Inspired by the market

One of the reasons that I like shopping at the farmers' market is being inspired by what I see and what looks good. On a recent trip to the Mountain View farmers' market, I saw all the heirloom tomatoes and was inspired to make...

A heirloom tomato (Happy Boy Farms), roasted beet (Nunez Farm), basil (Happy Boy Farms), goat cheese salad with olive oil from Soul Food Farm for dinner on Sunday and...

A heirloom tomato (Happy Boy Farms) soup with roasted corn (G&S Farm) and fresh basil (Happy Boy Farms) for dinner on Monday. Yum.

Summertime Monday Dinner

Sweet white corn and heirloom tomato risotto with white corn from G&S Farm in Brentwood (Mountain View and Palo Alto farmers' markets), tomatoes from Baia Nicchia in Sunol (Menlo Park farmers' market), shallots from Borba Farms in Aromas (MV farmers' market) and olive oil from Soul Food Farm in Vacaville

Side of zucchini and yellow summer squash from Happy Boy Farms in Watsonville (Mountain View farmers' market)

Walking The Market

I love walking the Mountain View farmers' market on Sunday mornings and figuring out what I cook for dinner during the week. Especially during the summer, there is such an abundance of delicious produce to choose from where a meal builds itself. This past Sunday, one meal came together when I had the idea to do a skirt steak salad - and I quickly added corn, peaches and red peppers - accompanied by a tortilla espanola (Spanish omelette).

Tortilla espanola with russet potatoes from Zuckerman Farm, yellow onions from Swank Farms in Hollister, eggs and olive oil from Soul Food Farm in Vacaville

Build your own salad:

Salad mix from Happy Boy Farms in Watsonville

Sweet white corn from G&S Farms in Brentwood

Cilantro from Nunez Organic Farm in Watsonville

Red peppers from Borba Farm in Aromas

Grilled skirt steak from Pampero Ranch in Sunol

White peach from Kashiwase Farm in Winton

Miso salad dressing from Nago Foods

Pietro and Local Seafood

As I have gradually moved my food purchases to local, sustainable and direct from the grower/producer when possible, I have been pleasantly surprised to find purveyors of beef, chicken, pork and... fish. Although it's a bit of a drag to not walk into a store and get fresh seafood any day of the week, a little planning ahead in getting to the Sunnyvale or Palo Alto farmers' market on Saturday morning provides the opportunity to buy fresh, locally caught seafood from H&H Fresh Fish and Pietro of FV Anne B.

Dinner: miso black cod from Pietro on a bed of mei quin (like bok choy) from High Ground Organics, with a side of corn (Happy Boy Farms) and shiitake mushrooms (Far West Fungi)

Scream Sorbet

I love visiting the farmers' market and being able to know where my food comes from when I cook dinner. It's good to chat with the friendly folks at Happy Boy Farms when I'm picking up squash or tomatoes, and even better when I'm enjoying lettuce from Fat Cabbage Farm or eggs from Surfside Chickens because I've visited those farms. What I have not expected as much (but I'm starting to get used to) is buying processed or prepared food and knowing where my food comes from. Kudos to producers like Scream Sorbet, who are taking the extra step to source locally and seasonally and provide transparency in where their ingredients come from - like this delicious Strawberry Lemon sorbet with Seascape strawberries from Rodriguez Ranch and lemon juice from Sun Rise Farm.

Typical Spring Dinner

Potato leek soup: Yukon gold potatoes from Full Belly Farm, leeks from Fat Cabbage Farm, onions from Swank Farm

Spinach salad: spinach from Happy Boy Farms, raspberries from Rodriguez Farms, goat cheese

Bread & olive oil: baguette from Acme, olive oil from Soul Food Farm

Sweet Dumpling Squash

I have a new favorite food: roasted sweet dumpling squash.

Butternut squash has long been my favorite winter squash - roasted with olive oil, pureed in soups or featured in risotto. The sweet creamy flavor and its utility as a hearty featured ingredient for fall and winter meals has endeared this vegetable to me. But I recently picked up a couple sweet dumpling squashes from Happy Boy Farms at the farmers' market, roasted them with salt and olive oil, and was in culinary heaven. Rich, deep flavor scooped straight out of the shell that surpassed even my long cultivated affinity to butternut squash. Yum.

What's In Season [Winter 2010]

I love shopping at the farmers' market in the fall and winter. It's not quite as sexy as the kaleidoscope of colors and deliciously sweet flavors that you get with all the heirloom tomatoes, stone fruit and berries in the summer. But I love the selection of vegetables that make for hearty soups and stews, and the fruits that come into season that have that crisp flavor that makes me think of fall.

For those of you not familiar with the broad selection of produce that our farmers' market vendors brave the cold (and sometimes rain) to bring to us every week, here are some of my favorites (including vendors at the Mountain View and downtown Palo Alto farmers' markets that I frequent the most):

• Winter squash, such as butternut, acorn, kabocha, delicata, and carnival: They are all great roasted and pureed in soups, or as the main highlight of a risotto, or just roasted with olive oil and scooped right out of their shells. You can typically find them at several vendors in any farmers' market with some of my favorite vendors being Happy Boy Farms and High Ground Organics, both out of Watsonville, at the Mountain View farmers' market on Sunday, and Full Belly Farm out of Capay Valley at the Saturday downtown Palo Alto farmers' market.
• Apples, including honey crisp, gala, fuji, gravenstein, cameo and many more: I grew up shopping at grocery stores where there were just apples, always shiny and red. Sometimes, there were green apples in the store, but those always seemed odd to me and they were called "green apples", whereas the red ones were always just "apples". Having been introduced to perhaps a dozen variety of apples over the last few years (out of the 2,500 varieties grown in the US), I have come to appreciate more breadth and depth of this wonderful family of fruit. There are a number of vendors with a decent variety of apples. But for a real education, you can head to Prevedelli Farms at the Mountain View market or Hale's Apple Farm at the downtown Palo Alto market. In the fall and winter, they both have a constant rotation of at least half a dozen apple varieties in season, and in particular Prevedelli has a helpful staff, good signage and plentiful samples.
• Citrus, and in particular satsuma oranges: The disappearance of peaches, nectarines, plums and other stone fruit at the end of the summer is a sad time in our household, where my wife, daughter and I devour these fruits all summer long. We can hang on for a while on the longer seasons that strawberries sometimes offer, but we don't get really excited again until winter when citrus, and in particular satsumas, come back to the market. These seedless, easy to peel, tangy fruits are mistaken for candy in our household where I need to buy a few dozen to make it through the week. All through the winter, I buy big bags full of satsumas from Paul at Super Sweet at the Mountain View market with Sunny Cal at both the Mountain View and downtown Palo Alto markets coming through in a pinch when needed.

If you are not already taking advantage of the fact that we have some very high quality farmers' markets in the area, here's to hoping you can explore what we have to offer.

Eating Local This (Short) Week

We don't always make time or plan ahead appropriately to shop at the farmers' market over the weekend to make meals that from 100% local, sustainable food. But when we do make that effort, I always appreciate it.

Meals that we made from local, sustainable ingredients purchased at the Mountain View farmers' market this short week:

Cream of tomato soup with end-of-the-season heirloom tomatoes from Happy Boy Farms, blue lake beans from Iacopi Farms, roasted delicata squash from Happy Boy Farms, salsa with roma tomatoes and onions from Swank Farms (not pictured)

Mushroom ravioli from Santa Cruz Pasta Factory (which sources ingredients locally when possible), with a variety of mushroom toppings from Far West Fungi, snap peas from Happy Boy Farms