Market Day

Three new produce items, or at least new to me, were available at our stall today. Celeriac, kabocha squash, and Chiapas tomatoes. The first is a root vegetable very popular in Germany and France. It used to be well known here but for some reason, fell out of favor. How odd? The tiny tomatoes as the first tomatoes. They're what existed before the little fruit went off to Europe to be cultivated and hybridized. I took a picture of the spring onions because they looked so lovely with all that white fringey-ness and it's fall and we have "spring" onions. Pretty cool. I'll put some recipes up on my Vox blog, in case you're in cooking mode and happen to have some celeriac or kabocha handy.

Market day

Thursday we had some great veggies. Doesn't that shopping basket look so colorful?

Market day

While working at the farmers' market, I get my coffee from Alan and his wife, who have a stand across the way. They sell coffee and their own coffee beans, Koralee Coffee. She had on a wonderful hat today and allowed me to take a photo of her in it. Really quite lovely, as were the squash blossoms we had for a special order. They were perfect and beautifully yellow. We had lots of beets and I was so excited by that because I'd wanted to try the chocolate & beet cake recipe that I'd recently downloaded. I'm steaming beets right now so I can prepare the cake later this afternoon. The Armenian cucumber looked a bit like a snake, all it needed were some googly eyes glued on. Shelia said "never name your cucumber or you won't want to cut it up." That made me laugh. The onions added more magenta to our table as did some cabbage which I never got a photo of, oh well, next week. For the recipe for the cake, check my VOX blog, where I'll post it.

Potato Soup

Potato Soup
(Potage des Vendanges)
with my variations.

from Vegetables the French Way
by Jack Santa Maria 1989

Les vendanges is the grape harvest. This nourishing soup is typical of those served to grape pickers during this season of hard work.

3 tablespoons melted butter
1 tablespoon chopped parsley
2 leeks, trimmed washed, chopped
1 pound potatoes, peeled, cut in pieces
black pepper & salt
6 cups vegetable stock
1 cup crème fraîche or cottage cheese
1 bay leaf
1 tablespoon chopped tarragon

Heat the butter in a heavy pan and cook the leeks until they soften. Add the potatoes and turn in the butter for 3 minutes. Add the stock, herbs and salt and pepper to taste. Cook over low heat until the potatoes are tender. Purée in a blender or food processor. Return to the pan and stir in the cottage cheese or crème fraîche. Serve garnished with tarragon.

ADAPTATIONS: I use olive oil in place of butter or olive oil with a bit of butter. I use onions in place of leeks. I add a minced garlic to the onions. I use water with vegetarian bouillon. If I don’t have cottage cheese and have sour cream, I use that with a bit of sugar. If you leave out any dairy, this is, of course, perfect for a vegan meal. Feel free to make substitutions that will make this your very own potato soup. When you reheat this soup do it on a low heat.

Soup Time

My three vegetable soup (plus onion and garlic) came about because that's all I had in the way of veggies a few weeks ago. It turned out really tasty, sweet and rich. Even Chuck liked it and he doesn't like two of the three ingredients. Here's the recipe: One Acorn Squash. One sweet potato. One white onion. a couple garlic cloves. olive oil. A box of french onion soup or 4 cups of water, soy milk. Process: Cut an acorn squash in half and put on a greased baking sheet. Poke some holed in a sweet potato and put on the baking sheet, too. Bake until soft. Meanwhile, steam a white potato until softened. When all these are ready, you can start the soup, or put them into the refrigerator until you're ready to make the soup! Next day, day after next. When ready, Saute some onions in olive oil, add minced garlic. When onions are translucent, add the "meat" of the veggies (compost the skins and seeds if you can.) Mix the veggies into the pan until all mixed up in the onions then add the onion soup














or water. Bring to a boil then lower heat, cover pot, and simmer for 30 minutes. Let cool for a bit, then puree in a blender adding about a cup of soy milk, gradually. This turns out to be nicely sweet. You can season with salt, pepper, cayenne pepper, or other seasonings you like. I didn't add any. Let me know if you try this and how you like it. Brrr, it's getting really cold here, soup time!
¡Que aproveche!

The farmers' market

I've been enjoying working at the Farmers' Market on Thursdays. I really get into selling the produce, which is an easy sell in that it's local and organic and everyone wants it, but I love telling people about the CSA Sprout, how it works and all. I love talking about our farmer, Charlie (Victory Farms of Hanover) and how he grows great produce. I love talking to people who love food and share recipes with me. We have many chefs who stop by and one Saturday, the chef from the restaurant across the street came and bought all the French melons. We knew what would be on the menu that night! This past Thursday was monstrously hot, we drank lots of iced water and stood in the misting tent once. There were fewer customers at the market but our share holders came as early as they could. By the time I'd been there for 4 and a half hours, I was pretty giddy, and was so happy I was headed home. Here are some of the images I took that day, basil, arugula, red onions, German stripe heirloom and Roma tomatoes. Charlie grows all of these lovelies on a small amount of land in Hanover county, Virginia. I'm loving photographing his veggies.