Get intimate with your produce!
Melissa Mayer
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Posts by Melissa Mayer
FARMERS MARKET REPORT: WEEK OF OCTOBER 4, 2009
PERSIMMONS, PUMPKINS AND POMEGRANATES, OH MY!!!!!!
My iced coffees and short sleeved-T’s have given way to hot cocoa and cozy sweaters all in the course of 72 hours. Fall is sweeping in and the quintessential harvest has been bestowed upon us. Behold the beautiful chocolate persimmon, rich, luscious and spicy, characteristics perfect for an autumn menu. Pumpkins rule the landscape, with an array of colors, sizes, flavors, shapes and names – baby bears, tigers, sugar pies and even cinderella, and the pomegranates are the gateway to a long season of holidays and festivities. These fruits stand out at the market and the table, their colors, textures and flavors so memorable and engaging, it is time to start indulging and honoring these autumn treasures now!!! What makes them even more valuable is that these fruits have all been grown and harvested sustainably, organically, biodynamically and in sync with Mother nature.
Chocolate Persimmons – Penryn Orchards
Baby Bear Pumpkins – Rutiz Farms
Pomegranates – Rancho Del Sol
FARMERS MARKET REPORT: WEEK OF SEPTEMBER 27, 2009
autumnal equinox~
The beginning of fall has arrived and the summer is officially behind us. Pumpkins are shaping up and stone fruits are shipping out. Heirloom apples are filling baskets at the market, as are pears and soon, persimmons and winter squashes. The chile peppers are at their peak with several varieties tempting our palates eyes and mouths. Here are the chile newcomers to the market (each from heirlooms seeds) representing regions and quintessential to traditional and modern cuisines from around the world…
Fushimi Pepper – Windrose Farms: sweet chili pepper from Japan widely used in Asian cooking at its green stage, especially in tempura. Full flavored, measures 6″ long, with thin deep green walls that will eventually turn glossy red.
Negro Pasilla Chile Peppers – Windrose Farms: an elongated, tubular chile, measuring 6 inches long and 1 1/2 inches wide. Dark purple when ripe, the Pasilla’s crinkly body curves into an arc. This thin fleshed chile has a berry flavor with herbaceous tones. Great dried and ground up for powder seeds and all too!!
Sigaretta Dolce Pepper – Windrose Farms: known as an Italian fryer, the Sigeretta Dolce is a slim, crinkly and long “cigar” type pepper that is sweet and savory vs. hot. It has a lime green colored skin that turns red when it fully ripens.
Shishito Pepper – Coleman Family Farms: an old Japanese variety, the shishito is a wrinkly thin skinned savory and mild flavored peppers that is about three inches long. This peppers should be harvested when its skin color is bright lime green. It is 100% edible, including the seeds.
Padron Chile Pepper – Coleman Family Farms: Petit Padron chile peppers are slightly crinkled and grooved, have a semi-matte finished deep green skin and generally measures about two inches long. When small and immature, this chile pepper offers a crisp and mildly sweet pepper flavor. The larger the Padron chile pepper, the spicier the flavor, which incidentally makes it much less enjoyable to eat. Its formal name is “Pimiento de Padrón”.
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