Farmers' Market Dinner Parties

“Time to put away the fondue pots, tapas crockery and sushi mats. There's a brand-new entertaining theme taking over in cities from coast to coast: farmers market dinner parties. The idea is to prepare meals using locally produced, seasonal foods.”

This comes from a recent Washington Post article “So Southern, So Summer.” Author David Hagedorn asks, “Can it really be true that what was a normal way of life during my Southern childhood has been repackaged as a novelty?” It’s an interesting question in today’s fast-paced, fast-food society. His article talks about his Southern roots, what he prepared for dinner and why, and includes the recipes for Grilled Basil-Brined Chicken, Slathered Sliced Tomatoes, Fried Okra—produce in season now here in North Carolina—among others.

Recently I had friends over for lunch. I tried to source the ingredients locally as best I could. I used local tomatoes, figs, eggs, mozzarella and basil from my garden (doesn’t get more local than that!). Since reading Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life by Barbara Kingsolver last spring, I have made an effort to cook at least one meal a week from local ingredients for both the environmental impact and to support local farmers. It’s been a tasty, and gratifying, experience with a lot of great seasonal meals.

It doesn’t take a lot of effort to eat locally with a resource like the Western Wake Farmers’ Market so close by, or to throw a farmers’ market dinner party. You can get your meat or seafood, produce, bread, dessert, coffee and even the flowers for your centerpiece all at the market. Planning a farmers’ market dinner? Send a note to info@westernwakefarmersmarket.org about what you are preparing.

The Oct 8 screening of the movie FRESH is FULL

Please email if you are interested in attending a second screening. New dates will be announced shortly.

Cooking with Seasonal Ingredients: Kale and Potatoes

Thanks to Market Manager Kim Hunter for sharing this recipe. It’s quick, inexpensive and loaded with flavor and nutrients. Plus, all the fresh ingredients are currently in season in North Carolina—buy them at the farmers’ market!

Kale and Potatoes
(4 servings as a side dish, 2 servings as a light main course)

Ingredients:
Extra-virgin olive oil
1/2 onion, chopped
2 medium potatoes, chopped into 1/2 inch squares
1 T finely chopped red pepper, if desired
1 bunch of kale, chopped and ribs discarded
1 clove garlic, minced
Salt and pepper
4 slices of bacon from a local producer, fried in skillet then drained and coarsely chopped

Instructions:
If using bacon, fry in skillet until crispy. Remove bacon and excess grease from pan. Drain bacon, set aside.

Add about 1T olive oil to the skillet, just enough to coat the bottom. Once heated, add onion, potatoes and red pepper (optional). Sauté on medium heat about 10 minutes, until onion is slightly browned and potatoes are just tender. Add chopped kale, garlic and 2 T water to pan. Sauté for an additional 3-5 minutes until kale begins to darken in color and is slightly wilted. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Remove from heat and stir in chopped bacon. Serve.

Peaceful Way to Spend a Sunday

Yesterday, a friend and I brought our kids to two farms on the 4th Annual Eastern Triangle Fall Farm Tour—what a great day we had! We started at Mae Farm in Louisburg, where more than 400 animals (pigs, cows, goats and chickens) are happily roaming about. We met 3 of the Jones’ five kids, who help out with the animals, and we were lucky enough to see a new calf born this past week! Its mama, Rosa, stopped by to see what we were doing near her baby. Mike Jones, who owns the farm with his wife Suzanne, took us on a hayride around the farm to see the animals and shared with us how these animals are raised. The Jones’ whole focus is to provide the best meats possible, and they do that by treating the animals ethically and humanely. He also talked about how the number of farmers across the country is dwindling, and how important it is to reverse this trend. The Jones are much like all the local farmers in Wake and surrounding counties who are farming in humane, sustainable ways to provide healthy, locally grown food.

Then we headed over to Melvin’s Gardens, where hosts Bobby and Linda Melvin live and farm. Their beautiful shady yard, home to plenty of chickens and kittens, was the perfect place to enjoy storyteller Ron Jones’ colorful stories and songs and an ice cream sundae. Melvin’s Gardens, a vendor at the Western Wake Farmers' Market, grows herbs, vegetables and perennials, and is a supplier to some 70 area restaurants Linda took us on a tour of the greenhouses and talked with us about how they capitalize on the sun to heat the greenhouses as much as possible and minimize use of fossil fuels. They used their kerosene heater only 4 nights last winter to protect their entire crop.

It was great to see to see first-hand how the food that reaches our table is so meticulously cared for by farmers using sustainable techniques that are rare in today's world. Now we're looking forward to the spring tour.

Photos and News Story
There are additional photos from these two farms posted at the Western Wake Farmers’ Market Facebook page. Plus WRAL featured a story on the tour as well. Check out the video!

Southern Basil Pesto and Vicchysoisse Encore Recipes

Many thanks to Linda Watson of Cook for Good for joining us at the market and sharing her wonderful Southern Summer Pesto and Vichysoisse Encore samples and recipes! Linda shared a lot of great information with market shoppers about how to prepare these items in a more healthful way (less cheese, for instance, in the pesto, and yogurt in the vichysoisse rather than cream), as well as how to stretch the food budget when preparing these dishes. Making the soup after the pesto, she explained, allows you to use all the basil stems and the parmesan rinds for flavorings. Check out Linda's web site for more recipes and tips on saving money while cooking in a healthy way with local ingredients!

Feed Your Brain: Learn More!

Check out these links to community, state and national resources on local food, community supported agriculture (CSA) and sustainable living.

Advocates for Health in Action (AHA)

American Farmland Trust

Carolina Farm Steward Association (CFSA)

Eat Local Triangle

Edible Piedmont

Edible Schoolyard

Food and Water Watch

The Gardener's Kitchen

Growing Small Farms

Local Harvest

Sustainable Table

National Gardening Association (NGA)

Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC)

NC Community Green

NC Office of Environmental Education

NC--Wake County Extension Office

The Produce Lady

Slow Food Triangle

Urban Homstead: Path to Freedom

Calling Local Artisans

WWFM is hosting a Fall Craft Festival on November 7. If you are interested in selling your locally handmade art and crafts, please click here to download the application.

A Way of Life: Healthy Eating and Physical Activity

Have you heard of Advocates for Health in Action (AHA)? This group, comprised of some 40 organizations, seeks to create a healthier Wake County! AHA’s goal is to promote healthful eating and physical activity for everyone in our community, and focuses on 4 work groups to accomplish this. One of the groups is Local Foods. Check out AHA’s web site to learn more about what the folks there are doing, including the Local Foods page, where there is lots of great information about community gardens, CSAs (community supported agriculture) and farmers’ markets.

Be sure to bookmark the site too and check out its growing calendar of community events and the new blog, to which the Western Wake Farmers’ Market will occasionally contribute articles. There are plenty of links to great resources in our community! Plus, if you’re on FaceBook, you can become a fan of AHA and you’ll receive instant updates on area events, such as where to pick apples in our area and more. If you're not already, become a fan of the farmers' market too!

Slow Down and Take a Local Farm Tour This Month

The Homegrown Tour 2009, sponsored by the Farm Bureau of Alamance County, features five farms from 1-5 pm and the “Taste of Alamance” dinner at 6 p.m. on September 26. The tour is free, and dinner is $5 per person (children under 12 are free). The tour begins at the Iron Gate Winery (a WWFM vendor), then continues at Morris Meadows, Stagg Creek Farm, Occaneechi Village and Enoch Farm. A dinner featuring local foods will be offered at Martin's Chapel Church in Mebane.

Spend a day out in the countryside and see how local farmers are growing foods for you!

Looking for Some FRESH Food Inspiration?

Whether you saw Food Inc. this summer or didn't for fear of what you might see and learn, another movie on food in our country is worth a look and offers an inspirational look at how a few entrepreneurs are working to make sustainable local farming the norm. In partnership with market sponsor Yes! Solar Solutions, the WWFM will provide a free screening of the film Fresh on October 8 at 7:00 PM at the Yes! Solar Solutions retail outlet at 410 Ledgestone Way in Stone Creek Village in Cary.

Fresh is not in theaters, but hundreds of groups and individuals have organized screenings like this one as part of a grassroots effort to help grow “fresh” food and move sustainable farming beyond a niche market. Fresh celebrates the farmers and other Americans who are re-inventing our food system. They have seen the transformation of agriculture into an industrial model, and the harmful effects of that change. Now they are forging healthier, sustainable alternatives to farming.

The first screening is currently full, but we have started a wait list and will announce dates for subsequent screenings very soon. Those interested should email info@WesternWakeFarmersMarket.org to reserve a spot. Attendees are asked to bring a non-perishable food item to donate to the Inter-Faith Food Shuttle, which picks up donations from the market each week. Market sponsor Whole Foods Market of Cary will provide local, healthy snacks, and organic wine will also be served.

Buy a Bag: Help "Grow" Our Market

Green insulated bags are now on sale at the market for $7. Keep your foods hot or cold and help promote the market in the process. Stop by the WWFM tent (first one on the left) to get yours this Saturday!

Chef Todd Mohr Cooking Demos

Thanks to Chef Todd Mohr who conducted three cooking demonstrations Sept. 12 at the market, all focused on healthy cooking with locally grown produce.

Last spring, we met Chef Todd when he visited the market, chatted with our vendors and made this video, which he posted on YouTube. His passion and energy for local food are addictive!

Chef Gayla Bonke's Savory Cheesecakes: Rave Reviews

Many thanks to Chef Gayle Bonke (at right), owner and head chef, of Chatham Street Cafe for joining us in the Education Tent on Sept. 5. Her savory Pesto Cheesecake and Cheddar Chile Cheesecakes were delicious, and Chef Gayla kindly shared the recipes with us!

Located in downtown Cary, Chatham Street Cafe uses local, seasonal ingredients in each of its dishes. The restaurant also supports local artists and participates in the Cary Art Loop's Final Friday.

Savory Pesto and Cheddar Chili Cheesecakes

Thanks to Chatham Street Cafe Chef/Owner Gayla Bonke for sharing her wonderful savory pesto cheesecake and cheddar chile cheesecakes and the recipes.

Pesto Cheesecake

½ cup fresh or ready-made pesto

1 ½ TBS butter at room temperature

¼ cup fine breadcrumbs, lightly toasted

¼ cup good parmesan, asiago or romano cheese, grated

2 cups small curd cottage cheese

1 lb (2 8-oz blocks) cream cheese at room temperature

¾ cup good parmesan, asiago or romano cheese, grated 4 eggs

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Butter the bottom and sides of a 9 inch springform pan using a pastry brush. Mix breadcrumbs and ¼ cup parmesan cheese. Sprinkle the mixture into the pan and turn it to coat the sides and bottom completely. Refrigerate.

In the bowl of a food processor with the blade or in a blender, mix the cottage cheese, cream cheese and parmesan until smooth. Add the eggs and pesto and blend completely. Pour the mixture into the chilled pan and set it on a baking sheet.

Bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes. Turn off the oven and cool the cheesecake approximately 1 hour with the oven door ajar. Transfer to a rack, remove the springform ring sides and cool to room temperature before serving.

Makes approximately 12 servings. Serve with a side salad and a roll for an afternoon or evening meal.

Cheddar Chili Cheesecake
1 ½ TBS butter (softened to grease springform pan)
¼ cup fine breadcrumbs, lightly toasted
¼ cup sharp cheddar cheese, grated finely
6 oz thinly sliced ham
1 ½ lbs (3 80z blocks) cream cheese, softened
¾ pound sharp cheddar cheese, shredded
1 cup small curd cottage cheese
¾ cup green onion, chopped
4 eggs
3 TBS jalapeno pepper, seeded and finely chopped*
2 TBS milk
1 clove of garlic, finely minced
*you may substitute 2 teaspoons of Vesta Fiery Gourmet Topping “Hot” or more to taste for the jalapeno

Preparation:
Heat oven to 325 degrees. Butter a 9 inch springform pan, bottom and sides with a pastry brush. Mix breadcrumbs and ¼ cup cheddar cheese together and sprinkle into pan. Tilt the pan and lightly cover the sides and bottom with the crumb and cheese mixture. Refrigerate.

Dice about half of the ham; reserve remaining slices. In a food processor using the bowl and the blade mix the cream cheese, cheddar, cottage cheese, onion, eggs, jalapeno, milk and garlic, process until smooth. Pour slightly more than half the filling into chilled pan. Top with reserved ham slices in an even layer. Cover with remaining filling. Set pan on a baking sheet.

Bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes. Turn off the oven and cool the cheesecake in the oven with the door ajar for approximately 1 hour. Transfer cheesecake to a cooling rack, remove the springform ring and cool the cheesecake to room temperature before serving.

Makes approximately 12 servings. Serve with a side salad and a roll for an afternoon or evening meal.

Herons Sweet and Sour Eggplant Recipe

Thank you to Herons Chef Scott Crawford for sharing his Sweet and Sour Eggplant at the market on Abundance Day and the recipe!

2 cups local eggplant peeled & diced
¼ cup sake
2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
1 teaspoon yuzu juice or lime juice
1 tablespoon white sugar
1 teaspoon honey
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon Kanzuri paste or Thai chili sauce
1 sprig fresh cilantro chopped
3 chives sliced

Method: In a large sauté pan simmer the Sake, vinegar, sugar honey, soy sauce and chili sauce until it thickens slightly. Add eggplant and cook for 2-3 minutes until it begins to soften. Add yuzu juice and fresh herbs, can be served hot or chilled.

Makes 4 servings.

Simple But Super: Fig Recipe

Thanks to market shopper Lynn Ruggiro for sharing her easy fig favorite: Make a slice in a fig, then put a piece of blue cheese and a pecan half inside the fig. Eat it as is, or grill it for a minute or two.

If you've got a favorite recipe you've made with market ingredients, share it with us! Send a note to info@westernwakefarmersmarket.org.