Sunday, January 17th: Storage Crops (Go Hawks!)

The 12th Potato from Olsen Farms at your Ballard Farmers Market. Copyright Zachary D. Lyons.

Another Sunday, another big game. That’s been our reality here at your Ballard Farmers Market during football season the last two years. And in order for us to get us localicious on, we all have to do a little adapting. This week, with a 12:15 PM start time, we recommend that you come to your Ballard Farmers Market between 10 AM and noon, or step out of one of the many bars and restaurants on Ballard Avenue featuring the game on their televisions during halftime, if you want to catch the game and get your grocery shopping done, too. And if you focus on these great storage crops featured in this week’s epistle, like these potatoes from Olsen Farms, you can easily leave them in your trunk while you enjoy the game somewhere here in Downtown Ballard. (Oh, and if you are not planning on watching the game, coming to Market during the game will be a pleasure for you!)

Dried grains, beans and seeds from Nash’s Organic Produce at your Ballard Farmers Market. Copyright Zachary D. Lyons.

Winter is a great time to utilize and enjoy dried beans, grains, seeds and milled products from Nash’s Organic Produce. From freshly milled cornmeal and gluten-free buckwheat flour, to whole grains like triticale and naked oats, from mustard seeds to dried fava beans, Nash’s has an amazing, diverse and versatile selection. I love adding the naked oats to chicken soup, and using their cornmeal to bread pan fried oysters from Hama Hama Oysters, or true cod from Wilson Fish.

Mixed roots from Growing Washington (Alm Hill Gardens) at your Ballard Farmers Market. Copyright Zachary D. Lyons.

Looking for a quick and easy dinner idea? How about a root roast? This handy root mix from Growing Washington (a.k.a., Alm Hill Gardens) is just the ticket. The key to a successful, low maintenance root roast is to cut your roots into appropriate sizes based on their density, so that they all will be ready at the same time. Rutabagas are the densest, followed by carrots and beets, and then potatoes. Sunchokes and parsnips cook the fastest. The denser the root, the smaller the pieces. Follow this rule, and you will have great, simple, delicious root roasts. Just lather them up with your favorite oil, salt and pepper to taste, and slide them in a hot oven until tender. Give them a toss about midway through.

Frozen blueberries from Sidhu Farms at your Ballard Farmers Market. Copyright Zachary D. Lyons.

I add a handful of these frozen blueberries to my hot cereal every morning. Sidhu Farms harvests them at their peak of ripeness, and quickly freezes them, so that we can enjoy them all winter long. If you do plan to shop the Market and then watch the Big Game in the neighborhood, we recommend that you bring a small cooler with some ice to keep your blueberries frozen.

Red storage onions from Colinwood Farm at your Ballard Farmers Market. Copyright Zachary D. Lyons.

2014 was a great year for onions, and we will enjoy them all winter long. Just take a gander at these beautiful red storage onions from Colinwood Farm, for example. They are a great long storage onion, have a nice, intense oniony bite to them when raw that is great for salads and sandwiches, and they sweeten up beautifully when caramelized.

Dried beans from Kirsop Farm at your Ballard Farmers Market. Copyright Zachary D. Lyons.

Besides all of their great veggies, Kirsop Farm produces many different kinds of dried beans, including hurrerite, tiger, black & pinto, as well as hard red wheat. All are great for hearty fall soups, stews, salads and more, and they will keep for months!

Sweet potatoes from Lyall Farms at your Ballard Farmers Market. Copyright Zachary D. Lyons.

Finally, don’t forget the wonderful Beauregard sweet potatoes from Lyall Farms. Great roasted on their own, steamed and mashed with garlic and chipotle peppers, roasted with parsnips, made into soup or pies, or however you enjoy them best, they are sure to warm your belly and your soul on a cool, damp Northwest night.

Go Hawks!

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, January 19th: Cooking Oil, Cranberries, Leeks, Chickweed & Refillable Wine Bottles!

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

Happy Sunday! This is the first Sunday since December that your Ballard Farmers Market has had to share with the Seahawks, but fortunately, kickoff in the NFC Championship Game does not happen until 3:30 p.m., half an hour after we close. So you’ve got plenty of time to get down here, get your localiciousness on for the coming week, zip home to drop it off, and get back down here again to watch the Game with us and the gang in one of Ballard Ave’s 13,478 watering holes. And for the 13% of you who still don’t care about the Seahawks, we’re here for you, too!

Oh, hey. Ole World Oils returns today with their camelina oil. This cooking and finishing oil is made from cold-pressed camelina seeds (a mustard cousin) that are grown and processed by Ole World Oils on their farm just outside of Ritzville in Eastern Washington. This oil is fresh, delicious, high in beneficial omega-fatty acids, is great drizzled over salads and as a finishing oil, and has a very high 475 degree smoke point, making it perfect for any cooking application. And it is priced to easily replace all of your imported oils, be they from Italy, Canada or California.

Fresh Washington true cod from Wilson Fish. Photo copyright 2010 by Zachary D. Lyons.

Wilson Fish may be best known for its fresh, frozen and smoked Washington salmon and its halibut, but this time of year, if you want fresh fish from them, this true cod and ling cod are what you are likely to find. I love pan-frying their true cod. I make a breading of grits, whole grain flour, rice flour, corn starch, salt, pepper, chile powder, garlic granules and some dried oregano, mixing it altogether in a bowl with a fork, to ensure everything is carefully blended. Then, I like to cut the fish into “nugget” sized pieces, which I give a quick dip in egg, then roll in the breading until fully coated. Then, I toss it in a hot BluSkillet iron pan that I’ve put a healthy amount of camelina oil into, and I fry it on each side until crispy. It doesn’t take long, and you can make up the breading in advance and save any leftover breading in the freezer. This breading works great with Hama Hama Oyster Company shucked oysters, too!

Chickweed from Stoney Plains Organic Farm. Photo copyright 2013 by Zachary D. Lyons.

Hmm. Maybe a nice side of chickweed salad would be good with that pan-fried true cod. Stoney Plains Organic Farm has chickweed already, just for this purpose. Farms like Stoney Plains grow chickweed over the winter as a nitrogen-fixing crop that helps build nutrients back into their soil naturally. Smart farms like Stoney Plains choose varieties of chickweed at are good for human consumption, so they get an addition crop out of it, and we get an additional winter and early spring green. Make a simple chickweed salad by tossing it with some salt, pepper, some sheep feta from Glendale Shepherd, some sunflower seeds or pine nuts, a little lemon juice or local verjus, if you’ve got some, and some camelina oil.

Frozen organic cranberries from Starvation Alley Farms. Photo copyright 2014 by Zachary D. Lyons.

Look, kids! Starvation Alley Farms has frozen organic cranberries for you! Woohoo!!! Make pies, jams, sauces, muffins, cookies, whatever you love to do with cranberries. Make a nice dressing with them for that chickweed salad. Cranberries: they’re not just for Thanksgiving anymore!

Refillable bottles (left) from Wilridge Winery. Photo copyright 2013 by Zachary D. Lyons.

Those big bottles on the left above? They are refillable! Seriously. Wilridge Winery, based in Madrona, worked it out with the Liquor Control Board so that they can reuse these magnum-size (1.5 liter) bottles. Why, you ask? Lots of reasons. First off, whether a new bottle is made from virgin or recycled glass, it still requires a lot of energy to make them. Not these. Next, when they reuse bottles, they do not have to buy new bottles for each new bottling, a cost they would normally pass onto you. And because the bottles are larger, you get twice the wine for the price of one bottle, not to mention that it cuts the cost of labor to fill that bottle in half, too! The result is that for $20 plus an $8 bottle deposit, you get an excellent, everyday, local table wine. Wilridge will be sampling their  wines today at your Ballard Farmers Market. Give them a try, and then grab one of these refillables for your Hawks party, or for the party you having not watching the Game.

Wool from Glendale Shepherd. Photo copyright 2014 by Zachary D. Lyons.

Glendale Shepherd makes great sheep’s milk cheeses. But something else their sheep produce is wool! This wool, in fact. Mind you, the wool usually isn’t this color of green whilst on the sheep, unless the sheep is acting out against its parents.

Leeks from Alm Hill Gardens. Photo copyright 2014 by Zachary D. Lyons.

Mmm. Leekliciousness. Think sauces, soups, sautés, tortes… tarts for that matter. Winter leeks are wonderfully sweet for whatever application you have, and Alm Hill Gardens has these lovely young leeks for you now.

Many butter flavors from Golden Glen Creamery. Photo copyright 2011 by Zachary D. Lyons.

A little butter with them thar leeks sounds pretty good, too. Or for cooking your eggs… which come to think of it, might make for a nice scramble with some leeks, eh? Or buttered toast with one of Golden Glen Creamery’s many sweet or savory flavored butters. Golden Glen’s farmstead butters are made up on their farm in Bow, and if you haven’t tried them, you likely don’t really know what truly fresh butter tastes like. Trust me.

Certified organic beef chuck roasts from Skagit River Ranch. Photo copyright 2012 by Zachary D. Lyons.

When it is cold, dark and damp this time of year, it is the perfect time to warm up your whole home with a nice roast, don’t you think? Skagit River Ranch has these gorgeous, delicious, grass-fed and finished, certifed organic beef chuck roasts from their farm up in Sedro-Woolley, in the Skagit River Valley. Grab yourself some roots, and get roasting!

Curly leaf kale from Children’s Garden. Photo copyright 2012 by Zachary D. Lyons.

It is also serious kale season, and Children’s Garden has lots of this green curly leaf kale right now for you. They’ve also got some nice collard greens now, too, as well as fresh herbs, and, of course, their beautiful flower bouquets, even this time of year.

Organic Pink Lady apples from ACMA Mission Orchards. Photo copyright 2012 by Zachary D. Lyons.

ACMA Mission Orchards still has plenty of their certified-organic apples and pears from their fall harvest for you. Like these Pink Lady apples — sweet, crunchy and satisfying, they will help you keep the doctor away all winter long.

Whole grains, flour and dried legumes from Nash’s Organic Produce. Photo copyright 2014 by Zachary D. Lyons.

Nashs’ Organic Produce produces lots of grains and legumes in addition to the produce for which they are both named and loved. Right now, you can get lots of dried beans from them, from fava beans to kidney beans to black beans to field peas, as well as several types of grains, from hulless oats to triticale to rye to wheat. They even have several kinds of flours milled right on the farm and delivered fresh to you at your Ballard Farmers Market!

Sunflower sprouts from Jarvis Family Garlic Farm. Photo copyright 2014 by Zachary D. Lyons.

Finally, let’s get our sunflower sprouts on for winter, eh? Packed with nutrients and flavor, they make a great addition to salads and sandwiches, and a great garnish, too. Jarvis Family Garlic Farm has these fresh sprouts now, as well as wheatgrass, great for juicing.

Go Hawks!

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.