Summer Squash Soup (Farmers' Market Friday)

Being out and about this summer was great.  I got to do things I have never done before: stay in a B&B in the Rockies, hike the Appalachian Trail, watch Brazil play against Japan in a Brazilian bar in NYC, walk the Freedom Trail in Boston...  And then I got to share places I love with people I love visiting from Brazil. Disneyland. San Diego. Santa Barbara. But with all this, I missed out on one of my favorite times of the week: going to the farmers' market.

Yes, that truly is one of my favorite times.  When else, or where else, do you surround yourself with people rubbing shoulders, exchanging cash instead of swiping plastic, talking with familiar strangers?

I had plans to go while I was on the East Coast, but each attempt failed.  Besides, what would I do with fresh produce in my hotel room, really?  Yeah... not much.

Finally, after two months, I headed down to the market with my usual $12.  I don't know where I got the number 12 from, but it has become my norm (grab a ten and two ones... I seem to always have that laying around).

I must admit, the summer selection has some of my least favorite things.  I actually miss the kale and the butternut squash that winter and early spring provide.  The berries and stone fruit are nice, but I never get that many. Maybe because I know my $12 won't spread very far if I buy fruit... so I pretty much stick to the veggies. (Luckily for me, we have a ton of farm stands nearby that sell fruit for cheaper than the farmers' market, even though they are many of the same vendors.)  This week my bag filled up with leeks, beets, green onions, and a bunch of summer squash.

But then I had a problem: What do I do with this squash? Other than cook it and through some garlic salt on it, I had never really done anything with this vegetable...

Yay for readers who follow along on Facebook!  I threw the question out there and got three DELICIOUS ideas, one of which I had all the ingredients on hand already.  And so, Summer Squash Soup, compliments of Donna, was set out for dinner. Easy and fresh, the perfect way to enjoy my farmers' market produce!

I guess the farmers' market isn't the only place you rub shoulders with others...

SUMMER SQUASH SOUP

Recipe slightly adapted from blog reader, Donna.  Thank you!

SERVES 4  •  PREP TIME: 10 MINUTES  •  TOTAL TIME: 40 MINUTES

ingredients

·        Large white onion, chopped

·        Large leek (white and light green portion), thinly sliced

·        2 tablespoons olive oil

·        6 cloves of garlic, minced

·        6 summer squash of any variety, peeled and cubed

·        2 cans (14 oz) reduced-sodium chicken broth, such as Swenson’s

·        4 fresh thyme sprigs

·        ¼ teaspoon salt

·        2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

·        ¼ cup shredded Parmesan, to top

·        ¼ cup green onion, chopped, to top

directions

1. In a large saucepan, saute onions and leek in oil until tender. Add garlic; cook 1 minute longer. Add squash; saute 5 minutes.
2. Stir in the broth, thyme and salt. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; cover and simmer for 15-20 minutes or until squash is tender.  Discard thyme sprigs. Cool slightly.
3. In a blender, process soup in batches until smooth. Return all to the pan. Stir in lemon juice and heat through. Sprinkle each serving with cheese and green onion.

 COST: $6.76      COST PER BOWL (4): $1.69

Rasberry Cookie Pizzas {Farmers' Market Friday}

 

Hi everyone! I'm Dorothy, from Crazy for Crust. I blog about my love of pie...and cookies and cake and brownies. Heck, I don't discriminate - I love ALL sugar. Then I blog about it, with a slice of my life.

I'm so excited to be here hijacking Tiffany's farmer's market posts today! I live in California, where so much of the produce for the US is grown. Within an hour drive of my house, you can find walnut and almond orchards, strawberry fields, and farms that grow rice and mandarins. It's a little amazing to me how much food is produced right in my backyard. Recently I was shown this first hand as I toured a local walnut orchard and packing plant. That day really opened my eyes to how much closer I was to agriculture than I realized. I know that sounds funny, that I hadn't known, but really, in these days of super low Walmart prices, I never thought much about the farms in my backyard. I live in Placer County, where farms abound. There are so many summertime farmer's markets here, but for Tiffany's $10 challenge I actually ended up at Whole Foods. Timing for the "official" farmer's markets didn't work out, but luckily my local Whole Foods has an actual farmer's market every Tuesday. ALL year long!

It's a small market, but the smells are amazing. And so is the produce. Look how gorgeous those berries are! And they're cheap! Shopping local does make a difference - the produce is affordable, fresher, and tastes way better. My daughter begged me to stock up on raspberries, so I did. We spend half our $10 budget at his stand. When I got home and was deciding what to make, I wanted to make something that was simple, and would showcase the beauty of the raspberries. That's how these cookie pizzas were born! I had some pizzelle cookies (you could use shortbread, lemon wafers, or whatever you like), spread them with frosting and topped them with the gorgeous berries. Super simple, and so, so good!

 

The berries were fabulous. The strawberries totally smelled like strawberries! I know that sounds weird, but if you've ever had a berry that you bought off season at Walmart, you'll know what I mean. These Raspberry Cookie Pizzas would be a gorgeous addition to a summer party, and you can get the berries for next to nothing at your local farmer's market!

Raspberry Cookie Pizzas recipe by Crazy for Crust, inpsired by Mom on Timeout

2 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
2 tablespoons butter, room temperature
1 cup powdered sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla Fresh raspberries, washed and dried Pizzelle Cookies (or whatever your favorite kind is)

1. Make your frosting: beat cream cheese and butter with a hand mixer in a large bowl. Beat in powdered sugar and vanilla until frosting comes together.
2. Spread frosting on each cookie, top with berries. Serve soon after making, the pizzelles get soggy after a while.

Enjoy! Come visit me at Crazy for Crust. I'll ply you with sugar and talk your ear off.

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Tiffany here -- Shout out to Dorothy who wrote this post over a month ago, before my blog went into hibernation.  She may not have been able to get raspberries at the normal farmers' market at that point, but I am sure we can find some this week :)  If you have never visited her blog, DO SO!  You will not regret it... and I can attest to the goodness of her recipes as I have tried them in my kitchen.  Mmm mmm GOOD!  

A Mid-Western Market, from This Homemade Life

Today's post comes Alison at This Homemade Life, mid-Western mama who enjoys the beauty found in simplicity.  Here blog is filled with love, great recipes, and vibrant pictures that capture LIFE.  Thank you Alison for sharing your take on going to the farmers' market with us!

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Farmers' Market season.  Where I live, in the midwest, this generally runs from late April/early May until Mid-October.  As a family we anxiously await the growing season and all the wonderful produce and flavor that comes with it.  Visiting our downtown market is something we make time for each weekend.  It's just as much about spending time together as a family as it is about the food.

When talking to people about visiting the farmers' market each weekend, they often ask me what I get for my money.  Often, as I rattle of the list of goodies from our latest visit, they are amazed by what you can get for the money.  Eating seasonally doesn't have to be expensive.  Here are a few tips on how to get the most for your money.  

1.  Make the rounds

Take a stroll around, looking at what different farmers/vendors have to offer.  Find out what they're selling and for how much.  Why is their swiss chard more than the next vendors? 

2.  Strike up a conversation

There is nothing a farmer loves more than to tell you about their crops.  People that grow food are passionate about what they do.  Ask them questions.  Their enthusiasm is contagious.

3.  Organic vs. Conventional

At our market there isn't a noticeable price difference between organic and conventional.  This may not be the case everywhere.  If there is a price difference, decide what is more important to you...eating organic or supporting local food.

On our trip this past weekend I took $10 to see what that would give me.  Due to a late, chilly spring our market is really just getting started and this week the beauty of the produce was bountiful!

Here is what we got...

$.75 1 bunch (8) French Breakfast Radishes

$2.00 2 heads of spring garlic 

$2.00 2 bunches green onions (they were $1.00 each)

$3.00 1 pint of snap peas

$2.00 a bundle of rhubarb

Total $9.75

For another $5.00 I got a 1/2 lb of mixed salad greens (a favorite I just couldn't resist) taking the grand total to almost $15.  At this point of the growing season, this is not the total amount of produce my family of 5 consumes during the week.  As the season wears on we will spend more at the farmers' market and shop at the grocery store less.  A wonderful, flavorful trade off that makes the months of April-October some of the best eating months here in the midwest.

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More time at the market, less time at the grocery store... I love that.  I would rather be hanging out the farmers' market than pushing a large cart through a crowded store any day!  And that price?  Excellent.  That's what the farmers' market is all about, folks!!!

Be sure to visit her using one of the links below to see more of what is going on her neck of the woods and try some of her mouth-watering recipes.  All of her pictures are so beautiful, you will want some of what she's got for SURE :)

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Mountain View, CA & Strawberry Arugula Salad

When I found Jess's blog CookSmarts I instantly loved what she was doing. Her recipes are fresh and easy, the directions are clear enough that anyone can cook (yes, YOU!), and her graphics were eye-catching. The more I followed her and tried her recipes I knew I found something great. What I didn't know was that we were neighbors awhile back... until I got her farmers' market post! This market that she is sharing today was the one I used to visit in my neighborhood. What a small world! Enjoy a glimpse into OUR Californian market :)

Hi there! Jess from Cook Smarts here, and I was lucky enough to be asked by Tiffany to contribute to her Farmer’s Market Friday series. I’m not gonna lie. I don’t get to the farmer’s market nearly often enough. Weekends are often packed with travel and social plans, but on the rare occasion when I’m home and free, I have the hard decision of choosing from 4 different markets. Luckily, the largest and most vibrant one also happens to be the one closest to me, the Mountain View Farmer’s Market.

This last visit to the market was at one of my favorite times of the year when summer produce is just arriving. Every fruit stand vendor is handing out samples of their sweet harvests. Tomatoes, asparagus, and strawberries blanket the market stalls. The sun is out and an outing to the farmer’s market feels more like a trip to the county fair than grocery shopping.

My typical approach is to take one lap to soak it all in before making any purchases. Once I’ve gotten my share free samples, then I get down to business and start coming up with menu ideas. We just launched a new meal planning service over at Cook Smarts, and it’s always fun to use the market to inspire our menus.

On this last trip after a few laps, I picked out:

• A pint of strawberries ($3)
• A bulb of fennel ($2)
• Basil ($2)
• Arugula ($3)
• Fingerling potatoes ($3)
• Lacinato kale ($2)

When I got home with the bounty, I got to work on making one of my favorite salads - mixing strawberry, fennel, and arugula with a balsamic vinaigrette. The pepperiness of the arugula combined with sweet strawberry and fennel and tart balsamic is one of my absolute favorite combinations. Here’s the recipe below:

Strawberry Arugula Salad

{serves 4}

Fennel, sliced - 1 small bulb

Strawberries, sliced - ½ pint

Basil, sliced - A few leaves

Arugula - 4 oz

Pecans - ¼ cup

Balsamic vinegar - 1 ½ tbs.

Dijon mustard - 1 tsp.

Salt & pepper

Olive oil - 3 tbs.

Clean and prep all salad ingredients. Mix together vinegar, mustard, and a good pinch of salt & pepper. Whisk in olive oil, and toss everything together

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See what I am talking about with the fresh and easy recipes?!  My favorite dish right now is Jess's sweet potato tacos, and the chances are if you come to visit that is what I will be serving :)  Make sure you stop over at CookSmarts or find Jess with one of the links below to see what goodness she is cooking up today!  Thank you Jess, for sharing your/our bit of the globe with us and maybe we can hit up the market together one of these days!!!  And to the rest of you, I hope you get out and enjoy your farmers' market this week!

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Cambodia -- Farmers' Market Friday

When I first started following blogs there were a few that instantly grabbed my attention -- and A Couple Cooks was one of them.  Both the stunning photography and their delicious yet healthy approach to eating got me hooked.  But it was the level of compassion and human connected that kept me there.  Sonja and Alex do more than just keep a blog -- they blog with a purpose.  All of the proceeds from their blog goes to bettering the world, whether working with world hunger programs or supporting nutrition education.  They even wrote a cookbook, The Green Mango Cafe, that is helping to fight against trafficking in Cambodia, and providing women with culinary job skills so they have options.  Talk about using what they are blessed with (access to clean, healthy food) to make a difference in the lives around them!  Enjoy this look at a trip to the market while they were in Cambodia, shared by Sonja.

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Over the past two years, I've had the privilege of travelling to Cambodia twice. It's a country I never dreamed of visiting, but my husband Alex and I became connected with a culinary program for at-risk young women there, and last year wrote a cookbook to benefit the program. As Americans born and bred in the Midwest, arriving in Cambodia was like entering another world to us! The differences were almost too numerous to count, and were especially apparent at the markets. 

Most cities and towns in Cambodia have open air markets that begin early in the morning to escape the heat. Vendors sit under umbrellas on the perimeter of the market, selling multitudes of fresh fruits and vegetables. Colorful tropical fruits abound -- pineapples, bananas, papayas, mangoes -- and then more exotic fruits like durian, star fruit, tamarind, and dragonfruit. My favorite is mangosteen, a purple fruit about the size of a plum with a hard exterior and sweet and tangy sections of fruit inside.

The interior of the market is usually covered, and here is where the meat and fish are sold. This is one of the most surprising areas for a Westerner, since the raw meat is in the open air, being hacked at by dozens of cleavers as the vendors butcher meat and scale fish a few feet from the customers. I've even gotten sprayed with bits raw meat as I walk through the stalls! Here, you can find delicacies of all sorts: fish and snakes writhing in buckets, frogs, shrimp, pigs heads, and chicken feet. Sometimes, you can even find delicacies like crickets or tarantula. 

People mill about throughout the market, ducking under the umbrellas in the hot sun and moving quickly through the maze of vendors. The air is charged with energy, and you can only imagine the types of smells!    It's a fascinating place to shop. 

Bonus: Here's a video of the market we made last year to help show a bit more of what a Cambodian market is like.

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(Tiffany here again...)

I love these pictures.  Such life captured in them!  I have travelled plenty, for sure, but this is a world I do not know.  Thank you, Sonja, for sharing this with us!  When I see the pictures my first thought is, "Wow, it's so different!" But then I look and see families together, people in their work place, fruit and veggies that I do not know alongside those that I do, and I realize that, yes, it is different, but at the core, we are all more similar than not.  What a beautiful reminder!

Go check out more great pictures and find some tasty recipes by visiting their page.   And then get out there and enjoy your farmers' market! :)

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Farmers Market Friday -- Strawberries

Watsonville, California.  It's the very same place my Multi-Cultural Education in the Classroom textbook that I used back in college said is also known as "Little Mexico".  I laughed.  Not because it wasn't true, but because I knew it to be very true, as a place where several of my teenage years were spent very close by.  I knew of the fiestas that took place on Cinco de Mayo (NOT Mexican Independence Day as many think) and more importantly -- September 16th (the actual Independence Day for Mexico).  I saw the cowboy hats and boots as I walked through the downtown.  I practiced my Spanish all day long while I worked at Target.   So when I read this in the textbook, I laughed.  At the truth of it and how cool it was that some place I knew so well would show up in my studying one night.

But Watsonville is more than "Little Mexico", as the book described it.  It is a town that is located in a fertile valley close to the beach, keeping the climate pleasant and the produce delicious.  Strawberry fields abound, as do artichokes, apples, and mushrooms.  And a trip to the Farmers Market in Watsonville provides you with all this fruit, plus SO MUCH MORE...

Stalls of food line the market.  From papusas (what you see above), a typical food from El Salvador to chunks of barbecued meat, fresh corn on the cob to horchata, a cinnamon-rice drink popular throughout Latin America, and of course every type of homemade Mexican food you can think of... it's all there, the smells beckoning you to drop a few dollars here or there.  

It is totally worth it.

And then, to the sounds of Mariachi bands playing in the background, you can pick up the produce you need for the coming week.  Or, if you are like me, you can bump into family friends of yours who saw you go through those awkward teenage years... 

End the end, I wound up with cauliflower, an artichoke, some excellent apricots, fresh peas, and some garlic.  Plus a belly full of deliciousness. 

Another successful day exploring farmers markets!

Being Watsonville, with its miles and miles of strawberry fields, I thought it is only fitting to have strawberries as our find of the week.  Link up your strawberry recipes below so we can share in the juicy-red-goodness that these sweet 'berries' provide.  (Yeah, they aren't berries.  Did you know that?  Fun fact of the day, Friends!)

And then go hit up your local farmers market and let us know what you got :)

The 'link-up' tool isn't working, but if you drop your strawberry recipes in the comments I will come visit, for sure! :)

Farmers Market Friday: Rio de Janeiro

Rachel (of Rachel's Rantings in Rio) and I go way back... well, kind of.  See, before I even had this blog, back when I was a blog stalker and not a participator, I found Rachel's blog.  Writing in my private blog from the time, I shared these thoughts of her:  I am following a blog called "Rachel's Rantings in Rio", which as you might have guessed is a woman (American, married to a Brazilian) in Rio, ranting. Well, not always ranting, but sharing thoughts mostly. It is like an online, ever developing ethnography. She is witty, crass, sweet, brutally honest, and overall happy. I love it.  Enjoy Rachel's view of the feira, and if you are looking for an American's view of all things Rio (witty, crass, and sweet included), stop by her blog and say hello to her.  

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The vegetable guy and I had a wonderful relationship at first. I suppose it is normal for some relationships to not make the long haul, nonetheless it can make things awkward.

You see, I used to buy already selected baggies of veggies from my guy. I always went to him and he was always a great help. He would even separate out the best bags of my favorite vegetables and I would buy them. We’d chat. I even introduced him to my children.

But sadly, we couldn’t keep that level of feira love. He started asking too much from me, quite literally and in the form of money. His prices kept going up, the size of the veggies in the bag kept going down and the crap he put aside for me was just that, crap.

So I broke up with him. I broke up with my vegetable guy. Life is too short to spend it eating overpriced tiny green pepper!

Of course I am not afraid of a little confrontation so I talked to him about it. After all, relationships are all about communication. I told him that his stuff was getting too expensive and the quality was going way down. He blamed the rain, the feira, and the other vegetable men.

I’m sorry but this girl has standards when it comes to her relationships: Own up or ship out.

Initially it was quite awkward. He would call me over and I would say thanks, not today. Then he started noticing that I was carrying someone else’s vegetables. It wasn’t a good feeling for either of us. I felt like a vegetable whore and he felt rejected.

But not all feira relationships are meant to be forever. Now we are on good terms, still waving hello to each other each week. He has found other feira loves and I have 2 different vegetable men. I suppose I am a bit of a vegetable whore after all, and fruit... Don’t even ask about my loyalty when it comes to looking for mushrooms.

Of course there are some feira relationships that can go the distance. I’ve been seeing my fish guy for 7 years now. It’s getting quite serious.  

Find Rachel on the web:

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And then tell us, how are your farmers market relationships going these days?

(Words by Rachel, Photos by Tiffany.  I think we make a great team.)

Farmers' Market Friday: St. Petersburg, Florida

Today our post comes from the very talented Milynn at Love and Whimsy.  You know those blogs that you make sure you click on every post? That is Milynn's blog for me. A combination of her life-capturing photography and her joy in finding beauty in simplicity, I am never disappointed.  You will see what I mean right now... Go check her out.  You will be glad you did!

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Hi everyone, my name is Milynn and I blog over at Love and Whimsy. I am so honored that Tiffany has invited me over here to share my favorite farmer’s market in St. Petersburg, FL. Like Tiffany, I too love going to the market on Saturday (appropriately named Saturday Morning Market).

I just started going to the Saturday Morning Market about a year ago when I moved back to St. Petersburg after graduating from college. The market is in the heart of our beautiful waterfront downtown. It’s a place to go to grab food, stock up on organic produce, listen to the live band and explore interesting crafts.

My favorite thing about it is having the chance to shop for local goods and food. Every week, there is a new set of local vendors that sell all sorts of things like chicken coups, rabbit hair yarn, clothing and jewelry. You never know what you’ll find. But it’s a great way to discover small business owners and support their craft. And then of course, there are food vendors. Fancy breads, cupcakes, cheeses, seafood, you name it, they probably have it.

Every time I go to the market, I feel a sense of community. Everyone is so, so very friendly and willing to strike up a conversation with you. And while you’re in line waiting to buy your farm fresh produce (and trust me, there’s always a LONG line) it would just be wrong if you didn’t go home with a few new recipes to try.

During my visit last weekend, I ended up buying a couple heads of cauliflower, kale and sunflowers for $10. I just had to splurge on the flowers. But with that I could’ve also bought some food from one of the vendors and topped it off with a popsicle. :)

Tiffany here again...  Thank you Milynn!  I just saw she shared a post of what she did with these purchases: rosemary cauliflower mash!  Oh yum...

Click the words above or the picture to get the recipe, and then go check out more  shots of her local market. 

And as always, be sure to share your farmers' market experiences with us using the link below.  Pictures of your market, a recipe you used with ingredients found there, whatever you've got... it is welcome!  We hope you get out and enjoy your local market this week.  In the meantime, stop by and say hi to Milynn using the links below :)      

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