Sunday, November 30th: It’s Buy Direct From The Producer At Your Ballard Farmers Market Sunday!

Coffee brewers from Daily Bird Pottery at Ballard Farmers Market. Copyright Zachary D. Lyons.

We’ve survived the insanity of “Forego Being Thankful & Let’s Go Shopping Thursday,” “Black Friday,” and “Small Business Saturday.” Now, it’s time for “Buy Local Direct From The Producer At Your Ballard Farmers Market Sunday!” Your Ballard Farmers Market is loaded with locally-made, unique gifts that will be treasured by that special someone on your list. Plus, we’ve got lots of great food and beverage perfect for your holiday festivities. And best of all, it all comes with the face of a real person — a neighbor — behind it, and you know that your hard-earned dollars are going right back into our local economy, instead of onto some distant corporate spreadsheet.

For instance, check out these naked clay coffee brewers from Daily Bird Pottery from Port Townsend. Naked clay has been used for centuries in culinary traditions from Mexico to India. The minerals in the clay help to mellow the bitterness in many foods and beverages, like coffee. If you’ve got a hardcore coffee aficionado on your list, they will love one of these!

Hand-knitted clothing from Suzanne de la Torre at Ballard Farmers Market. Copyright Zachary D. Lyons.

Are you looking for truly one-of-a-kind, stunning, hand-knit articles of clothing for you-know-who… or maybe for just you? Then stop by Suzanne de la Torre at your Ballard Farmers Market and take a gander at this year’s styles, made right here in Seattle. Suzy’s creations always brighten up the Market, and they will brighten up someone special’s holidays, too!

Whole smoked side of King salmon from Wilson Fish at Ballard Farmers Market. Copyright Zachary D. Lyons.

I imagine you can find a party somewhere on your calendar that calls for a whole side of smoked king salmon from Wilson Fish. The finest smoked king you’ll ever taste, it is moist and delicious, and it is caught off the Washington coast! Of course, no one will judge you harshly if you just bring the whole side home and eat it yourself.

Fresh holiday wreaths from Alm Hill Gardens (Growing Washington) at Ballard Farmers Market. Copyright Zachary D. Lyons.

We’re finally past Thanksgiving, and now it is appropriate to deck the halls for the rest of the holiday season. A terrific start can be made with one (or six) of these fresh holiday wreaths from Alm Hill Gardens (a.k.a., Growing Washington). They make these wreaths fresh each week using a wide variety of native pine, cedar, fir and spruce branches mixed with holly, pussy willow and whatever else they might find on the farm. They are wonderfully fragrant, and while most folks think they need to go up outdoors, I like bringing mine indoors, sprucing up my living room and making it smell great! Oh, they have fresh garlands, too!

Shaving kit from Brown Butterfly Aromatherapy at Ballard Farmers Market. Copyright Zachary D. Lyons.

It’s time again to play that annual game of, “What the heck should we get for dad this year?” I recommend one of these old school shaving kits from Brown Butterfly Aromatherapy. The shaving soap is refreshing and soothing to one’s skin, and you don’t have to deal with wasteful shaving cream cans filled with questionable gas. Plus, you are investing in a local business, instead of Gillette. They also have a lineup of bar soaps that come in a nice variety of scents. And while many soap makers cater to women, this is soap designed with men in mind! (That said, Brown Butterfly also makes spa kits for mom.)

Awarding-winning sheep cheese from Glendale Shepherd. Photo copyright 2014 by Zachary D. Lyons.

Don’t show up at your friends’ party empty handed. Bring some of this award-winning aged sheep cheese from Glendale Shepherd on Whidbey Island. Their Island Brebis and Saratoga Passage cheeses are at their prime right now. Saratoga Passage is a deep, creamy cheese that will tantalize your tastebuds, and the slightly drier, sharper Island Brebis is the winner of a 2014 Good Food Award. Make sure you get enough for yourself, too!

Baba ghanoush from Uncle Eyal’s. Photo courtesy Uncle Eyal’s.

And you’ll need plenty of dips and sauces this holiday season. Lucky for you, Uncle Eyal’s has returned this week with their wonderful Israeli-style dips and sauces, from this great baba ghanoush, to hummus made with local chickpeas, to garlic mint sauce that is to die for, and more!

Truffles from Soulever Chocolates. Photo copyright 2014 by Zachary D. Lyons.

Also returning this week: Soulever Chocolates. Their chocolates are predominantly organic, low glycemic, and dairy, gluten, and soy free, and they use local ingredients where they can. These are well-suited for folks with dietary restrictions (such as paleo, vegan or diabetic). They are also well-suited for the holidays! Enjoy!

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, 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, June 9th: Lots More Cherries & Strawberries, Broccoli, Fava Beans, Father’s Day Pies & More!

Chelan cherries from Collins Family Orchards. Photo copyright 2012 by Zachary D. Lyons.

We are rocking now, good people of Ballard! Lots more deliciousness is pouring into your Ballard Farmers Market, and more farms, too. The last time June started like this was 2009, and remember what an amazing summer that was! Today, you will find cherries all over the Market, including Rainiers, bings and these awesome Chelan cherries from Collins Family Orchards. Chelans are an early, dark cherry with a deep, intense flavor. And Collins Family Orchards is renowned for growing some of the finest stone fruit anywhere. Indeed, their cherries were measured as the sweetest in our markets in years past by local food expert Jon Rowley, who tested the fruit of every farm with a brix meter — a device normally used to test the sugar content in wine grapes in order to determine the best time to harvest them.

Fresh fava beans from Children’s Garden. Photo copyright 2013 by Zachary D. Lyons.

And how’s about the first fava beans of the season — these from Children’s Garden. When they are this young and tender, you can eat the whole thing, pod and all. I love slathering them with some olive oil and throwing them on the grill. They get all smoky and beautiful, and they just melt in your mouth. Tip: remove the stem and the string that runs down the body of the pod.

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

Were you frustrated last week because all of the strawberries were sold out by 11 a.m.? Well, never fear! We’ve added three more farms with strawberries this week, and they are all bringing a lot more than last week. Oh, and these berries are awesome right now. Jessie’s Berries is back today with these gorgeous berries. Go crazy! It’s strawberry season, folks.

Broccoli from Alm Hill Gardens. Photo copyright 2013 by Zachary D. Lyons.

But wait! There’s more! We’ve got a new harvest of broccoli from Alm Hill Gardens today at your Ballard Farmers Market. These big, beautiful florets are the stuff of your dreams. I like roasting it tossed with olive oil and a little crushed cayenne pepper flakes, to give it an extra kick. Woohoo!

Lotsa pies from Deborah’s Homemade Pies. Photo copyright 2011 by Zachary D. Lyons.

ALERT: Deborah’s Homemade Pies will not be at your Ballard Farmers Market next week for Father’s Day. Lucky for us, though, Deborah planned ahead! Today only, she will have a supply of pies that are unbaked! She has them completely assembled and frozen. All you have to do is bring it home, stash it in the freezer, and then, next Sunday, just pop it in the oven, bake it up fresh, and serve it to dad! How cool is that? (Oh, and don’t worry. She’ll send you home with instructions.)

Sausage from Skagit River Ranch. Photo copyright 2012 by Zachary D. Lyons.

Something else good to grab this week is some of these sausages from Skagit River Ranch. That way, you can have them thawed out in time for dad’s big day next Sunday, when he’ll want to fire up the barby and eat some grilled animal, much like his caveman ancestors did. They’ve got plenty of steaks and chops, too!

Speckled Amish butter lettuce from One Leaf Farm. Photo copyright 2013 by Zachary D. Lyons.

If you like your lettuce with a horse and buggy, and no electricity, then you will love this Speckled Amish butter lettuce from One Leaf Farm. I love all their different heirloom varieties of lettuce, especially right now, when their tables just seem buried in it. If you love lettuce, this is your time of year, folks!

Fresh, local butter from Golden Glen Creamery. Photo copyright 2011 by Zachary D. Lyons.

Got butter? Golden Glen Creamery does. Heck, they specialize in it. They have it lightly salted for your everyday needs, and unsalted for your baking needs. And they have it seasoned in variety of flavors running the gamut from sweet to savory, making for the best toast ever! And you know what else? Dad’s love butter. Just don’t tell their doctors!

Apple chutney from Deluxe Foods. Photo copyright 2013 by Zachary D. Lyons.

You know what else dad’s love? Apple chutney from Deluxe Foods! Or any of the other amazing jams and jellies Deluxe has, for that matter. I mean, you don’t want to hand dad toast with butter and no jam, do you? Stop by to visit Rebecca today, and have a sample of her various seasonal flavors made with local ingredients. Then treat dad next Sunday morning!

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

Look, even if your dad is going to get in touch with his bad caveman self whilst grilling whatever carcass is around next Sunday evening, he still likes to have a clean, comfortable shave that will leave his face as smooth as a baby’s bottom, am I right? Then get him one of these shaving kits from Brown Butterfly Aromatherapy today are your Ballard Farmers Market. I love their shaving soap. It smells manly, protects my skin while allowing me a nice, close shave, and let’s face it… I look good! Get your dad some. I can’t be allowed to be the only handsome devil in Ballard. It just wouldn’t be fair.

Mountain Swiss cheese from Rosecrest Farm. Photo copyright 2013 by Zachary D. Lyons.

What? You still haven’t tried the Swiss cheeses from Rosecrest Farm? What in the name of Mike are you waiting for?!? This stuff is wonderful. It comes in four varieties, though with a little extra aging, we get a couple more. Above is the Mountain Swiss, which is great, though to be honest, I am partial to the peppercorn. Look for them in the neighborhood of Pasteria Lucchese today, and try all the various flavors. You’ll be hooked, too!

Breakfast burrito from Los Chilangos. Photo copyright 2013 by Zachary D. Lyons.

Meet the breakfast burrito from Los Chilangos. Cooked fresh right here at your Ballard Farmers Market, it is built around a base of local ingredients, including farm-fresh eggs from our own Stokesberry Sustainable Farm and pork from our own Olsen Farms. Get your day started right with one of these. You won’t find a taqueria in Seattle more dialed into using Market-fresh ingredients than Los Chilangos!

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.