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This week's list:
-golden beets
-red beets
-blueberries (three baskets this time. Last week's basket lasted a total of 5 minutes before Husband found it and ate every berry)
-broccoli
-baby artichokes (so cute. so very very cute!)
-tangelos
-honey whole wheat bread
-lemon basil (what should I do with it?)
-squash blossoms
Off to the SLO farmer's market Saturday. June Gloom kept the sun at bay until well into the afternoon, so the morning market was quiet. I was a little confused at first. Some of the vendors had switched places, or had been asked to move. I overheard the Artichoke guy from Oxnard (the one who uses pesticides) retort, "Yeah, they keep moving me around because my artichokes are so much bigger than everyone else's." (it's true, they're abnormally HUGE) I couldn't stop myself from saying, "That's because you're one of the only ones here who use pesticides and chemical fertilizers*." A woman at the table with me looked down at the ENORMOUS artichoke in her hand, asked, "You use pesticides?"
"Yeah," the guy answered with a sheepish shrug. "We're trying to get away from it, but we still use 'em."
"Oh." She said, as she dropped the artichoke, and then walked away.
Me and my big mouth. I felt bad… but I thought it was in bad taste for him to publicly measure his produce up to his neighboring farmers like that, even if it was meant as a joke. He was young, and I'm sure he didn't mean any harm to anyone else, but it was a snarky thing to say anyways. I apologized, but he waved it away. "You didn't say anything that wasn't true. If she'd have asked me up front, I would've told her, and she wouldn't have bought from me anyways." I said goodbye, and moved on.
There were a few new vendors, but not much to note in the way of new market finds. Wait, I take that back. Baby squash was everywhere, but I've never been much of a fan of baby squash. The complexity of flavor isn't there yet, and it tends to just be bitter in my opinion. But this did not deter me from picking up some with squash blossoms still attached. Stuffed squash blossoms…. mmmmmmmmmmm. Can't wait.
So, that's my "new adventurous ingredient of the week."
Oh, so I guess it's not that adventurous. After all, I've eaten squash blossoms before in several ways. But never have I prepared them myself.
I need to sit down and make a game plan for those blossoms. Maybe I should make up a squash blossom sampler: some stuffed and fried, some chopped and sauteed with saffron and pasta, some sliced and thrown in a salad…
Any other options?
*For the record… I don't know if that's REALLY why they're so much larger than anyone else's artichokes. Maybe they're just a different kind or something.
SLOgrown 