In the spirit of eating as close to home as possible, I was on a quest to find a farmer who was in my neck of the woods (I live in the county out towards Everson). In the past I have focused on buying food from Cedarville Farm, as they are right around the corner from my house. Due to my tight schedule and wandering nature, I never stumbled upon their booth on Saturday. I did, however, find a man who I have purchased from in the past who farms in Nooksack, out on Highway 9. He calls his farm, appropriately, Nooksack Nine, and is exclusively organic. He didn't have a huge variety of produce, and his selection was a little small. Alas, I do tend to root for the underdogs in life, and felt like I wanted to support this man's business on that particular shopping trip; also, his Napa cabbage looked incredible....that's really what ultimately pulled me in. I told him as much (leaving out the underdog bit), as he was weighing the head of greens, and he told me that it was so delicious, he had eaten an entire head in one sitting. It didn't occur to me until later that day to ask him his favorite method of preparation for this veggie; perhaps he ate it sans accoutrements? I wouldn't put it past a farmer to do something like that. My friend Terry, who grew up on a lettuce farm in California, told me the other day that upon arriving home from school when he was a pup, he would just bend over in the lettuce fields, stick his entire face inside a lettuce head, and eat the whole thing, without his hands, like a grazing animal....which he was, in effect. My daughter's favorite way to eat kale is like this; straight off the plant itself. It's much less exciting once it's been brought inside, prepared, cooked, and served at the table.
While I was visiting with the farmer about the cabbage, I noticed his beautiful spinach, and couldn't leave without a large bag. The leaves were so fresh, tender and delicately ruffled...I wanted to taste one right from the basket, but held back. I asked advice about what to do with my kale at home that was going to flower; should I let it go to seed, or should I just dig it up, give thanks, and accept that it's lived a good life? I have some kale in another part of the garden that had naturalized....should I try to do this? I am glad I asked, because he told me of a disease that cruciferous vegetables can succumb to if they aren't rotated with other crops; he described a condition called club root, that manifests in a large, bulbous, pus-filled growth on the base of the stem, that is hard to get rid of once it enters the garden. Hmm. I will happily pull up the kale and plant green beans there this year with a clean conscience.
Over the weekend, I enjoyed the cabbage and spinach in our regular salads, and I also tossed some of the spinach leaves in a quinoa dish that I regularly make that has a dressing of olive oil, lemon juice, cumin, chili powder, paprika, pine nuts and cilantro. I added the spinach and it elevated the dish from "great" to "divine". The spinach was so tender and delicious; nothing like the bags of spinach that I tend to pick up at Trader Joe's. Nothing can compare to this spinach from Saturday's market. Tonight I decided to look up a recipe on Epicurious.com that featured Napa cabbage (similarly tender, crisp, delicately flavored and oh-so-fresh) and an Asian dressing; I changed the one I found a bit to accommodate the ingredients I had on hand; I ended up shredding the cabbage and chopping the spinach, adding some red cabbage, and made a great toasted sesame dressing to drizzle over it all. I served it as a salad alongside plain quinoa and baked cubed sweet potatoes, tofu, onion and garlic. I mixed everything together and drizzled dressing over the whole mess; it was great!
As I was leaving the market, I was unable to resist the prepared food vendors, and after perusing the stands for a couple of laps, I settled on the vegetarian Ethiopian food. I was in heaven; I wished I knew how to make lentils taste this good...not to mention cooked carrots and cabbage. That meal alone is enough to bring me back next week, even if I have to make a special trip from the county...
All in all, I felt very connected to the various food and plant growers in Whatcom and Skagit counties; also the local food vendors who may not have an official restaurant, (some do...Thai House and India Palace are there) but who sure do have great Saturday Market offerings. It is so nice, as well as deeply satisfying, to put a face to the source of our food, clothes, jewelry, art, and home goods. Bellingham is an amazing community that truly values it's artisans and farmers; this is evident in the robust and vibrant Farmer's Markets that we boast. I am so happy to live and shop here.
Racine, Elizabeth F.; Vaughn, Ashley Smith; Laditka, Sarah B. "Farmer's Market Use Among African-American Women Participating in the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children." Journal of the American Dietetic Association, Mar2010, Vol. 110 Issue 3, p441-446, 6p; DOI: 10.1016/j.jada.2009.11.019; (AN 48403875)
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