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Weekly Market Notes Library

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Weekly Market Notes for October 04, 2012

Hello Market Friends:

It's time for the annual jigsaw puzzle; can we fit everybody on the rink? I know the answer is yes, but setup time will be extra-lively as we arrange all the vendors and their Thanksgiving harvest bounty up on the rinkpad. Everyone will be bringing a beautiful array for you and yours to enjoy this weekend.

Note that this Friday will be the last Friday Night Supper of the season due to colder temperatures and earlier sunsets, and the Park Cooks are hoping for a big turnout. The menu will feature squash and cranberries and other seasonal delights all baked in the brick oven. (Maybe even pumpkins...see below!)

Knuckle Down news: "The warmer weather this week means I will have loads of spicy salad mix as well as spinach, kale, mustard greens and arugula to round out those Thanksgiving feasts. For those of you who plan on making soup with your leftover bird, I will bring some stock celery along with fall leeks and carrots too. To top it all off, pie pumpkins!" Jenny Cook

Sticking to the topic of pie pumpkins, "de Floured will have both large( $12) and small ( $5) pumpkin pies as well as small chevre pumpkin cheese cake with a ginger crust ($3)." Krista and Chris

Sosnickis' contribution: "For your Thanksgiving feasts we have a lot of new goodies just pouring out of the fields! *New* is our awesome Spinach, gorgeous heads of Broccoli, the big stalks of Brussel Sprouts, Tatsoi, big Beet bunches with beautiful, edible tops! More Leeks coming, huge bunches of fresh, dark green Kale, yes - more of our very tasty Green Beans, oodles of Peppers, heirloom Tomatoes and more sun sugar Cherry Tomatoes! (man, we are glad we put in a late field crop of those sweet gems!) Fresh dug Spuds, Onions a-plenty, Garlic and never to be forgotten - our Cabbages! In the field, our cabbages always get chewed on by the bugs (organic cabbage never shows unscathed leaves!) but once we trim them down, all is well!! Enjoy the harvest - we've worked very hard weeding our butts off to bring on this harvest let me tell you!!" Jess & Ben

Dufferin is generally a food-only market, but this week we have a special visit from from one of our former vendors, Dan Glassco of Seldom Seen, Seldom Heard, with a new farm 'crop'. You may remember Dan as 'the lamb guy' from a few years back. He wrote to say, "I have a new product that I am making at the farm from FSC trees I cut, mill and make into end grain cutting boards and blocks. They are made of larch that my grandfather planted in the 60s." Dan and family are working hard to make their farm sustainable into the future, and this interesting initiative is part of that plan.

Andrew Akiwenzie is coming with fish!

Tim Clement will be absent this week, returning next.

Along with their usual selection of meats, Beretta will be bringing some freshly prepared foods both savoury and sweet, using vegetables from the farm garden. There will be green tomato jam, squash pies (for a variation on our theme), house made barbeque sauce and more!

The vegetables we get at Dufferin Grove are so tasty they need no adornment, but if you'd like to make something easy but a little fancy this weekend, here's a recipe to show off the abundant crop of fresh green (and yellow, and purple!) beans we've been enjoying recently.

Green Beans with Walnuts, Citrus rind and Parsley (adapted from a Bon Appetit recipe)

8 servings

(To partly prep this ahead, drop the beans into boiling salted water for about 5 minutes until tender but crisp, drain, put into a bowl of ice water to halt cooking and drain again, then wrap and keep in the fridge for up to a day.)

• two pounds green beans, trimmed, cut up if desired
• 5 T butter
• 3/4 cup walnuts, chopped
• 4 tsp lemon or orange peel, grated, plus a little of the fruit's juice
• 1/3 cup chopped parsley

Cook beans as above. Melt butter in large pan and saute walnuts until crisp, about 3 minutes. Butter should be lightly browned. Add beans, toss and heat, about 5 minutes. Mix in peel, toss for one more minute, then add parsley. Season generously with salt and pepper.

For a different twist, saute several cloves of chopped garlic instead of the walnuts. I'm also thinking of trying the same basic recipe using small cooked & peeled beets.

Wishing you a Very Happy Thanksgiving!

Anne Freeman

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