...by the Fourth of July. Hmmm...our sweet corn is WAY past the knee! Bill took some pictures to give you an update on the sweet corn; we're getting lots of inquires about when it will be ready. At this point, the corn needs some hot, hot days to finish tasseling and to produce ears. We are estimating that we may have corn by the 3rd week in July--check the blog often for an update. With all the cold, wet weather we experienced this spring, it is taking all the summer veggies a little longer to get ready. But isn't anything good worth waiting for?
Has anyone made a local meal yet? One dish for dinner that uses
local items? Anyone? Y'all are a quiet bunch--leave me a note in the comment section! Since I haven't heard from anyone, this is what we had for dinner last night. Usually we are running around crazy during the week, we don't often have a chance to sit down to a meal like this. We save it for the weekend when we have a little more time, but with the rain Wednesday morning (1.5 inches!), Bill decided to take a night off. And, no, I usually don't get out a fancy tablecloth--the girls set the table!
To start: green salad with radishes, grape tomatoes & onions. The radishes, onions, & tomatoes are ours; the lettuce is from Blue Schoolhouse. Eggs are from the store (have a 14 year old son who eats 2-4 fried eggs daily--sigh).
Side dish of swiss chard, again from Blue Schoolhouse. Our chard is only a few inches high right now. Now that the weeds are gone, it has a chance of getting big enough to eat! This is the first time that I remember ever eating chard as a cooked green. If you wilt it just a little, the leaves stay vibrant green. The rainbow chard stems are almost neon in color and glow with the green backdrop. No artificial coloring here--isn't it amazing what nature comes up with?Main dish: venison roast with grilled radishes and leeks. What? Grilled radishes?
Are yummy. Isn't that why you come to the market? To try new things and to learn new ways to fix old favorites? Of course, it is. Try new things this week!Leeks are a new veggie to us. Plant them like onions, give them plenty of water & well drained soil. Easy-peasy. They are quite beautiful out in the field; rows of long, green leaves. I just cut the leeks in half, washed them well (they collect dirt in their many crevices), then let them dry for a bit. They got the Barefoot Contessa treatment (olive oil, sea salt & balsamic vinegar) then onto a hot grill. Leeks have a mild onion/garlic flavor. If you don't like the stronger flavors of onions or garlic, give leeks a try.
What will you be able to find this week for your local meal?
- radishes
- green onions
- leeks
- arugula
- mustard greens
- collards
- kolhrabi
- sugar snap peas
- zucchini
- summer squash
We begin the market at 7:30 am and stay open until noon. This week, the McLean County Mandolin Society will be providing musical entertainment. Get some coffee and a snack from one of the bread vendors and stay a while and enjoy! Check out the Market's website for more details. See everyone on Saturday!
2 comments:
We had an almost local meal tonight! We too have been way too busy as of late. So busy that I actually had to freeze our squash last week because we didn't have time to prepare it all! But tonight we cooked and we ate. It was a simple meal: hamburgers with local ground beef and Mitchell Farms green onions and some thyme from my garden, roasted veggies (Mitchell Farms turnips, radishes, zucchini and yellow squash with some rosemary and thyme from our garden), dessert was a combo-cobbler of cherries from our neighbor's tree, strawberries from our garden, rhubarb from Mitchell Farms and the topping from ingredients we had in our pantry.
Tomorrow morning: omelets with local eggs from Gardens of Organic Diversity(!), onions and spinach form Mitchell Farms and store bought feta -- probably a few strawberries on the side.
Yum!
Hey Lovells!
That sounds like a local meal to me. Thank you for sharing it with us.
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