Sunday, March 24th: Spring Has Sprung, Bringing Fiddleheads, Easter Hams, Plants For Your Garden & More!

Easter hams from Olsen Farms. Photo copyright 2013 by Zachary D. Lyons.

Easter is in one week, and churches all over are handing out palm fronds today. Time to get you a ham! Olsen Farms has plenty of freshly smoked hams for your holiday feast at your Ballard Farmers Market today. But if a beef or lamb roast is more your speed, they’ve got those waiting for you, too. But do pick it up today, so you are ready to go next Sunday, eh? And it’s not too late to pick up some lamb or a nice brisket for Passover, too, though you’ll want to start it thawing as soon as you get home today. After all, Passover begins at sundown Monday.

Ladyfern Fiddleheads from Foraged & Found Edibles. Photo copyright 2012 by Zachary D. Lyons.

I know I’ve been talking about signs of spring for weeks now, but this past Wednesday, spring actually finally arrived. If the 12 hours of daylight didn’t give it away, certainly the snow showers and wind storms should have. Ah, March in the Pacific Northwet. Well, as if to formally pronounce the arrival spring, Foraged & Found Edibles brings the first Ladyfern fiddleheads to your Ballard Farmers Market today. Woohoo! And if that weren’t enough, they’ve got wood sorrel and stinging nettles today, too!

Blueberry plants from Cascadian Edible Landscapes. Photo copyright 2013 by Zachary D. Lyons.

April approacheth, the sun is out, and it is time to get back into the garden! And Cascadian Edible Landscapes has returned to help us in that endeavor. They’ve got a tremendous selection of vegetable starts and berry plants. Like these beautiful blueberry plants. Imagine stepping out your backdoor to enjoy blueberries from your very own blueberry bush for years to come. Sounds pretty nice, eh? Well, get ’em now, and get ’em in the ground, while it is still the rainy season. That way, they’ll get their roots established before things dry out this summer.

Red Vein Sorrel from Stoney Plains Organic Farm. Photo copyright 2012 by Zachary D. Lyons.

Stoney Plains Organic Farm has sorrel of the domesticated variety this week. This is Red Vein sorrel, though they also have regular sorrel, too. This regenerative, herbaceous leafy green is just what the doctor ordered, perhaps literally, for spring. Stoney Plains also has plenty of garden plants, too, including strawberry plants. Get them in the ground now, and enjoy your own berries come June!

Tulips from Pa Garden. Photo copyright 2013 by Zachary D. Lyons.

Did you notice how full the Market was last week? We had five farms return last week, including all of our Hmong flower farms. And if that ain’t an harbinger of spring, I don’t know what is! Of course, this week, they were probably harvesting flowers in the snow in the Lower Snoqualmie Valley. Stop by today, and grab some of these lovely tulips from Pa Garden. Fresh from the field, they are ready to burst open in brilliant color in a vase on your table!

Kale Raabs from Nash’s Organic Produce. Photo copyright 2013 by Zachary D. Lyons.

The start of spring also signals the approaching end of kale season. Yeah, I know. Around here, it is always kale season. But the fact is, this time of year, kale wants to reproduce, just like any other healthy species. So, the kale plants in the field, as well as the collards, cabbages and many roots, start to bolt, sending out their flowers in pursuit of procreation. The result is raab. Yes, this time of year, we get to enjoy any number of different kinds of raabs as these plants reach the end of their lifecycle and get on with the job of producing the next. Raabs, those tender, flowery tops of these plants, are lovely simply sautéed with some garlic, and they can be great grilled, too. And Nash’s Organic Produce has a whole bunch of them right now!

Gil holds ducklings at Stokesberry Sustainable Farm. Photo copyright 2013 by Zachary D. Lyons.

Here is this week’s installment of This Photo Is Almost Disturbingly Cute. This is our own Gilbert holding three adorable, fluffy ducklings at Stokesberry Sustainable Farm during our visit there a few weeks ago. I suppose the cuteness factor may trouble some folks, but for those who enjoy duck, know that these little guys will enjoy a happy, healthy and loved life before they come to Market. That’s just the way the Stokesberry’s roll.

Dandelion greens from Children’s Garden. Photo copyright 2013 by Zachary D. Lyons.

Speaking of regenerative greens for a spring tonic, how’s about some of these tasty dandelion greens from Children’s Garden? These quite bitter greens may make you pucker a bit, but dress them with some anchovies, olive oil and some of that Twin Oaks goat feta, and maybe a drizzle of some balsamic vinegar, and you’ve got one delicious, nutritious salad. Or you can make soup, tea, or even juice them, and grilling them is not out of the question. Your liver will thank you!

Succulents from Phocas Farms. Photo copyright 2013 by Zachary D. Lyons.

Don’t forget the ornamental side of your garden. And if you’re lazy, like me, these succulents from Phocas Farms are for you! Get them in the ground now, and let them get their roots well established while it’s still rainy, and they will reward you all summer long by being draught tolerant… and gorgeous! Just look at all these colors. Phocas Farms propagates more than 200 varieties of them. So get a whole bunch of them, and make for a colorful summer without all that watering.

Red mustard greens from Colinwood Farms. Photo copyright 2013 by Zachary D. Lyons.

More scrumptious greens for spring — these being red mustard greens from Colinwood Farms. These are great lightly wilted with olive oil and garlic, or raw in a nice, spicy salad, as they are very tender. Colinwood has lots of other greens now, too, as well as new carrots. Enjoy!

Fresh eggs from Growing Things Farm. Photo copyright 2009 by Zachary D. Lyons.

With Passover and Easter looming ahead this week, you need eggs! Lots of eggs!!! For your seder plate or your Easter egg hunt, for your famous deviled eggs to bring to the Easter gathering at Grandma’s house, or for that extraordinary brunch you’ll be cooking up next weekend. We’ve got an abundance of eggs in your Ballard Farmers Market right now, and these are the best eggs you’ve ever tasted. Seriously. The eggs above, for instance, are from Growing Things Farm, and the farm is renowned for their amazing eggs. They have hard shells and big, beautiful, richly yellow yolks, and they are laid by happy chickens that get to run around outdoors and hang out with roasters. I know. I’ve seen them. So, stock up!

Please remember bring your own bags every Sunday, as Seattle’s single-use plastic bag ban is now in effect. Also, please take note of our new green composting and blue recycling waste receptacles throughout your Ballard Farmers Market, and please make an effort to use them correctly. Each container has what’s okay to put in it pictured right on the lid. Please do not put the wrong materials in, because that drives up the cost of recycling and composting, and it can result in the entire container being sent instead to a landfill. Your understanding and cooperation are appreciated.

There is plenty more local deliciousness waiting for you today at your Ballard Farmers Market. Just check What’s Fresh Now! for a more complete accounting of what is in season right now.

Sunday, April 8th: Easter Breads & Pastries, Flowers For Your Tables & Many Spring Greens!

Hot Cross Buns for Easter from Grateful Bread Bakery. Photo copyright 2011 by Zachary D. Lyons.

Happy Passover and Easter, fine people of Ballard! I’m getting a late start with this week’s epistle, as I found myself absorbed, as I do every year at this time, by that Hollywood classic, The Ten Commandments, starring a cast of thousands, in which Charlton Heston frees the Hebrew slaves from bondage under the cruel rule of  Egyptian pharaoh Telly Savalas. You know, I pick up something new each year during ABC’s four-and-a-half hour presentation of this film. For instance, I had no idea that the Occupy Movement took its signature means of communicating through large crowds without an amplifier from Moses, who was the first to say, “Hear, O Israel, Repeat After Me…” But I regress. Something else that happens only once a year is that Grateful Bread Bakery makes hot cross buns and brings them to your Ballard Farmers Market. Luckily, I captured some in pixels (above) last year on Easter. I can almost smell them now. Mmm. Grab some for a true taste of the season.

Fresh flowers from Pa Gardens. Photo copyright 2011 by Zachary D. Lyons.

You’ll find plenty of fresh, local flowers throughout the Market today, like these from Pa Gardens. Grab a bouquet to brighten up your table for Easter supper, or to bring with you to grandma’s house. It is finally spring. Let it show with fresh daffodils and tulips!

Award winning wines from Lopez Island Vineyards. Photo copyright 2010 by Zachary D. Lyons.

Pick up a bottle of Lopez Island Vineyards & Winery’s award-winning wines to accompany your meal to celebrate ancient beliefs. After all, wine is one of the oldest forms of food preservation. Back in biblical times, they had no refrigerators or freezers to preserve fruit harvests year-round, but juice it and ferment it, and it kept for months and years! Few things truly make we humans feel like the really smart monkeys we are like wine.

Fresh chevre from Port Madison. Photo copyright 2011 by Zachary D. Lyons.

Speaking of ancient forms of food preservation, blessed are the cheese makers! And one such cheese maker returns after their winter hiatus today: Port Madison Farms. The kidding season has passed, and all the little baby goats are now bouncing around the farm over on Bainbridge Island, and their moms are now producing some amazing milk that Port Madison turns into some delicious goat cheese. Another example of ancient human ingenuity, and another great addition to your feast!

Miners lettuce from Stoney Plains Organic Farm. Photo copyright 2012 by Zachary D. Lyons.

Let’s tawk spring greens, eh? After a very long, cold, dark winter — and aren’t they all — it pleases me no end to now be adding stuff back into the “vegetables” page under “What’s Fresh Now!” every week. Like this wonderful miners lettuce from Stoney Plains, for instance. It gets its name from the fact that miners used to live off the stuff. It grows wild all over the place here, but it is also cultivated. It is like watercress, crunchy yet tender, full of nutrients, with a slightly lemony flavor to it. And it makes for the most amazing spring salads, simply dressed with a few radishes, some pine nuts, some seasoning, olive oil and lemon juice.

Mixed kale raabs from Colinwood Farms. Photo copyright 2012 by Zachary D. Lyons.

This time of year, as the days grow longer, all the over-winter crops want to bolt. Yup, it’s mating season for them, too, and the kales, chards, Brussels sprouts, collard greens and cabbages all just want to flower and spread their seed. But before they do, they have this wondering in-between period when their tender, budding tops, called raab, are just plain delicious and sweet as can be. Given the cold winter we’ve had, all the raabs, like this mixed kale raab from Colinwood Farms, are especially sweet. See, cold weather elicits a kind of defensive response in these leafy greens of sweetness — nature’s anti-freeze! Enjoy!

New lettuce from Children's Garden. Photo copyright 2012 by Zachary D. Lyons.

Your eyes do not deceive you, and neither do I. This really is lettuce! That’s right. Children’s Garden wins the award this spring for being the first farm to bring lettuce to your Ballard Farmers Market. In this photo, you see butterhead and green leaf lettuce. I’ve been enjoying some of the butterhead lettuce with lettuce wraps this past week. So step away from that Arizona lettuce from the Big Box store and start eating it local again!

Cabbage raab from Nash's Organic Produce. Photo copyright 2012 by Zachary D. Lyons.

Finally, for today anyway, some more raab — red cabbage raab to be precise, from Nash’s Organic Produce. Besides the fact that I just love the light in this photo, you should know that this is perhaps the sweetest form of cabbage you can eat. It truly is a completely different way to enjoy it. In the immortal words of John Lennon, give raab a chance!

Hey, there is plenty of local deliciousness waiting for you today at your Ballard Farmers Market. Just check What’s Fresh Now! for a more complete accounting of what is in season right now.

Sunday, April 24th: Fresh Washington King Salmon, Gorgeous Greens, Perfect Plants, Bunny-Earred Bread, Lovely Lavender & Pie!

Fresh, wild, Washington king salmon from Wilson Fish. Photo copyright 2010 by Zachary D. Lyons.

Happy Charlton Heston Week! That week in which, every year, ABC airs The Ten Commandments, complete with miracles, brilliant Technicolor, and a cast of thousands. (There were some other holidays this week, too. Please refer to your childhood and/or religious persuasion to identify those.) Also, Happy Opening of 2011 Washington Coastal Salmon Fishing Season!!! Woohooooooo! Yup, it’s back! Fresh, local king salmon from Wilson Fish. If you have never experienced some of Wilson’s fresh king salmon, well, you’ve never really had fresh king salmon before — unless you caught it yourself. This fish is so fresh, so say it’s from the future! But get here early. It will sell out fast.

Kale raab from Full Circle Farm. Photo copyright 2011 by Zachary D. Lyons.

For a very short period each spring, it is raab season. Raab is the budding tops of overwintered crops of the brassica genus, like cabbage, kale and rutabaga, as they begin to flower before going to seed in spring. It is sweet, tender and delicious. Check out these spectacular kale raabs (above) from Full Circle Farm, and look for many other raabs on farm tables through your Ballard Farmers Market today.

Rhubarb plants from Stoney Plains. Photo copyright 2011 by Zachary D. Lyons.

Did yesterday’s warm sunshine get you thinking of gardening? Did you spend the day cleaning up your garden beds? And did you know that your Ballard Farmers Market is the best place in town to get plants for your garden? That’s right. Many of our farmers have great plant starts for your garden, like these rhubarb plants from Stoney Plains. Indeed, they have cabbage, sweet corn, even strawberry plants, as well as all manner of culinary herbs at Stoney Plains right now. So come get your garden on!

Bunny-eared baguette from Tall Grass Bakery. Photo copyright 2011 by Zachary D. Lyons.

The bakers at Tall Grass Bakery got into the holiday spirit with this baguette twisted into bunny ears. Now, if they had formed one of their olive fougasse loaves into the face of Charlton Heston, I really would have been impressed!

Lavender plants from Woodinville Lavender Farm. Photo copyright 2011 by Zachary D. Lyons.

This long, hard winter has been rough on a lot of normally hardy herb plants in many of our gardens — lavender in particular. Why not start from scratch with some beautiful, healthy and fragrant lavender plants from Woodinville Lavender Farm? Get them in the ground now, and they’ll develop strong roots and be ready to weather next winter after brightening up the yard all summer long!

Coconut cream pie from Deborah's Homemade Pies. Photo copyright 2011 by Zachary D. Lyons.

Did you promise to bring dessert to Easter supper today? And did you forget to make something? Never fear. Deborah’s Homemade Pies are here! And let’s face it — why would you even bother trying to make a pie yourself, when you can get the best pies in town right here at your Ballard Farmers Market from Deborah! Seriously. I would not lie to you about something like pie. You can thank me later!

There is much more waiting for you at your Ballard Farmers Market today. Just check the What’s Fresh Now! listings in the upper right-hand corner of this page for a more complete accounting of what is in season right now.

Sunday, April 17th: More Spring Goodies & Tales From The Worst “Farmers Markets” I’ve Ever Seen!

Fresh flowers from Pa Gardens. Photo copyright 2011 by Zachary D. Lyons.

I just got back from a trip to Florida. While there, I visited three so-called “farmers markets” — in Sarasota, Siesta Key and Miami. What I saw there dumbfounded me. Or should I say, what I didn’t see. I didn’t see any farmers. Not a one. I mean, for the love of Mike, Florida is the #2 producer of fresh produce — fruits and vegetables — in the U.S., behind California. You’d think they could scrounge up the odd orange or tomato grower to attend their farmers markets, you know? Nope. I have heard tales that there are some “farmers markets” in Florida with actual farmers, but even at these rare markets, most of the vendors are crafters and prepared food vendors, with some processors, and then a produce reseller or three. Here in Washington, the #3 state for production of fresh produce, even our worst farmers markets are better than Florida’s best, as best as I can tell. Heck, I even visited a market at a hospital in Miami — more like a mobile food court, if you ask me. I thought the purpose of having farmers markets at hospitals was to encourage healthy eating by eating local fruits and vegetable, not to offer a once-a-week lunch alternative for hospital workers and patients. I thought I’d share this with you, just to remind you we have something pretty darned special going on here at Washington’s #1 farmers market, your Ballard Farmers Market. Let us never take it for granted.

Miners lettuce from Stoney Plains. Photo copyright 2010 by Zachary D. Lyons.

Hey, it really is spring, again, in spite of the weather. My Italian prune tree is in spectacular full bloom. My lawn needs mowing. And Stoney Plains has miner’s lettuce! This is a truly native crop to the Northwest, and it can be found growing widely in the wild, but this (above) is the cultivated type. It is tasty and nutritious. I love it simply tossed with pine nuts, olive oil, some sea salt and a little lemon juice. Learn more about miner’s lettuce on our “What Is It?” post.

Sweet potatoes from Lyall Farms. Photo copyright 2011 by Zachary D. Lyons.

Sweet potatoes from Lyall Farms are another powerhouse of goodness and deliciousness, and you’ll find them for a while longer at your Ballard Farmers Market, and nowhere else. In fact, these are the only locally grown sweet potatoes you will find anywhere in metro-Seattle.

Saffron tagliatelle from Pasteria Lucchese. Photo copyright 2011 by Zachary D. Lyons.

Not many people can tell you where their saffron is from, but Pasteria Lucchese can. The saffron in their new saffron pastas comes from Phocas Farms in Port Angeles, Washington. Indeed, you can get the very same saffron, direct from the farmer, right here at your Ballard Farmers Market. But if you want this pasta, get here early, as Sam & Sara sell out of it fast!

Wild morel mushrooms from Foraged & Found Edibles. Photo copyright 2010 by Zachary D. Lyons.

Wild morel mushrooms are back, though their supply can be limited this early in the season, especially with it still snowing at low elevations. Check in with Foraged & Found Edibles early today if you want any. And if they’re out, never fear. More will be coming!

Kale raab from Nashs Organic Produce. Photo copyright 2011 by Zachary D. Lyons.

It’s raab season, folks! Yup, the season when all the over-wintered kales and collards and such want to bolt to flowers. And these bud-covered tender shoots are a sweet delicacy of early spring. Check out Nash’s Organic Produce to see what tasty vegetable flowers they have for you today!

Cupcake Luvs "Luvlys" being adorable. Photo copyright 2011 by Zachary D. Lyons.

Seriously, how many bakers can tell you what farms their flour came from? Well, Cupcake Luv can! Maybe that is why this little girl so adores these Cupcake Luv “Luvlys” — their cupcake miniatures made with flour from the Shepherd’s Grain farmer cooperative of Southeastern Washington. And that reminds me of one more thing about the three “farmers markets” I visited in Florida — the one thing all three markets have in common with our farmers market: Washington apples. Ha!

There is much more waiting for you at your Ballard Farmers Market today. Just check the What’s Fresh Now! listings in the upper right-hand corner of this page for a more complete accounting of what is in season right now. But please note that due to our recent cold weather, some crops may not be available as anticipated.