01/12/13 - New Farm at the Farmers' Market

This is a sparse time at the Port Angeles Farmers' Market. A few regulars have been stalwart: Johnston Farms, the Korean Garlic Lady, and Nash Huber, offering a nice selection of winter vegetables: brussels sprouts, potatoes, squash, collards, kale and the like. Clark Farm has been there offering beef, pork and lamb - a veritable conglomerate, despite their failure to capture the geese in time for Christmas. (Wait until next year.)

However, there was one newcomer, Spring Rain Farm and Orchard was in from Chimacum offering a variety of winter squashes, preserves, eggs, and chickens. The birds are a French breed, so we bought one. It's a large roaster, so stay tuned to this site. We'll be roasting and taste testing soon.

UPDATE - 1/25/13 - We have tasted the bird, simply roasted, and it was delicious.

The new farm at the Port Angeles Farmers' Market

Keywords: farmers' market, farms, garlic lady, johnston farm, nash huber, port angeles, winter

08/05/12 - Farmers' Market Update

The Port Angeles Farmers' Market is finally warming up for summer. The sparse stands are now abundant.
  • Johnston Farms had its last English and snap peas, but is now getting great salad greens, thai basil, garlic and the very first tomatoes. We got a basket of a heritage variety and had our first real tomato salad of the season.
  • The Korean Garlic Lady has gone full summer, and the garlic is back, along with potatoes, scallions, cucumbers and romaine.
  • The Family Farm has gone back to its roots with potatoes and kohlrabi, along with their wonderful flowers.
  • Clark Family had their usual beef, but also some young goat. We had goat mixiote (more below), and it was wonderfully tender and mild.

Goat mixiote is based on one of our favorite dishes at Rosa Mexicano. You can make it with lamb shanks, or goat, or pork for that matter. You just make up a chile paste with dried chiles, add some oregano, cumin thyme, garlic, cloves, pepper and a splash of cider vinegar. Rub down the meat. Wrap the various pieces in parchment, secured with twine. Then steam them for two or three hours over boiling dark beer. Be careful opening the packets, because the meat will be falling off the bone and delicious.

Nash Huber's stand

Johnston Farms

The Korean Garlic Lady

The Family Farm

Johnston Farm tomatoes

Tomato salad

Clark Family goat mixiote

Keywords: clark family, farmers' market, johnston farm, nash huber, summer, garlic lady

07/15/12 - Pea Report - Spring Comes To Port Angeles

The Johnston Farm had the first garden peas of the season at the Port Angeles Farmers' Market this past weekend, and the Korean Garlic Lady had her first new potatoes, so we Kalebergs had one of our favorite spring dishes, and well before August at that. It's based on an Edna Lewis recipe and it's a simple dish to make.

Just boil the potatoes until they are almost cooked through, but not quite. Microwave the peas for a minute or two. Then drain the potatoes, add the peas, a half cup or so of chopped dill and a cup of milk. Bring the milk to a boil and finish cooking the potatoes. Season with salt and pepper, and you're done.

Peas!

Garden peas, new potatoes, dill and fresh whole milk

A market meal with salmon burgers, swiss chard and our favorite pea dish

Keywords: farmers' market, johnston farm, recipe, salmon, spring, garlic lady

06/13/12 - Port Angeles Farmers Market

This has been a cold spring, so the Port Angeles Farmers' Market is still a bit lean, but there have been signs of spring, and, with the solstice coming soon, we are hoping for signs of summer. We've been buying eggs, spinach, arugula, chards of various colors, salmon, halibut, salad greens, potatoes, garlic and asparagus. Yes, Westwind Farm still has asparagus in June. According to the farmers, things are looking up, but already we are buying more and more of our groceries at the market, and we're looking forward to more.

Nash Huber

Westwind Farm

The Korean garlic lady, with greens

Johnston Farm

Kol Simcha with lamb - The Clark family was also there selling their beef and pork.

The Family Farm is back.

Mystery Bay has steamed clams and oysters.

Keywords: clark family, farmers' market, johnston farm, nash huber, oysters, port angeles, salmon, spring, summer, westwind farm, garlic lady

04/28/12 - Spring Comes to the Port Angeles Farmers' Market

It's starting to look like spring at the Port Angeles Farmers' Market. Westwind Farm has their first asparagus along with potatoes, winter squash and their wonderful eggs. Johnston Farms is back with fresh coriander, squashes, braising mix, sunchokes, potatoes and other goodies. The Korean garlic lady has her garlic and greens, and Nash Huber's stand is loaded with a broad variety of raabs - flowering kales, cabbages and so on. In other words, the long winter is over.

Johnston Farms

Westwind Farms asparagus - We bought most of these, but there will be more next week.

Nash Huber's stand

Keywords: farmers' market, johnston farm, nash huber, port angeles, spring, westwind farm, garlic lady

11/13/11 - Port Angeles Farmers Market Report

The autumn market is here. There are potatoes, in red, brown and blue, squashes, pumpkins, celery, lacinato kale, garlic, cauliflower, broccoli, carrots, baby turnips, bok choy, savoy cabbage and all of our fall favorites. The four stalwarts, Nash Huber, Westwind Farm, Johnston Farm and the Korean garlic lady are all there along with a number of other sellers.

It isn't just vegetables either. You can also buy beef, pork, lamb, cheese, salmon, halibut, steelhead, oysters, bread, and an array of seasonal mushrooms. If you search a bit, you can find a last few tomatoes, arugula, coriander and a few other hold outs, but the cold weather is coming.

Don't miss out on the prime of the harvest. Drop by the Port Angeles Farmers' Market this coming Saturday.







Keywords: autumn, farmers' market, johnston farm, nash huber, oysters, port angeles, salmon, weather, westwind farm, garlic lady

08/18/11 - Summer Comes to the Port Angeles Farmers' Market

Let's see, there are all sorts of greens, lettuce, chard, carrots, scallions, broccoli, cauliflower, basil, summer squash, bok choy, cucumbers, cabbages, raspberries, and even tomatoes. Don't forget the oysters, salmon, beef, lamb, bread, rolls, croissants and cheeses. You can do an awful lot of your grocery shopping at the Port Angeles Farmers' Market on Saturdays (10-2) and Wednesdays (2-6). (We're guessing on the hours. The official web site doesn't seem to have them anymore.)

West Wind Farms

The Korean Garlic Lady - with a lot more than garlic and dumplings

Johnston Farm

The market survey, preliminary results

The venerable Nash Huber

Keywords: farmers' market, johnston farm, nash huber, port angeles, shopping, summer, garlic lady

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

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

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

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

01/17/09 - Kim Chi Pancakes and the Port Angeles Farmers Market

The winter isn't a great time for the Port Angeles Farmers' Market. It is still held every Saturday in the Clallam County Courthouse parking lot from 10AM to 2PM, but there are only a few farmers and venders there. The regulars include Westwind Farm, Dry Creek Farm, Tuna Dan and Nash Huber.

Harley at Dry Creek Farm says his hens are laying through the winter thanks to his new henhouse and the new breed of hens he has. He sold 100 dozen eggs in perhaps an hour this last Saturday, so come early. Also, in February, he will be selling stewing hens. He says the new lot is not quite as fatty, and the birds are a bit smaller, but we know that there is nothing quite like a good old stewing hen, braised for a winter dish.

A new regular at the market is the Korean kim chi and garlic lady. We haven't gotten her name yet, but she sells great big heads of garlic which seem to be much stronger than a lot of local garlic. She also sells jars of kim chi, Korean spicy pickled cabbage, and kim chi pancakes. We haven't tried the kim chi proper, but the pancakes are delicious. No, they aren't horribly spicy, but they have a nice light burn.

We don't expect a lot of action at the market this time of year. We've been enjoying the steelhead from Tuna Dan, and we've been rounding up the usual vegetables at Westwind and Nash Huber's. Things may be a bit slow, but the market is open, and it is still worth a trip.

Keywords: dry creek farm, farmers' market, nash huber, port angeles, winter, westwind farm, birds, garlic lady