A TISKET A TASKET A GREEN AND YELLOW BASKET

PHOTOGRAPHY BY C. WHITNEY-WARD

OVER THE PAST FEW WEEKS I HAVE  photographed market baskets. They come in all shapes and sizes, some with wheels, some with handles, some like cozy backpacks...but all chock full of goodies found at the market. Here's my parade of Market "baskets". Hope you enjoy!

AND IF YOU DON'T HAVE A BASKET, ARMS WILL DO!

AND..

Help America's Farmers

For the past 18 months dairy farmers in America have faced their worst crisis since the Great Depression. Since December 2008, the price they are paid for their milk has dropped more than 50%. At the same time, giant dairy processors have raked in record profits while dairy farmers are losing their farms. This problem has been caused by excessive concentration, which offers farmers little choice where they can sell their milk. As a result of this economic crisis several farmers have taken their own lives in the face of crushing debt with no clear hope of resolution. Farmers need your voice today. Please stand with them!

http://action.fooddemocracynow.org/go/farmers_say_udderly_ridiculous/173?akid=154.72995.t_VeLp&t=7

AN HEIRLOOM TOMATO LOVE AFFAIR

HEIRLOOM TOMATOES have bloodlines and stories often twining back generations. The Cherokee Purple, for example, with it’s dusty red/purple skin and dense, juicy interior, is said to have been the tomato of choice raised by the Cherokee Indians of Tennesee and shared with their white neighbors. The Japanese Black Trifele, that looks more like a mahogany-colored pear than a tomato, hails from the southern Ukraine where it became popular early in the 19th century, It seems that after the Crimean War soldiers carried the seeds home, and as a result, these wonderful-tasting tomatoes spread throughout Western Russia. And Aunt Ruby's German Green - the perfect choice for Fried Green Tomatoes -come from Greeneville Tennesee where Ruby Arnold's immigrant grandfather brought the seeds from his native Germany. 

Now, these amazing tomatoes are not for the faint of heart. They are big, bulbous, deformed, strange-colored and heavy. Put one in your hand and you’re heftng a good pound of dense, luscious tomato. And at four to five dollars a pound they can put a serious dent in your Market budget.

But they are irresistble, the ripe peach of the tomato world.

And when you see boxes and boxes of them displayed at David and Joanna Bauman's REAL FOODS market table, I can guarantee that you will come to a screeching hault, linger over each variety, and pick the perfect tomato or two to wend its way into your kitchen and into your heart.

The Bauman's have been coming to market for 3 years now. They grow 30 varieties of Heirloom Tomatoes - starting them under a green house but in the ground - and estimate that they pack up and sell about a thousand pounds of these beauties each week. That's a lot of tomato happiness!

Now, while the classic Green Tomato recipe calls for corn meal and bacon grease, we kinda like Paula Dean's rendition cause we love buttermilk slathered on just about anything. Enjoy!

PAULA DEANS FRIED GREEN TOMATOES

Ingredients

• 3 or 4 large firm green tomatoes - we suggest Aunt Ruby's German Green
• Salt to taste
• 2 cups vegetable or peanut oil, for deep-frying
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 2 cups self-rising flour
• Freshly ground black pepper

Directions
Slice the tomatoes 1/4-inch thick. Lay them out in a shallow baking pan and sprinkle with salt. Place the tomato slices in a colander and allow time for salt to pull the water out of the tomatoes, approximately 30 minutes. In a skillet, heat the oil for deep-frying over medium-high heat. Dip the tomatoes into buttermilk, then dredge them into flour with a dash of pepper. Deep-fry until golden brown. Keep warm.

BEAUTIES AT THE MARKET THIS WEEK...

AND LET'S HEAR IT FROM A VERY DISCERNING FOOD CRITIC!

YUMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM

This beauty is a guide dog. Interested in rasing a puppy?

contact: barb@occupaws.org

A COLUMN OF MUSHROOMS

WHEN I WALKED BY THE RAMSEY FAMILY FARM table today,  I saw a beehive-like contraption hanging just behind Jamie Ramsey as he bagged a gaggle of his pristine oyster mushrooms for a customer. When the transaction was done, I asked him about the "bag" that sprouted bouquets of mushrooms like coral growing on an ocean reef.

"That's a mushroom column," explains Jamie, who started coming to Market in 1994. "The mushrooms grow on pasturized wheat straw and cotton seed," he explains, reaching into a cooler and offering a sample of these shell-like beauties. "They're grown in a very controlled environment," explains Jamie, who says he's got 100's of columns growing in a special barn in Merrimac, WI, about 35 miles north of Madison.

Oyster mushrooms are a colorful lot, it seems. They come in designer colors - pink, blue, yellow, brown, grey and black. Jamie and his wife Diane grow the yellow, grey and brown oyster mushrooms, and shiitake mushrooms, says Jamie, will wend their way to the Market come July.

 If you stop by, be sure and ask him about when he went to Russia and helped farmers there grow oyster mushrooms!

BE CHARMED I'M SURE

"IT'S THE CHAMPAGNE OF HONEY" intones Mary Celley, describing the translucent, glistening honey called Black Locust that is clearly her pride and joy. "It's the perfect baste to slather on a roasting chicken; it makes the chicken tender and sweet," says Celley who's been bringing THE BEE CHARMER honey to Market for 30 plus years. That's a lot of honey. But she's got a lot of bees. Let's see. She's got 110 hives on 15 acres and four "other" bee yards. There's 80,000 bees to a hive. No matter how you do the math, that's a heck of a lot of bees.

She says that she's always loved bees and her meticulous bee keeping practices speak volumes for that love affair. The process of extrating the honey, says Mary, begins with tending the frames. There are about ten frames to each box/hive - remember she has 110 hives!. She carefully removes each frame, gently brushing and shaking the bees off with a special bee brush. Then the frames are taken to the honey house where a hot knife is applied to the wax and the honey is "untapped".The honey is then put into an extractor that spins and filters it. It's bottled, brought to market and enjoyed. Oh yes, in case you're wondering about any idle hours that Mary might have when her bee charming is done for the day, she also grows organic strawberries, raspberries and sweet Ambrosia corn.

“Tart words make no friends; a spoonful or honey will catch more flies than a gallon of vinegar” 
                                                           

Benjamin Franklin

THE SUBLIME CARROT

WHAT COULD POSSIBLY ONE UP THESE HANDSOME CARROTS? Well if they were shredded and napped with a divine combination of olive oil, garlic, lemon juice, harissa, carraway and cumin seeds, sugar, paprika and mint...oh yes, a bit of feta...then THAT would surely one up them. Here is a sublime recipe that would make a perfect carry-to-a-picnic dish.

 CARROT SALAD WITH HARISSA, GARLIC AND MINT

Posted on: http://www.smittenkitchen.com/

INGREDIENTS

3/4 pound carrots, peeled, trimmed and coarsely grated

4 tablespoons olive oil

1 crushed clove of garlic

1/2 teaspoon caraway seeds or about half as much, ground (I used seeds but ground them first)

3/4 teaspoon cumin seeds or about half as much, ground (I used the seed but ground them first, again)

1/2 teaspoon paprika

3/4 teaspoon harissa (a North African chile paste available in specialty markets- it's spicy!)

1/2 teaspoon sugar

3 tablespoons lemon juice

2 tablespoons flat leaf parsley, finely chopped

2 tablespoons fresh mint, finely chopped

¼ c.-1/2 c feta, crumbled or chopped into bits

DIRECTIONS:

In a small sauté pan, cook the garlic, caraway, cumin, paprika, harissa and sugar in the oil until fragrant, about one to two minutes. Remove from heat and add the lemon juice and a pinch of salt. Pour over the carrots and mix. Add the herbs and mix. Leave to infuse for an hour and add the feta just before serving. Serve at room temperature.

A FEAST FOR THE EYES...

AND THE EYE CANDY GOES ON AND ON...