Christmas Dinner from the Market

This year we did a very nice dinner from items purchased at the Market with a little help from the Kerrytown shops and the Peoples Food Coop.

Buffalo Standing Rib Roast from TMZ Farms
Roasted Carrots and Parsnips from the market with herbs
A salad of fresh spinach (not Shown) from Brines Farms
Dessert was a Tangerine Barvarian Cream - Kerrytown shops and the Peoples Food Coop

The Market in December

The Market is open all year, but it changes with the seasons. In December the fresh produce fades, replaced by apples and root vegetables that store. Poinsettias replace the summer flowers.



Not all of summer is lost. There are still a few vendors extending the season with greenhouses or hoop houses. Brines Farm is likely to be there with fresh salad lettuce and spinach. Dennis Sparr will probably be there with roses until Christmas.



But the real life of the Market in December is the Holiday greens. The Market has become the premiere Ann Arbor location for trees, wreaths, and other decorative greens.



Photos by Jessica Black

Update - revision

As a result of the recent cold weather Sparr has not been at the Market. There are many vendors selling holiday greenery, but not poinsettias.

October at the Market

Now is the time for pumpkins and squash.

But peppers and corn are still at the Market until frost.

Pies

Fall is a great time for pies. My brother-in-law thinks elderberries make the best of all pies. He picks copious quantities from the edge of his farm fields to bring to my sister. She freezes them so that he can have elderberry pie in winter.

I saw these at Wasem's and decided to make one too. If you continue to the recipe page there are illustrated instructions for the pie filling and crust. The crust recipe can be used for peach, apple and other pies. (continue)

Ratatouille – A Fine Mess of Vegetables

Every fall I make a large batch of ratatouille. That way I have lots of this great vegetable stew left over to freeze. Why don't you make some too?
Step 1 is to go to the Ann Arbor Farmers Market and purchase the vegetables. The fall harvest has arrived and all the necessary veggies are there. You will want tomatoes, eggplant, summer squash, garlic, peppers and herbs. The choices are flexible and it is not important to use the exact ratios I use.

Buying a loaf of bread Mill Pond bread to go with the ratatouille is a great idea. If you continue to the ratatouille page. the recipe and the method of production is there. (continue)

Summer Basil

Fresh basil is at the market. By the bunch, about $1, or by the bushel, about $30. OK, a bushel of basil is a lot of pesto. But it is a long time to next summer.

Kim said:

Tomatoes, corn, basil. The summer trifecta. The real summer ephemerals. Daily happiness for about 1 or 2 months, then gone for another year. Everyone has the experience of looking forward to and waiting for your own county's tomatoes and corn to be ripe - because they are the best. Wherever you are, the ones from the farmstand down the road are the best in the entire country. Period. They just are.

What I wonder about us as Americans, is why we're so easily pacified with inferior substitutes…

Tomatoes

There are tomatoes, tomatoes, and more tomatoes at the market. So why not have a red and yellow tomato sandwich? This one was made with organic heirloom tomatoes from Wilson's Produce. Garnished with basil and blue cheese, but Zingerman's goat cheese would work well also. Top with a dressing of your choice.

Joann Wilson said:

Thank you for the tomato feature. The photo of the sliced tomatoes looks very appetizing. :-) I will send this web site to my customers that I email every week.

Hotties at the Market

These identify a market season. And just like the arrival of the first tomatoes and the first sweet corn of a season, when they first appear I always indulge.

My favorite way to prepare them is simply to roast, peal and eat. Roasting and pealing is the basis of using peppers in many cuisines, from mild sweet Italian roasted red pepper sauces to the fiery roasted red chili pastes of Thailand. The roasting seems to impart a sweet taste to the pepper, and in the case of a hot pepper reduces the heat.

I remove the tops, cut the chili in half and then remove the center stem and seeds. Grill over a hot fire, skin side down until the skin is blackened and uniformly blistered. Let the chili cool to comfortable touch and then peal the skin, which will remove easily. Then eat.

Alternately you can cook the chili whole and then skin and remove the stem and seeds. There are descriptions of many variations of the roasting process on the web.

Kim said...

Regarding chiles, I have a friend who lives in Santa Fe and she says that there are places there where you buy roasted chiles by the bushel - just roasted - and at the time of year when they're doing that (around September I think) the air in town everywhere smells like roasting chiles. ;)

Kim

Summer at the Farmers Market

Are you glad to see the glads
or
aghast that it is nearly August?

Fresh apricots,
or better yet a potential
apricot pie!

And nectarines too!

Revised Market Ordinance and Market Rules

The revised ordinance and Market Rules are on tonights agenda, July 16, 2007. It is public hearing three. You can speak without signing up in advance. Hope to see a few there.

Here is the email I sent to the Mayor and Council.



Mayor and Council Members:

I believe that the proposed reorganization of the Market Commission will be an improvement. At the very least, some alternative to the current Commission organization should to be considered.

In general the proposed Market Rules are also an improvement, however there are three areas where further improvement should be made.

First, the rules do not require that a vendor presenting his product as organic be a certified organic grower. If the Market is to prosper, customers must have the equal confidence in the advertising honesty at the Market as they would in a food store.

Second the rules introduce a new class of vendors, food cart vendors. If these vendors meet the same requirements as other vendors, why is a new class needed? Past experience indicates that this class of vendors may be allowed to simply buy resell products. If this is the intent, it is inconsistent with the Market Ordinance and other Market rules and this class of vendors should not be introduced.

Finally, the rules as amended by council, make it possible for a vendor to be permanently removed from the market without any opportunity to present his/her explanation or to appeal. The vendors need and deserve better procedural rights.

The attached PDF file contains additional supporting documentation and suggested modifications to the proposed Market Rules. I encourage you to pass tonights resolution and to direct the Community Services Administrator to promulgate these suggestions as technical corrections. The CSA has the authority to make these corrections with returning to Council for formal approval.

July at the Market

Peaches!

Corn!

A new vendor too!

Comment Received

The great thing about the market is the availability of things not commonly found in grocery stores.

My parents grew gooseberries and currants. Currant pie was one of my favorites.

Thanks to Wasems I am able to still enjoy this treat

July 1, 2007 9:12 AM

Summer Market

The summer produce is now at the market. The veggies are coming on strong: lettuce, onions small cucumbers and eggplant. But I like foraging for berries. And there are many to choose from. The strawberries are still there, but there are also:

Blueberries

Gooseberries

and Cherries too.

Cherries

Kapnick Orchards, Detroit Street aisle near the center, reports that they will have sweet cherries at the Market this Saturday, June 23, 2007.

Introduction

This is the premier post of the Arbor Market Blog. The blog topic is all things about the Ann Arbor Farmers Market. It is an independent blog, not officially associated with the city of Ann Arbor.

We welcome vendors posting the seasonal arrival of their fresh produce. Suggestions for use of your produce or recipes are also encouraged.

The Market is presently in the process of change. Both physically and organizationally. We will try to keep all advised of these changes and encourage everyone to express their opinions here and to their elected representaives.