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April 23, 2006
Farmers' Market Haul - 4/23/2006
Well, after all my weeks of complaining that the farmers' market has been a bit blah lately, spring is finally here. Things are definitely getting more exciting.
There were more stalls there today, and rather than having only lonely little piles of beets and chard to peddle, they had strawberries and pea shoots and what I think were cucumber shoots, and all kinds of peas, and fresh fava beans. (Here I go, being anti-Pythagorean again.)
Today's haul was:
- 2 pounds of fresh fava beans
- a big bunch of pea shoots
- a bunch of what I think is usually called Chinese flowering cabbage, with the white flowers. (There are two kinds - the kind with yellow flowers is, if I recall correctly, gai lan. The kind with white flowers is called something else.)
- A mystery leafy vegetable, pictured in this entry. For some reason when I saw this, I thought that it was amaranth, but I when I double-checked my guide to Asian vegetables, I realized that it wasn't that at all, and now I don't know what it is. I tasted a raw leaf, and it's a bit lettuce-y tasting, with a bit of a bite. Not as full-bodied as spinach, and not as peppery as arugula. I'm now entirely uncertain as to whether I should throw it into a salad, toss it into a soup, or stir-fry it with a bit of ginger and garlic.
I passed up on the strawberries (because I stupidly bought some at the supermarket yesterday, and astonishingly, there is a limit to the quantity of strawberries that Mr. Spaceling and I can eat), and the spring onions, and the peas (because I'm going to have enough shelling on my hands with the favas.) It all looked so good, and I really wanted to buy some of everything, but I didn't want to buy more than I might reasonably cook and eat in the next week. (Particularly since the flowering cabbage and the pea shoots are going to be a hard sell to Mr. Spaceling, and I might have to eat them all myself. Actually, I'm counting on having to eat the flowering cabbage all by myself. If I'd thought I'd need to share, I'd have bought two bunches.)
I told the woman running the stand that I wanted to buy one of everything, but I knew that I wouldn't be able to cook it all before it spoiled, and she grinned, and gave me a big extra handful of fava beans, just to make sure that I got my money's worth. And that's why I like shopping at farmers' markets. (Well, okay, I like shopping at farmers' markets because when was the last time you saw pea shoots and Chinese flowering cabbage at Safeway? But getting to actually talk with the people who grew your food, and tell them how wonderful it is, is a close second.)
Next week, I'll have to go back and get her to explain to me what that leafy green stuff I bought was. Now, I'm off to shell fava beans.
Posted by spaceling at April 23, 2006 10:16 AM
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