June 09, 2007

Here’s what you can look for now that it’s June: arugula, asparagus, beets, bok choy, broccoli, cucumbers, green peppers, hot peppers, kohlrabi, lettuce, mesclun, okra, onions, peas (shell, sugar snap, and snow), potatoes, radishes, rhubarb, snap beans, spinach, squash, tomatoes (field and greenhouse), turnips, and every kind of herb (except fennel). Plus apricots, blackberries, blueberries, cherries, peaches, and the end of strawberries.

Get to know Frances Roland. The Arlington Farmers' Market will be 30 next year, and he was there the day it opened (Charles and Susan Planck of Wheatland Vegetable Farm and Hiu and Hana Newcomb at Potomac Vegetable Farms came soon after). Frances and his sister are the fifth generation to run Roland’s Farm in Friendly, Maryland, with four greenhouses and up to 20 acres of fields that bear plants and produce to sell each week. That’s his truck at the North Courthouse Road entrance with the “Market Open” sign displayed on the back. His sister made the sign from old sheets, because the Rolands are resourceful and the market is their livelihood – they want you to know the market is in business and they’re ready for it. Stop by and pick up some fresh vegetables and some stories – Frances can tell quite a few.

Atwater Breads runs out of its popular scones and baguettes early in the day. Recently more cookies have been showing up, and a sign identifies whole-wheat sesame, almond raspberry, molasses, chocolate-chip walnut, and snickerdoodles for eager customers.

The Post featured a sidebar about garlic scapes from Potomac Vegetable Farms this week. See http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/05/AR2007060500369.html for what to do with ‘em.

Fields of Grace says a new variety of cheddar – salt and pepper – will be ready this week, adding to the caraway, horseradish, chive, and aged versions already available.

Sweet cherries have appeared at Westmoreland Berry Farm, and I spotted green beans (they went fast) and zucchini and yellow squash at Pleasant Fields Farm; a few others also had squash.

The table at ShoeBox Oven has been laden with macaroons, timbales, and a wild berry streusel cake, and who knows what will show up this week aside from the lemonade, which is a staple. If there’s something specific you want, you can order online for pick up at the Saturday market.

As we near the end of asparagus season (Westmoreland will have it for one more week), here are some facts about this curious vegetable sent in by a market regular. (And yes, it’s good with lime juice.)


Asparagus – What You Might Not Have Known

• A well-managed asparagus bed can keep producing for 20-30 years.
• After the plant has had two full years to bulk up, then you can begin cutting off its early efforts – but only for two weeks in the first year of harvest. Even with fully mature plants, the harvester must eventually back off from this war between producer and consumer, and let the plant win. After about eight weeks of daily cutting, the asparagus farmer puts away the knife, finally letting the spears pass beyond edibility into the lanky plants they long to be. For most crop species, the season ends when all the vegetable units have been picked and the mother plant dies or gets plowed under. Asparagus is different: its season ends by declaration, purely out of regard for the plant. The key to the next spring’s action is the starch it has stored underground, which only happens if the plant has enough of a summer life to beef up its bank account. Of all our familiar vegetables, the season for local, fresh asparagus is the very shortest, for this reason.
• Asparagus growers share a wonderful spirit - they put their heels to the shovel, kneel before a trench holding tender roots, and then wait three years for an edible incarnation of the spring equinox.
• Pushing a refrigerated green vegetable from one end of the earth to another is, let’s face it, a bizarre use of fuel. But there’s a simpler reason to pass up off-season asparagus: it’s inferior. Respecting the dignity of a spectacular food means enjoying it at its best. Europeans celebrate the short season of abundant asparagus as a form of holiday. In the Netherlands the first cutting coincides with Father’s day, on which restaurants may feature all-asparagus menus and hand out neckties decorated with asparagus spears.
• Waiting for foods to come into season means tasting them when they’re good, but waiting is also part of most value equations. Treating foods this way can help move “eating” in the consumer’s mind from the Routine Maintenance Department over to the Division of Recreation. It’s hard to reduce our modern complex of food choices to unifying principles, but this is one that generally works: eating home-cooked meals from whole, in-season ingredients obtained from the most local source available is eating well, in every sense. Good for the habitat, good for the body.

– Excerpted from Animal, Vegetable, Miracle – A Year of Food Life by Barbara Kingsolver with Steven L. Hopp and Camille Kingsolver

Here’s what Joanna Cornell of Fairfax has to say about eating locally. Joanna is the first winner of a MOM’s gift certificate in the Sierra Club's Local Food Challenge. (If you haven’t signed up yet, got to http://virginia.sierraclub.org/mvg/localfood.html.)

“This spring, I decide to commit to eating local foods to celebrate completing graduate school. My husband and I are regularly shopping at the farmer’s market and planted our largest garden yet. We are already enjoying the best strawberries in the world from our front yard – and early tomatoes.

At my first farmer’s market this spring, I run into numerous friends. I meet their friends. We stand under the blue sky, with our produce in hand, and take the time to chat. That does not happen at the local grocery store. This morning in the pouring rain and chilly wind, with reusable bags in hand, my husband and I make our way from stall to stall at our newest and closest farmer’s market. We chat with the farmers about the rain, the best way to store the lettuce, and the location of their farms. And we head home with our fresh vegetables, fruits, and eggs.”

You’ve got the whole, in-season ingredients from the local source and you’re ready to eat them, but you're cowed by the “home-cooked” part of the mantra? Did you overpurchase and hope to save it for later?

Here are two solutions.

The microwave. Use it like a steamer for any vegetable you’d cook that way (peas, green beans, broccoli, spinach, asparagus, etc.).

Wash the vegetables and cut into pieces of equal size. Put into a microwave-safe bowl, add 2-4 tablespoons of water per pound (for spinach and leafy greens you don’t need to add any water; just leave them damp from washing), and cover with microwave-safe plastic wrap. Punch a couple of holes to vent.

Cook a pound of leafy vegetables (or broccoli) on High for about 4-6 minutes, a pound of asparagus for 7-8 minutes; a pound of green beans or similar vegetables for 8-10 minutes, and denser vegetables like carrots for 10-12 minutes.

Check half-way through cooking to see if it’s done to your liking. It may not need much more time.

Cook potatoes whole, after piercing the skin with a fork in several places. Just put one on a paper towel and cook on High for about 4 minutes. Let it sit a minute or two and test for doneness.

Microwave fresh corn in the husks. Just peel back the husk to remove any silk that’s so dry that it’s turned brown. Then close up the husk, rinse the ears in water, and arrange four ears on a paper towel in a spoke patter with the narrow ends at the center. Cook on High for 4 to 5 minutes, turn the ears over, and cook another 4 to 5 minutes. The rest of the silk comes off easily after cooking.

Add butter, salt, and pepper to any of the above and eat.

The freezer. With a little preparation, you can keep the freshness in. The July/August issue of Cook’s Illustrated suggests freezing berries with simple syrup, which I’ve never done and can’t vouch for (plus that’s a lot of extra work), but here’s what the magazine recommends for freezing fresh vegetables. I will say that the blanching step is a pain in the [insert body part] but it really preserves the item more beautifully. You won’t be sorry in the end, whether you just drop the frozen vegetable into a soup or stew or partially thaw it before sautéing as a side dish.

Prepare the vegetable: wash it, trim it, whatever you’d do to eat it now (for peas, shell them; snow peas, remove the strings, etc.).

Bring 6 cups of water and 1 tablespoon of salt to a boil. Drop in one pound of asparagus, snap peas, or other vegetable and blanch until its color brightens, no more than 2 minutes. (For spinach, chard, or other leafy greens, blanch for only 1 minute).

Lift the blanched veggies out of the boiling water with a slotted spoon and drop them straight into a bowl filled with ice and water; let them cool off for one minute.

Dry them well on paper towels or a dishcloth and place in a single layer on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Freeze until solid, about 1-2 hours.

Package in small, 2-cup portions – place each portion in a zip-lock freezer bag and press out as much air as possible before sealing. Label it! And toss back in the freezer for future enjoyment.


Beeting Around the Bush

Putting off purchasing beets? Cooked fresh, these oft-slandered vegetables are nothing like the canned circles lying glumly on the fast-food salad bar. Roast them and they’re meaty and sweet, and not because of high-fructose corn syrup! Eat them warm or at room temperature and savor the taste. And try red, yellow, or any other varieties you find; they can all be prepared the same way.

You know how to roast beets, don’t you? You just put your lips together and … oh wait, that’s another tactic. For beets, here’s what you do:

Trim the greens (remember to cook and eat these, too – perhaps sautéed with garlic and a fruity olive oil). Leave at least an inch of stem on the beets.

Wash beets and wrap each in aluminum foil. Roast at 450 F for 40-45 minutes. If a knife doesn’t go in easily, roast another 15 minutes and check again. Let cool until you can handle them, then slip the skins off. Either wear gloves or work under running water to keep the stain off your hands.

You can also microwave beets if you like. Cook about 1 pound of beets of uniform size in a covered dish with 1/2 cup of water for 15 minutes on High. Check. They should be tender.

Use roasted beets in everything. Make one of those composed salads the expensive restaurants serve for double digits as a first course. Pair your roasted beets with a citrusy vinaigrette (try orange juice instead of lemon), a few toasted nuts (walnuts are nice), and some goat cheese on a bed of local lettuce (ask your producer what he or she would recommend to offset these tastes). Easy and elegant.