Sunday, June 15th: Happy Father’s Day, Dad! For You: Fava Beans, King Salmon, Raspberries, Sausages, Olive Fougasse, Local Beer & A New Shaving Kit!

My dad enjoying chicken pie at the Bryant House in Weston, Vermont in 2006. Photo copyright 2006 by Zachary D. Lyons.

Back in 2006, my dad and I took a little road trip around Vermont from my parents’s home base in the Adirondack Mountains. We visited cheese makers, farmers markets, old general stores, and all those kinds of things that make Vermont a special place, including the Bryant House Restaurant at the Vermont Country Store in Weston. Being the food geek that I am (shocking, I know), I had read that the Bryant House offered a menu built around classic New England dishes of old, like open-faced hot turkey sandwiches, chicken pie and crackers and milk. I had read on RoadFood.com that:

“…crackers and milk on the menu: a bowl full of common crackers (the kind that used to fill the cracker barrel in general stores) and chunks of Vermont cheddar along with a cold glass of whole milk. Pour the milk into the bowl, crumble in some of the crackers and let them soak until they begin to soften. Then spoon it up. It’s cool, simple, and utterly old-fashioned!”

As I began to explain to my father how we were supposed to eat our crackers and milk when it arrived, sided with lovely chunks of Vermont cheddars, he had already begun to crumble up the silver dollar-sized crackers into the bowl and was already pouring the milk over them. I looked at him and asked, “have you eaten this before?” He said, “yes, we ate this all the time when I was a boy. Sometimes it is all that we had.”

I bring this up on this Father’s Day 2014 not only to honor my own father, but to encourage you to try to make the best of today, and any day with your dad, because you probably don’t know him as well as you think you do.

Fresh, Washington coastal red king salmon from Wilson Fish. Photo copyright 2011 by Zachary D. Lyons.

You know what any dad would love on Father’s Day? A nice piece of Washington king salmon from Wilson Fish on the grill, that’s what! Throw a few fava beans on with it (see below), get some good bread and berries, maybe a nice salad, and you are good to go!

Speckled Amish lettuce from One Leaf Farm. Photo copyright 2014 by Zachary D. Lyons.

Here is yet another of the gorgeous, and delicious, varieties of heirloom lettuce grown by One Leaf Farm. This is Speckled Amish lettuce. If you grew up on boring iceberg lettuce from Arizona, you might think all lettuce is boring. It is not. There are countless kinds of lettuces, suited to many different applications. They run the gamut from sweet to earthy, from delicate to sturdy, from huge to tiny… all just in the varieties One Leaf Farm offers. They make for great salads, lettuce wraps, sandwiches. Some are awesome grilled. Pick Rand’s brains about the different kinds they have from week to week, and experiment to find out which ones you like best!

Organic raspberries from Gaia’s Harmony Farm. Photo copyright 2014 by Zachary D. Lyons.

I remember picking raspberries right off the vine in our backyard as a kid. My dad, the farm boy, always had a garden. In fact, he still does in pots on his deck in Bellingham. But since I can’t get up there today to visit with him, I’ll call him, and then I will live vicariously by enjoying some of these amazing organic raspberries from Gaia’s Harmony Farm. These beauties are incredible!

Fresh fava beans from Alvarez Organic Farms. Photo copyright 2011 by Zachary D. Lyons.

Have I mentioned lately how much I not only love this time of year, but how much I am loving this year? So many crops are coming in early! Like these fava beans from Alvarez Organic Farms. The first harvest is so tender, your dad will love to eat them simply grilled with a nice finishing salt. Pick out the pods that are the softest, with a bit of a peach fuzz feel to them. Then rub them in some oil, fire up the grill and toss them on. You can eat the whole pod. When they’re tender, pull them off and hit them with the salt. Just remove the seam strings and eat the rest! (I must credit Rand from One Leaf Farm for this recipe.)

Apriums from Tiny’s Organic Produce. Photo copyright 2014 by Zachary D. Lyons.

Tiny’s Organic Produce has its first harvest of cherries and apriums this week your Ballard Farmers Market. The cherries are Bings and Rainiers, and the apriums are a hybrid of apricots and plums, genetically 70% apricot and 30% plum. They favor apricots in appearance and flavor, though they are sturdier, making them good for hikes and lunch boxes, and they are the first large stone fruit of the season.

Rainbow chard from Oxbow Farm. Photo copyright 2011 by Zachary D. Lyons.

Make sure pa gets his greens today. Stop by Oxbow Farm for some collard greens, some dino kale or some of this beautiful rainbow chard. Because a dad full of deliciousness, vitamins and ruffage is a happy dad!

Fresh sausages from Sea Breeze Farm. Photo copyright 2011 by Zachary D. Lyons.

Or… perhaps dad would like some nice sausages on the grill, like these from Sea Breeze Farm. They have something like 13, 527 kinds of sausages, or nine. Something like that. But whatever the number, you will find at least one that will make dad smile.

Fougasse from Tall Grass Bakery. Photo copyright 2011 by Zachary D. Lyons.

A nice loaf of olive fougasse from Tall Grass Bakery will make dad grin today! Or any of their other breads and baked goodies. I love this bread so much, I can eat an entire loaf in a single sitting! Heck, hand dad some fougasse, a cold one, and a bowl of sugar snap peas, and direct him to the nearest lawn chair. Happy dad, indeed!

Strawberries from Jessie’s Berries. Photo copyright 2013 by Zachary D. Lyons.

My folks are harvesting the first of their strawberries from their deck garden this weekend, and so is Jessie’s Berries! In fact, Jessie’s will be joining us here at your Ballard Farmers Market for the first time this season. It’s time to eat ourselves silly on some Fir Island sweetness!

Vanilla rice pudding from Pasteria Lucchese. Photo copyright 2012 by Zachary D. Lyons.

When I was knee-high to a grasshopper, I never understood why my dad was so crazy about rice pudding. Chocolate pudding I understood. But rice? I thought rice was for frying with shrimp at the Kingston Tea Garden. Alas, in my adult years, as my taste buds matured (yes, one part of me did), I began to develop a taste for rice pudding myself. Then I met Sam & Sara Lucchese of Pasteria Lucchese, and I tasted their vanilla rice pudding. Yes, this is the food of the gods, and now, I share yet one more thing with my dad: a madness for this stuff!

Belgian-style ales from Propolis Brewing. Photo copyright 2014 by Zachary D. Lyons.

Ballard is Beer Central here in Seattle, but did you know that your Ballard Farmers Market is host to the first ever brewery at a farmers market in Seattle? Yup. Propolis Brewing makes wonderful, bottle-aged, Belgian-style ales in Port Townsend from lots of local ingredients, and they offer them to you right here. Their flavors change with the season, like everything else around here. Stop by and pick some up for dad!

Shaving kit from Brown Butterfly. Photo copyright 2010 by Zachary D. Lyons.

If you’re going to get dad a shaving kit for Father’s Day tomorrow, get him one of these from Brown Butterfly at your Ballard Farmers Market! It’ll keep Dad’s face smooth and soft, it treads lightly on the environment, and it will be a gift that comes with a face and a story behind it.

Paella and casserole pans from BluSkillet. Photo copyright 2013 by Zachary D. Lyons.

And for the dad who has everything, I bet he doesn’t have a hand-forged steel pan from Blu Skillet Ironware. If your dad cooks at all, he will adore one of these pans. I use my 10-inch skillet for about 70% of my cooking these days. It dispenses uniform heat, remains perfectly seasoned for gorgeous browning and no sticking, cleans up easily, costs no more than one of those highly-rated pans in those whoopdeedoo cooking magazines (and probably less), and it is made right here in Ballard!!! Now, that is a gift that means something.

Camelina oil from Ole World Oils. Photo copyright 2013 by Zachary D. Lyons.

And I finish off this week’s Father’s Day edition of most things Ballard Farmers Market with camelina oil from Ole World Oils, grown and pressed just over in Ritzville, Washington. This is our local oil, folks. Camelina is an ancient member of the mustard family, and it’s seeds have been pressed for cooking oil for centuries. It is non-GMO, has a higher smoke point (475 degrees) than grape seed oil, is loaded with Vitamin E, making it both shelf stable and nutritious, is high in omega-fatty acids, with a perfect 2:1 ratio of omega 3 to omega 6, has a great flavor and a gorgeous viscosity, is good for high-heat cooking and as a finishing oil, and it is priced competitively with the average olive oil from far away. And I have found that it is the perfect seasoning oil for my Blu Skillet pan. I rub a little into my pan each time after cleaning it.

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.

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.

Sunday, July 15th: Spot Prawns, Bag O’ Fish, Nectarines, Kombucha, Rice Pudding & Vikings!

Courtesy Ballard Seafood Festival.

‘Tis the pillaging hour, and the Vikings are descending upon Ballard for the annual Ballard Seafood Festival this weekend, celebrating our community’s proud Scandinavian and fishing industry heritage. Of course, this does present a few challenges for you Ballard Farmers Market faithful, and here are a few tips for managing your trip to your favorite farmers market (which you should vote for right now by clicking this link):

1. Parking will be tight all day. Carpool, bike, walk, take a cab or bus, and your stress level will be much lower.
2. If you plan to attend Seafood Fest, bring a good cooler with you with plenty of ice. That way, you can get your groceries first, put them in your cooler, and then hit the Beer Garden for a frosty pint, some salmon and some accordion music.
3. If you just want to get groceries and then flee, we recommend you try to get here before noon or 1 p.m., as that’s when the main party cranks up at Seafood Fest.
4. If you just plan to attend Seafood Fest, and you stumbled onto this page courtesy of Google, come a little early and check out the best farmers market in Washington, and one of the best in the U.S.!
5. Remember to bring your Viking helmet and your accordion!

Your Ballard Farmers Market is food only during Seafood Fest. Don’t forget to bring your bags with you. And if you are in the vicinity of the Market between 3-5 p.m., please mind the farmers’ trucks flowing in and out. We want to you survive so you can come back next week, too!

Fresh Hood Canal Spot Prawns from Hama Hama Oyster Company. Photo courtesy Hama Hama Oyster Company.

Spot prawns. If these words mean anything to you, you will be standing in front of Hama Hama Oyster Company’s table at 10 a.m. this morning! That’s because there was another opening for spot prawns on the Hood Canal this past week, and Hama Hama has assured us that they will make sure there are some for the good people of Ballard this time, after that bit of painful teasing they did last time. Still, “some” is a relative term, and I predict they will be gone before, if not long before, 11 a.m.!

Edible flowers from Colinwood Farms. Photo copyright 2012 by Zachary D. Lyons.

Sometimes, you just need to stop and eat the flowers. And Colinwood Farms grows a whole bunch of delicious edible flowers just for that purpose. If you’ve eaten flowers before, you won’t need more convincing, but if you haven’t, stop by Colinwood and try them. They are a perfect, colorful and delicious garnish to any salad!

Green cabbage and radicchio from Stoney Plains Organic Farm. Photo copyright 2012 by Zachary D. Lyons.

Whether you like your round balls of greens sweet and cabbagy or bitter and red faced, Stoney Plains Organic Farm has got you covered! They’ve got beautiful, solid heads of green cabbage now, ready for slaws and krauts of all kinds. And they’ve got radicchio now, too, great in salads, sauteed with a little bacon and even grilled.

Whole coho salmon from Wilson Fish. Photo copyright 2011 by Zachary D. Lyons.

It’s back! The world-famous Bag O’ Fish from Wilson Fish. That’s right, kids, coho salmon season has opened on the Washington coast, and Wilson Fish has it for you today, super fresh and whole, ready to fill with some herbs, lemon and olive oil or butter and flop on the grill! All for one low price. So get here early today. Supplies are limited, and the early bird gets the big fish… for the same price everyone else will be paying for the rest of them!

Arctic star nectarines from Tiny’s Organic Produce. Photo copyright 2012 by Zachary D. Lyons.

Get that hanky ready, cuz you are gonna need it to wipe the juice off of your chin once you bite into one of these juicy, super-sweet arctic star nectarines from Tiny’s Organic Produce. You know, I do love this time of year, when I get to add three or four kinds of fruit to the fresh list every week. Like pluots, for instance. Yup, Tiny’s has flavorosa pluots now, too! This cross between plums and apricots is deeply sweet and plenty juicy, yet firm enough to travel well with you on a hike or picnic.

Pete’s Perfect Toffee. Photo copyright 2011 by Zachary D. Lyons.

If you’ve never tried the aptly named Pete’s Perfect Toffee, I’d say Seafood Fest weekend is the perfect time to do it. Pete’s toffee and fudge are simply amazing, adding a decadent dose of sweetness to even the biggest grumpy puss. Stop by Pete’s for a sample or two to find the flavor that most pleases you!

Cauliflower from Oxbow Farm. Photo copyright 2012 by Zachary D. Lyons.

Now, that’s some spectabulous cauliflower from Oxbow Farm. It’s their first harvest of the season, and it is super dense and firm and delish! Roast it. Grill it. Salad it. Dip it. Devour it!

Golden raspberries from Billy’s Gardens. Photo copyright 2012 by Zachary D. Lyons.

Golden raspberries from Billy’s Gardens. You know, we usually have so few of these over the course of the summer that it just doesn’t seem necessary for me to go and wax all poetic about them. I mean, just look at them! But get here early to buy them, since now everyone will want some.

Fresh kombucha from CommuniTea. Photo copyright 2011 by Zachary D. Lyons.

These 250 ml. bottles of kombucha from CommuniTea are the perfect single-serving size of this effervescent, fermented, green tea pick-me-up! Just keep in mind that technically, this is an alcoholic beverage. It doesn’t have much alcohol, but it does have a little as a natural byproduct of the fermentation process, and that means you have to be 21 to buy it. I kid you not! Oh, and open container laws apply, too, I suppose. Just your luck, you’ll be slurping one of these down, and the one Seattle cop who’s into holistic living will cross your path and actually recognize what you’re drinking. Doh!

Vanilla rice pudding from Pasteria Lucchese. Photo copyright 2012 by Zachary D. Lyons.

Vanilla rice pudding from Pasteria Lucchese sounds like a tasty treat you can eat while you walk through Seafood Fest, doesn’t it? Better get two, though, because it is so good, you are going to want another when you get home. Oh, and remember to bring a spoon with you today, too!

BYOB = Bring Your Own Bag!

Finally, another reminder to please bring your own bags today, and 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.