will be improved.

If you have garlic, give scapes a try. If you don’t have your own and you are in the Charleston area, stop by the 18th Street Farmer’s Market this Saturday and pick up some from us.
 
 

Foraging For Food in Winter

Oh, the longing to forage some fresh food. Perhaps something from the garden. Maybe the woods or the herb bed. 

But it is February and our ancestors chose to settle in Central Illinois. Foraging in mid-winter is restricted by snow, low temperatures and a season of rest.

But we still want to eat fresh foods. 

Local foods.

Whole food.

Food that has not been treated with chemicals or grown from some frankinseed that Grandma wouldn’t recognize. Food that is not processed from some combination of ingredients with five syllable names. 

Forage In The Freezer

The freezer is full of seasoned tomato sauce, carrots, peppers, onions, garlic bulbils and chive blossoms. 

Forage In The Pantry

The pantry holds rows of tomato juice, pickles, jellies, jams, pie fillings, hot pepper sauce and relishes. A basement grow station is providing fresh lettuce, basil and cilantro. 

The vegetable part of our diet is now primarily home grown. Then there is the meat issue. We made a conscious decision not to grow, harvest or butcher our own meat, but have no desire to embrace vegetarianism.

Forage Down The Road

Winter foraging also includes checking out local sources for meat and staples. Somewhat like a scavenger hunt but delicious rewards.

Since this kitchen produces a significant quantity of baked goods, flour is a very important staple. We are now sourcing this locally from Hodgson Mill in Effingham, IL. Their grain is purchased as locally as possible, much of it is organic and all flour is milled in Effingham. Thirty miles down the road definitely qualifies as local. 

Beef, pork and chicken are the next foods we are looking for locally. But we want more than just local. Pastured, free-range, no hormones and allowed to naturally graze are important features.

Each of these decisions brings us closer to a more healthful way of eating. That is the goal. 

Are you making any changes in your approach to food? Post a reply and let us know what you are doing.

While you are thinking about food, check out Hodgson Mill. 

And, if you haven’t already downloaded your free copy of The Wisdom of the Bees, it only takes an email address.   Just visit our website: Five Feline Farm