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09/21/10 - At Long Last, The Harvest

It is almost autumn, and the Port Angeles Farmers' Market is in full gear. It hasn't been the best year, but we'll let you judge from the pictures.

Westwind

Johnston Farm

Johnston Farm

Nash Huber

Nash Huber

Keywords: autumn, farmers' market, johnston farm, nash huber, westwind farm

09/16/10 - Oxtails

We have long been big fans of Tabla, Floyd Cardoz's restaurant in New York. We're also big fans of Clark Family Beef. For the past month or two, we've been badgering the Clarks for oxtails, slowly cornering the market. Our recipe called for three oxtails, and each cow has only one. (Oxtail lovers everywhere are crying out for a breakthrough in genetic engineering.) Well, we finally counted three oxtails in our freezer, so we began to cook.

Our oxtail stew
We rounded up our ingredients, and it was quite a list:
  • 6 cloves
  • 1 small cinnamon stick (from a jar)
  • 1 teaspoon black peppercorns
  • 1 tablespoon coriander seeds
  • 2 tablespoons of cumin seeds
  • 1 1/2 tablespoons mustard seeds
  • 1 small dried red chili (sold in glassy packets at the supermarket)
  • our oxtails - about four pounds
  • 1/4 cup olive oil
  • 4 cups chopped onions
  • 10 whole garlic cloves
  • 2 cups or more chopped celery
  • 2 cups or more chopped carrots
  • 1/3 cup sliced peeled ginger
  • 1 cup dry red wine
  • 2 tablespoons tomato paste
  • 2 tablespoons brown sugar
  • 6 tablespoons red wine vinegar
  • 6 sprigs of thyme (or about 2 teaspoons)
  • 2 five inch sprigs of rosemary (or about 2 teaspoons)
  • 2 bay leaves
1) The first thing we did was cut up our oxtails. Clark Family Farm has great oxtails, but they are sold in one piece. We were worried that we would need a saw, but oxtails, apparently, are mainly cartilage and cut easily with a regular knife. We cut them into four inch chunks, except down towards the narrow end where they did get a bit boney.

2) Then we got our big 39 liter Le Creuset oven ready pot. We got this on sale in Seattle and carried it home in our backpack on Kenmore Air. We heated up the olive oil in it and browned the oxtails. This meant turning them every minute or two to get all the sides.

3) We put the oxtails aside and dumped in the carrots, onions, garlic, ginger and celery and cooked them for ten or fifteen minutes. We wanted them all soft and the onions browning a bit.
4) Then we turned down the heat and poured in the wine and mixed it in making a special point of dissolving all of the browned stuff on the bottom of the pan. This is called deglazing. It has nothing to do with removing windows. (Insert Microsoft joke here.)

5) We ground up all of the spices, the cloves, peppercorns, cinnamon stick, coriander seeds, cumin seeds, mustard seeds and red chili in our extra whirling blades of death coffee grinder and mixed them into the pot.

6) Next in were the tomato paste and brown sugar.

7) The oxtails. We haven't forgotten the oxtails. They've been sitting on our cutting board for a while now, oozing juices. At long last, it was their turn, into the pot with them and their ooze.

 8) Clark Family Beef is great braised, that is, cooked in a liquid, so we added six cups of water to keep them wet. We wanted them almost, but not quite, covered. We also added the red wine vinegar, the thyme and rosemary sprigs, and two bay leaves. Floyd Cardoz never stints on spices. If you just read the ingredient list, you'll have no idea of how everything is going to pull together. "Hmm", you'll say, "garlic, thyme, tomato paste and rosemary make Italian, but cinnamon, cumin and red chili make Mexican, and ginger makes Chinese. I have no idea of what I am making." If you see any other author's name on the cookbook, panic, but with Floyd Cardoz you are in good hands. He grew up in Goa. They cook like this all the time. It was a Portuguese colony and they invented chicken vindaloo. Vindaloo means wine and garlic in Portuguese.

9) With all the ingredients in the pot, fire up the oven to 375F, put the lid on the pot and bring everything to a boil. Pop it in the oven for three or four hours. Check every hour or so and add water if it has dried out too much, but otherwise you're all set. It's ready when the meat is falling of the bones.

As with many Kaleberg dishes, it doesn't look like much in the picture, but it's mighty good eating.

Keywords: farmers' market, clark family, recipe, kale

08/12/10 - The Summer Port Angeles Farmers' Market

We haven't been writing very much about the Port Angeles Farmers' Market lately. This has not been because we haven't been shopping there, but because we've been lazy. The slow start to the season didn't help, but now the summer vegetables are coming in thick and fast. The Korean Garlic Lady is selling her wonderful, almost overpowering garlic, along with her excellent scallions. Lazy J and Johnston Farms have their great potatoes. Everybody seems to be selling cauliflower, and it's about time.

We should also note that Mount Townsend Creamery is selling Trailhead again. They aren't getting their milk from Dungeness Valley Creamery anymore, but the cheese is almost as good as ever.

Trailhead cheese is back.

Great garlic

Potatoes! We're saved!

Cauliflower in living color.

Those are Nash's watermelons.

Lazy J always puts on a great display.

More vegetables

Keywords: farmers' market, farms, johnston farm, port angeles, shopping, summer, mount townsend creamery, garlic lady

06/28/10 - Farmers' Market Update

We do more shopping than ever at the Port Angeles Farmers' Market. That's where we get most of our beef, lamb, and seafood, as well as almost all of our vegetables. This has been a slow year, and, frankly, we're a bit worried about Nash Huber's stand which has been surprisingly bare of produce. "Where's our broccoli?" Where's our cauliflower?", we asked. Nash's folks say that this is a seed year, which is good news for the future, but not for 2010. Despite this, there was broccoli, at Lazy J! We loaded up. We have some catching up to do. Knock wood we'll be seeing more early summer vegetables next week.

Broccoli!

Keywords: farmers' market, nash huber, port angeles, shopping, summer

06/06/10 - Olympic Cellars at the Farmers' Market

Olympic Cellars dropped by the farmers' market. It's nice to see our local producers reaching out, especially now that the summer season is starting.

Olympic Cellars at the Port Angeles Farmers' Market

Keywords: farmers' market

05/19/10 - Another Market Update

While the farmers' market is mainly about local produce, it is also about regional food and crafts. The Elwha Apiary people are there with their honey, and this time they brought one of their combs, sort of a factory tour. The Salish Sea Cheese people, who sell a variety of cheeses from the region, had a stand and were selling cheeses from the Pleasant Mountain Dairy. Tuna Dan, who sells all sorts of seafood including salmon and halibut, had long lines at his stand. He has great fish at great prices. Wild West Seafood is a bit more expensive, but sells the kind of fish you get in fancy Seattle restaurants. Now if we only had a great seafood restaurant out here on the Peninsula.

The open market - The Family Farm and Wild West Seafood

The Elwha Apiary folks brought in some of their little friends.

Salish Sea Cheeses presents some cheese from the Pleasant Mountain Dairy.

Keywords: farmers' market, salmon

05/02/10 - The Port Angeles Farmers' Market

The asparagus are out in force, as are the salad greens. We are big fans of West Wind asparagus, which may be the best on the peninsula, but the ones from Johnston Farms - this is their first year - were not far behind. We also bought some great looking black cod from Wild West Seafood, and a big eye round roast from Clark Beef. If you get some of the tender little turnips from the Korean garlic lady, consider simply scrubbing them, slicing them, and sprinkling them lightly with some fancy salt. You may have gottle some fleur de sel or the like for Christmas. Just a pinch or two will bring out the flavor of the turnips. Think of them as quick pickles, only better.

Now playing: parsnips at West Wind Farms

Keywords: farmers' market, johnston farm, garlic lady

04/24/10 - Asparagus and Other Signs of Spring

Washington State is famous for its asparagus. Even the stuff at the supermarket can be great this time of year, if you make sure it is local, but nothing can beat the stalks at the local farmers' market. We wait all year for the crop at Westwind, and now Johnston Farms has asparagus too.

Other sure signs of the season are rhubarb, baby arugula and garlic stalks. Garlic stalks look like scallions, but taste more like garlic than onions. They're great sauteed. On the fish front, Tuna Dan has been selling good looking tru cod and steelhead, and the fat spring salmon have been coming in.

Great asparagus at Westwind Farms

Johnston Farm has asparagus for the first time this year.

Is that rhubarb?

Keywords: farmers' market, johnston farm, westwind farm, salmon, washington state

04/21/10 - Kol Simcha Lamb Shanks

Kol Simcha Farms has been selling their lamb for a few weeks at the Port Angeles Farmers' Market. We've finally gotten around to doing a taste test with a bunch of lamb shanks. We steamed them up Moroccan style in our couscousiere. We put the shanks in the bowl with an onion, some parsley, some butter and a pinch or two of saffron. Then, we steamed for two hours or so, and when they were ready, the meat was falling from the bone. We served them with a mixture of ground cumin and salt, and Kaleberg Laboratories says they were delicious. The meat was tender and full of flavor. We don't know what kind of sheep they're raising, but they are mighty good eating. That's our first report. Now we have to try their lamb chops. They are next on our list.

The shanks are sold frozen, in packages

That's our couscousiere on the stove top.

Those are tender lamb shanks.

Keywords: farmers' market, port angeles, kale

04/11/10 - Farmers' Market Update

When the icy winter winds howl through the Port Angeles Farmers' Market at the Gateway Center, it seems as if a mere handful of survivors huddle in its vasty space. Now that the Gateway is beset more with icy spring winds, that huddle of survivors has grown to a goodly number of farmers and other vendors, and the vasty space is filling up nicely.

One of this week's arrivals was Mount Townsend Creamery. They're based in Port Townsend, and they've been selling some pretty good cheeses for a few years now. One of our favorites, their Trailhead cheese, seems to have vanished, but they've replaced it with a new cheese, Red Alder, and from our sample, it seems to be just as good. Another new cheese, their washed rind tomme, also seems to be a Trailhead descendant. They are both farmhouse cheeses, great for melting on toast. They're also selling their Seastack and Cirrus cheeses, which are soft, rather than farmhouse in style, and, for a real treat, they have their delicate fromage blanc.

Other notes: There are more greens, everywhere. The garlic shoots made a great stir fry, and check out Johnston Farm for their garlic radish leaves. They were great sauteed.

Mount Townsend Creamery will be at the market, and they are selling two new cheeses.

Westwind Farms with their potatoes

Nash Huber's stand in the foreground as the market fills out for the season

Lazy J greens

Bell Street Bakery

Keywords: farmers' market, farms, johnston farm, nash huber, port angeles, westwind farm, mount townsend creamery

04/03/10 - The Farmers' Marking is Springing Back

The Port Angeles Farmers' Market is springing back. Red Dog Farm, The Family Farm and Johnston Farm are all back, a sure sign of spring. Wild West had some magnificent halibut and kushi oysters. We went for the oysters at Mystery Bay, because we were too lazy to shuck our own. We were quite loaded down with beef, eggs, fish, kale raab, garlic radish leaves, german butterball potatoes, and other goodies, so we didn't explore everything. We did notice the jam and preserves people had their stand up, and even more people were selling eggs. We will get around to everyone eventually. Word is that more farmers are harvesting, so we're looking forward to the season.

P. S. There is a real demand for local foods around here. The Clark Family Farm expected to sell two animals in their first month. They sold out in a week.

Johnston Farm is back

The Family Farm is back - It looks like spring!

Red Dog is back too!

Keywords: farmers' market, johnston farm, oysters, port angeles, spring, clark family, kale

03/31/10 - Early Spring at the Port Angeles Farmers' Market

It's still rather wintry out there, but we are seeing signs of spring, at least at the Farmers' Market. There are more vegetables coming in, including some good cauliflower at Nash Huber's stand, and, if you are Jewish, the all too seasonal Passover horseradish at Westwind Farms.

Since we live on garlic, we've been haunting the Garlic Lady, who has our favorite scallions in stock, but no garlic yet. We're waiting.

We should also note a newcomer, Kol Nidre Farms, offering lamb for sale. We haven't tried any yet, but we plan to, and we'll report here. It's great to see more local foods at the market. For years, people offered the fruits and vegetables, but now one can also find mushrooms, seafood and meat. We are never going to become true locavores. We'll never give up coffee, but we do like to support our local suppliers.

Westwind Farm celebrates the horseradish harvest.

Our favorite scallions, but no garlic yet

Kol Nidre Farm: newcomer offering lamb

Keywords: farmers' market, farms, nash huber, spring, westwind farm, garlic lady


Lazy J at the Port Angeles Farmers' Market

03/20/10 - Lazy J at the Port Angeles Farmers' Market

The market farmers are just starting with a few spring crops, but everything has to be weather hardy. Here's Lazy J, with leeks, flowers and potatoes. Also attending were Johnston Farm, Westwind and the venerable Nash Huber. Tuna Dan and Wild West both had fresh halibut. We grilled our filet with lemon and oregano. We're spoiled out here.

Keywords: farmers' market, johnston farm, nash huber

03/08/10 - Sefrina

Sefrina isn't the next town after Hilda. Sefrina is a Moroccan cholent, a great, easy to make Moroccan stew with a ridiculously long cooking time. We found out about it in Couscous and Other Good Food from Morocco. Aside from the six hour cooking time, it is an easy dish to make. That's right, it cooks for six hours total, but your oven does all the heavy lifting. Everything gets wonderfully tender, and the eggs develop an amazing creamy texture as they hardboil.

We made this version with a 3lb 10oz pot roast from the Clark Family Farm. It had a nice big marrow bone which you can see floating there in the photo. The potatoes were from the Johnston Farm and the eggs from Westwind Farm, so this qualifies as a Port Angeles Farmers' Market dish. We also used dried chick peas, but they weren't from the Farmers' Market. You can make this dish with canned chick peas, but this is obviously not a dish you can throw together in a hurry, so why bother with time saving conveniences?

Our Moroccan stew

The eggs get tan and creamy.
 The recipe:
  1. The night before, soak a cup of dried chick peas in water overnight.
  2. Start boiling six cups of water in a tea kettle.
  3. Preheat the oven to 375°F.
  4. Take a big casserole with a lid and dump in the chick peas.
  5. Add 3 or 4 pounds of beef cut into big chunks. Pot roast is great, but it is better if there is a bone or two.
  6. Add six potatoes.
  7. Gently tuck six raw eggs into the ingredients so far.
  8. Chop up four cloves of garlic and sprinkle them on top.
  9. Sprinkle with a few pinches of salt, 1/2 teaspoon black pepper, 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger, 1/4 teaspoon of saffron or turmeric.
  10. When the water comes to a boil, pour it on.
  11. Cover and put it in the oven for an hour.
  12. Lower the heat to 250°F and let it cook for another five hours.

Keywords: farmers' market, johnston farm, port angeles, food, westwind farm, clark family, recipe, kale

01/31/10 - Clark Farms Beef at the Farmers' Market

We noticed a newcomer at the Port Angeles Farmers' Market this past Saturday, the Clark Farms beef people. They had a sign, some nice brochures and a big freezer pack full of beef. We had to try some, so we bought a pair of t-bone steaks, nicely packed and frozen. We put them to the test at Kaleberg Laboratories. That meant a session in the microwave for thawing, then heat processing in our broiler, not far from the electric coils. We applied hard infrared to push our sample to medium rare. That's a technical term.

Then came the actual testing. We applied our utensils, and transferred subsamples from plate to palate. The steaks were great, with a good, deep beefy flavor and a surprisingly tender texture. They weren't as fatty as Peter Luger's t-bone steaks, but they were better than the usual industrial beef by a long shot. Of course, these are just our preliminary Kaleberg results. We have a lot more testing to do, so we'll be looking for Clark Farms at next week's market.

The folks behind the beef

Our test sample

Their brochure

Keywords: farmers' market, farms, kale

01/10/10 - The Winter Market

We missed the Korean garlic lady last week, but she was back again with her excellent garlic, scallions and Korean goodies including fish soup and kim chi pancakes. Korea gets pretty cold in the winter, so they have lots of good dishes for cold weather, and you can try some at the Port Angeles Farmers' Market.

Another newcomer was the Mystery Bay Oyster guy who sells oysters and clams with lots of garlic and butter. He's usually at the Port Townsend market, but they are closed right now, so he's offering his wares to us Port Angelenos. We had a plate of his oysters, and they were wonderful. We'll miss him when the PT market reopens.

The Korean garlic lady

The Mystery Bay Oyster guy

The Johnston Farm lady

Keywords: farmers' market, johnston farm, oysters, winter, garlic lady

01/02/10 - Winter Market

Just because it is the middle of winter doesn't mean that the Port Angeles Farmers' Market is closed. It's open every Saturday from 10-2 at the Gateway Center, and the farmers are there including Westwind, Johnston and Nash Huber stands along with Tuna Dan, Bell Street Bakery and the guy with the mushrooms and seafood whose name we have forgotten. We bought a lovely piece of black cod from the guy whose name we forgot, so he is worth a trip to the market in his own right.

Johnston Farm

Westwind Farm

Nash Huber

Tuna Dan

Bell Street Bakery

Keywords: farmers' market, johnston farm, nash huber, port angeles, winter, westwind farm

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