The Market is Open!

Good Gracious Friends,
Do you feel the edge we’re leaning over? Any day now, I just know it. Summer vegetables. Tantalizingly green tomatoes and tiny zephyr squash popping out of their blossoms. Blueberries, oh my, I know they are so close. I fear the worst: that we were about to witness a produce explosion. As the billboards say, are you prepared? ________________________________________

In the Digital Aisles of Local Splendor…

• A big HELLO to Armstead Mountain Farm, our organic friends from up North! We’ve missed their beautiful organic produce and are happy to see them back!

• Flank Steak from Ratchford Farms

• Baby Back Bibs from Farm Girl Natural Foods

• Broccoli Greens from Kellogg Valley Farm. Two suggestions: (1) use them in a quiche or (2) steam them and toss with garlic powder and olive oil.

• Nasturtium Edible Blossoms from Crimmins’ Family Farm. Delicious flowers, good for a varied diet. Check out these recipes. Also, Nasturtium Pepper Vinegar and Nasturtium Butter caught my fancy.

• Early summer squash and zucchini from Barnhill Orchards. Great for grilling!

• Plenty of radishes on the market. Try some lacto-fermented radish or a Radish Remoulade.
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Lacto-fermentation WHAT?

Have you heard about lacto-fermentation? Better question: have you heard of sauerkraut? If you have, than guess what?
Lacto-fermentation is definitely a process to consider for your kitchen, especially as we see these late Spring root veggies and cabbages on the market. There are a number of bacterial benefits, which you can read about at Real Food in Little Rock, for your health that can come from lacto-fermentation. Plus, for the curious, these pickled vegetables open a new world of culinary possibility. Try lacto-fermented radishes or carrots in your stir-fry or rice paper wraps. It’s a simple and engaging way to eat old things in a new way!
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Farmers Like Facebook Too…

From Willow Springs Market Garden :
“We have seen the first ripe blueberries in our patch. Mysteriously, we have no evidence to show, as they seem to have “disappeared”."

Drewry Farm & Orchards thinks they will have, “a great peach crop by the way things look right now.” Whew.

Laughing Stock Farm just uploaded some beautiful pictures of their heirloom tomatoes coming on!

And Kelly of North Pulaski Farms is excited to have found his favorite brand of kelp meal at Cabot Farmers Association.

Keep it local, ya’ll!

Sam Hedges