2004 Greenmarkets

[emsny]

One stand at our little East 47th St Greenmarket had a few shishito peppers - the pale green, elongated ones that find their way into tempura and yakitori in Japan. Having been to Barcelona for the first time in April, I thought these would be good cooked like pimientos de Padron: fried (unbattered, unfloured) in olive oil until they blister, then served plain with salt as a snack. They worked well - very similar vegetably flavor and thin skin/flesh. Unlike the Padron peppers, none (at least in this batch) were hot - my experience with the Barcelonan variety was that about one in seven would surprise you.

Also, a bunch of lovage to intensify the celery flavor of my braised goat (the meat also from the Greenmarket).

[bloviatrix]

Today at 97th street:

Chocolate Peppermint - Baldwin Farms

Eggplants, yellow squash, green and yellow beans, basil, orange beefsteak tomatoes - Kernan Farms

Red leaf lettuce, butter lettuce, scallions - Bialas Farms

Queen Anne cherries, gooseberries - Locust Grove

[emsny]

And, just now, two big chickens and a little slab of pork belly from Flying Pigs Farm. I've been buying pork from them for quite some time (before they got a niche at Union Square), but these are my first chx from them. They certainly LOOK great: plump birds, these. Nothing exotic by way of breed, but well fed and given lots of space to peck around in the pasture.

[cakewalk]

Today at 97th street:

Chocolate Peppermint - Baldwin Farms

Eggplants, yellow squash, green and yellow beans, basil, orange beefsteak tomatoes - Kernan Farms

Red leaf lettuce, butter lettuce, scallions - Bialas Farms

Queen Anne cherries, gooseberries - Locust Grove

What do you do with chocolate peppermint? I love the way it smells, but I'm at a loss re: how to use it.

[bloviatrix]

What do you do with chocolate peppermint? I love the way it smells, but I'm at a loss re: how to use it.

I'm not doing anything too adventurous with it. Just infusing a sugar syrup and using it to make chocolate pepermint ice tea.

[emsny]

I bet choc peppermint would be dandy in a light sauté of veal.

[bloviatrix]

Another thought just came to me. I make a chocolate sorbet. I might try a variation using the infused sugar syrup in order to layer the flavors.

Emsny, can you explain further what you have in mind?

[emsny]

Let's see. Sweat an onion (one of those nice wet ones from today's market) and a teeny-weeny bit of garlic in butter; add cubes of seasoned (perhaps with, inter alia, coriander seed) veal and stir for a minute or two - don't get much color on the meat; put in a bouquet of the mint and some parsley; a little white wine and let it reduce; stock to barely cover. When done, pull out the ugly old herbs and finish with a little cream and more freshly plucked mint. You'd want something sharp in there too if the wine doesn't balance it nicely, so perhaps a squirt of lemon juice. Let's call it a quick stew rather than a sauté, shall we? Serve with rice.

Or use the mint with chopped raw tomatoes to dress spaghetti.

[SethG]

At Brooklyn GAP this morning, I finally got my beeswax. Caneles, here I come!

I also bought some peaches and tomatoes from Kernan farms-- they sell at the downtown and Union Square markets as well.

I bought some of these little golden plums (I forget from whom), which I hope taste just like the ones I got last week: very sweet, but with an undertone of sour complexity.

And I got a big rootful of basil.

The corn is in, but I gave it a pass this week. I had too much to carry.

I'm curious, if anyone knows, whether the squash blossoms are likely to be at Union Square again on Wednesday. I didn't see any at the downtown or Brooklyn GAP markets, and the ones I bought at Union Square this week were great. I breaded and fried them this week; next week I'd like to just sautee them in butter and see how that tastes.

[cakewalk]

Union Square greenmarket this morning:

Tomatoes

zuccini

basil

peaches

apricots

cherries

bread

red onions

lettuces

kirbys

It's definitely summertime.

They had squash blossoms that looked beautiful. I've never done anything with squash blossoms before, so I didn't buy them, just looked longingly. If they have them next week, I will buy some and try them out.

[Suzanne F]

Since HWOE forgot to go to WTC on Thursday (and I was out all day), we ended up at Greenwich Street today:

Some incredibly beautiful Boston and red leaf lettuces -- very sweet

Arugula almost as strong as the Migliorellis'

Kirbies

Grape tomatoes

Peaches that have to be eaten over the sink

Bunches of herbs -- parsley, oregano, rosemary, thyme, and "spicy basil" (very small leaves, buds, and flowers) to use for herb vinegars

and a 5. 5-pound chicken -- brined and roasted tonight with 1/2 a lemon and some of the thyme in the cavity -- MMMMMMMMMMMMMM!

[SethG]

They had squash blossoms that looked beautiful. I've never done anything with squash blossoms before, so I didn't buy them, just looked longingly. If they have them next week, I will buy some and try them out.

One of the stands this past Wednesday had a flier they were giving out that contained several squash blossom recipes for the uninitiated (like me).

[Suzanne F]

I've never dealt with squash blossoms myself, but I've eaten several versions in restaurants:

Chanterelle stuffs them with truffled chicken mousse (or lobster mousse) and steams them;

Thalassa leaves them raw and stuffs them with cooked lump crabmeat;

The Biltmore Room stuffs them with a crabcake mixture, pannees them, and fries them.

And no doubt somebody does the classic: dipping them (unstuffed) in tempura batter and deep-frying them.

[bloviatrix]

Locust Grove had the squash blossoms one friday and I decided not to go for them that week. Since then, I haven't seen them at 97th street. I'm a simple girl -- I like dipping them in beer batter and deep-frying. I might have to make a trip down to Union Square on wednesday.

[alacarte]

At Brooklyn GAP this morning, I finally got my beeswax. Caneles, here I come!

I also bought some peaches and tomatoes from Kernan farms-- they sell at the downtown and Union Square markets as well.

I bought some of these little golden plums (I forget from whom), which I hope taste just like the ones I got last week: very sweet, but with an undertone of sour complexity.

And I got a big rootful of basil.

The corn is in, but I gave it a pass this week. I had too much to carry.

I'm curious, if anyone knows, whether the squash blossoms are likely to be at Union Square again on Wednesday. I didn't see any at the downtown or Brooklyn GAP markets, and the ones I bought at Union Square this week were great. I breaded and fried them this week; next week I'd like to just sautee them in butter and see how that tastes.

Congrats on finally getting your mitts on that beeswax, Seth!

I noticed over the weekend that plums have arrived too...lots of frosty little "sugar plums" in particular. Though I didn't see the golden ones.

On Saturday I bought:

Peaches (from a different vendor than last week -- these were superb)

String beans -- which went into a tuna nicoise salad

Yellow corn -- which I boiled as soon as I got home and ate straight off the cob, with butter, chili powder and sea salt. YUM!

I considered buying the squash blossoms, and then passed at the last minute. I saw a woman buying a boxful to give as a gift at a dinner party she was attending that night!

[SethG]

Squash blossoms are still available today at the Union Square market. I bought a big box.

I also got a big bag of green beans, some big beefsteak tomatoes, and some beautiful small heirloom tomatoes that are purple and green. And some baby bok choy.

Everything is so tempting. I love this time of year. I had to restrain myself from buying fruits that I know are waiting at home for me already.

I didn't really see anything new to make into jam, though. I got there too late for the red currants. (I made black currant jelly last week.)

[Pan]

I bought a "strawberry rhubarb" muffin this afternoon from a booth that said something like "Buy local ingredients." It was something like the 3rd booth south of 17th St. on the Union Square West side. It was dough and oil and had almost no fruit or fruit taste whatsoever.

[picaman]

Inwood, at the very top of Manhattan, now has its own greenmarket each Saturday. It's on Isham St. (my street!) one block west of Broadway, at the last stop on the A. It will be there through Thanksgiving. This past Saturday was the second one, but the first I was able to attend as I was out of town for the first one There were ten or so vendors and hordes of people. I chatted very quickly with one vendor who said that everyone had brought more product this week, as nearly every vendor was sold out by one o'clock on the first Saturday. That's what I like to hear!

There's a comprehensive lineup of basic produce, baked goods and meat at decent prices. I bought a variety of fresh wax, pole and green beans for $1.25/pound, a half-pint of blueberries for $1.50, 5 ears of great corn for $1.00, and an enormous bunch of basil for $2.00--enough basil to make a full quart of pesto.

We'll be back this Saturday for sure, will definitely get there earlier, and I'll pay more attention to vendors' names next time.

Jamie

[bloviatrix]

I found myself at Union Square a little after 5pm. I picked up 5 ears of corn, 2 apples, green beans, beets, zucchini, and carrots. The last four items cost me $1 each per bunch or bag (for beans and zukes) because they were trying to sell off all their produce.

[bloviatrix]

I braved the pouring rain and hit 97th street. Picked up some rosemary (baldwin farms), sesame pugliese and rosemary sourdough rolls (tribeca ovens), green leaf lettuce and kirby cukes (bialas farms), and cherries and assorted sugar plums (locust grove).

My wellies made a hit with the Locust Grove guy. He gave me lots of extra cherries. Plus, I learned something new: Bing cherries can't grow in this part of the country. We get to much rain and it causes the skins to split (the pits will pop out).

[bloviatrix]

Today at 97th street:

Red leaf lettuce

Green pepper

Zucchini

Scallions

Cherry tomatoes in assorted colors

Orange Beefsteak tomatoes

Eggplants

Nectarines

Gravestein apples

Spearmint

Lemon Thyme

Challah and double onion rolls

Hmm, I didn't realize I bought that much stuff. Plus, Blovie is planning on hitting Union Square for corn.

[SethG]

The array of tomatoes available at the Brooklyn GAP greenmarket today was stunning. I bought three different types of heirlooms, some yellow cherry tomatoes, and some red golf ball-sized ones.

The heirlooms keep coming down in price; the ones I bought today were $2.50 a pound (not bad, right?). And I almost bought a whole barrel of tomato rejects for $20. If the owner had come down to $15, I would've bought it, and done a bunch of preserving.

I also bought serrano peppers and squash blossoms (finally available in Brooklyn!).

[bloviatrix]

I paid $2.50/lb for heirlooms as well.

I went to market on friday planning on buying just a little. Ha! Like that's possible. So I came home with cucumbers which are happily changing into pickles as we speak, a basil plant that I think was on steroids (fortunately, I found someone to share it with), heavenly nectarines, assorted varieties of heirloom and cherry tomatoes, mint, dill, and lemon cucumbers that the guy at Baldwin Farms added to my stash gratis.

[bloviatrix]

I went to market on friday planning on buying just a little. Ha! Like that's possible. So I came home with cucumbers which are happily morphing into pickles as we speak, a basil plant that I think was on steroids (fortunately, I found someone to share it with), heavenly nectarines, assorted varieties of heirloom and cherry tomatoes, mint, dill, and lemon cucumbers that the guy at Baldwin Farms added to my stash gratis.

I think $2.50/pound for heirlooms is pretty much the going price as that's what I paid as well.

[SethG]

I think $2.50/pound for heirlooms is pretty much the going price as that's what I paid as well.

I wasn't suggesting that I found a special bargain. I'm excited that they've become so much more reasonably priced. They were $4.00/4.50 a pound two weeks ago.