Seasonal Pleasure

Nothing about this winter or spring has been weather-as-usual. The unexpected untimely periods of warmth left us people confused about what to wear and threw Mother Nature into a tizzy about when to sprout and bud. We’ve actually been picking kale, arugula, and chives from our backyard garden for a month-unheard of in all the years I’ve lived in northeast Ohio.

Happily there was one thing very much in season and on schedule- the annual spring opening last Saturday of the North Union Farmers Market at Shaker Square. As always, the sheep were on hand and the guy shearing them drew a crowd of fascinated onlookers. There were lots of familiar faces behind the tables and in the crowd and it felt a bit like a reunion. The energy as always was positive. Although so many more things will be available in a couple of months, vendors had plenty to offer including radishes, various salad greens, spinach carrots, and herbs plus eggs, meats, cheese, baked goods, cut flowers and bedding plants.

The husband and I scored everything we needed for an outstanding dinner. We bought a bunch of ramps, those garlicky wild members of the onion family and a true Ohio spring delicacy; a basket of very hard to find sunchokes- tubers that taste like artichoke hearts; half a pound of blue and brown oyster mushrooms from Killbuck Valley; and three handfuls of Ohio City Pasta’s roasted red pepper fettuccini. We also got a couple of big blueberry muffins from Zoss the Swiss Baker for Sunday morning breakfast.

Market photos courtesy of Susie Sharp

This is my regular go to market because it’s the closest to where I live. But here’s a short list of some others that I can highly recommend from firsthand experience. The temperatures may be unpredictable and the sunshine erratic, but shopping at our local farmers’ markets and putting a meal on the table sourced from what our own regional community can provide is a dependable pleasure.

North Union Farmers Market, six locations, each with own days and opening dates

Countryside Farmer’s Market, south of Cleveland in the Peninsula/Akron area, multiple locations with different days of opening and operation for each

Tremont Farmer’s Market, open April 17, then weekly in May

Kamm’s Corners Farmers Market, weekly starting in June

Coit Road Farmers Market, year round Saturdays, plus Wednesdays starting in April

Downtown Farmer's Market at Public Square, weekly starting June 1

Growohio has a handy easy to read chart on their website about what's available from local farms, month by month.

This Festival Stinks

I’ve wanted to get out to Gilroy, Calif., for the annual Garlic Fest ever since I first heard about it back in the ’70s, but I still haven’t made it. The idea of celebrating the pungent, flavorful bulb, nicknamed the stinking rose, with two days of themed food and country fair fun appeals to me.

Who wouldn’t want to try garlic ice cream at least once in your life? And I’m not alone: 100,000 or so showed up during the three day party there in July. Happily I don’t have to go across the country for the experience this year.

The North Union Farmers Market is hosting a Garlic Festival of its own, the first ever for the city and the Midwest. On Sept. 11 and 12, Shaker Square will be filled with chefs, farmers, vendors, arts-n-crafters and musicians. Like the West coast event that inspired it, the schedule features cooks-offs, the crowning of Miss Garlic, her court, and a festival king and queen. There will be beer and wine for grown-ups, activities for kids, bands on stage, and lots of good things to eat on the spot and to take home. Unless you count yourself among the undead, this is definitely the place you want to be this weekend. Tickets are $10 for adults, $3 for kids day of, but discounts are available online for family packages and early bird purchasers, along with a detailed schedule.

More food focused goings on at Visible Voice, the Tremont bookstore, on Saturday. The noon-9 p.m. program, called Fresh: going local in an urban environment, is devoted to the topic of urban agriculture. Local activists, educators and growers will be giving talks, relevant books will be sale priced, the documentary Fresh will be screened multiple times. Learn what’s happening and why it matters, ask questions, and show your support by sipping wine made in the region.

Don’t choose. Attend both. Enjoy!

This is a Keeper

This is the most bountiful time of year for fresh local produce. I was at the North Union Farmers Market on Shaker Square Saturday morning and was just knocked out by all the gorgeous stuff — onions, corn, green beans, eggplant, chard, zucchini, patty pan squash, peaches, nectarines, and of course tomatoes of every size and in shades of red orange, yellow and green. In a situation like this, my impulse is to buy everything in sight. The problem is using it up before fruit flies, mold, rot and limpness take hold. To me it’s a crime to allow food this good to go to waste. Further complicating the challenge is that not all produce is the same: leafy greens must be handled differently than leeks to make them last. A friend just turned me on to an absolutely great guide for how to best store most common fruits and vegetables published by Berkley Farmers’ Market. It’s a really clear, comprehensive and easy to use collection of instructions for handling fresh produce and keeping it at its peak. I’ve printed the three pages and put them on the shelf in my kitchen with the cookbooks.

The best part of this guide is that plastic bags are not used. There’s something fundamentally wrong with employing a petrochemical product that is clogging up landfills to tote and store sustainably raised local food. The result, it seems to me, is that one good for the earth act is canceled out by a bad one. We Americans are addicted to these handy little items — I read that it takes approximately 12 million barrels of oil to make the 100 billion plastic bags we use annually (according to the Worldwatch Institute). Now I have less reason to use them.

I just learned that there’s a new weekly farmers market setting up shop downtown this week. North Union is launching a satellite location on the Cleveland State University campus starting Thursday, Sept. 3, from 10:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m. Look for it on Euclid Avenue between E. 18th and E. 21st streets. Perfect destination for a lunch hour stroll, snack, and shop — and thanks to the folks from Berkley, over-buying need not be such a big problem. For more tips about what to do with your farm fresh swag and a list of other area farmers markets, read my article Farm Fresh in the June issue of Cleveland Magazine. (Photo Courtesy of Barney Taxel, Taxel Image Group)

Pining and wining

While it doesn’t qualify as a crisis, or even a big problem, I have a situation. The six jars of absolutely amazing wine jellies made by Deanna Ferry in Valley City, OH that I bought at the Fabulous Food Show back in November are all gone. This makes me sad. Unless you’ve tried them, you simply can’t imagine how wonderful they are. My stock included Shiraz & Bay Leaf; Riesling & Tarragon; Pinot Noir Smoked Cherry; Pinot Grigio & Basil; Chardonnay & Rosemary; and Merlot Black Peppercorn. I’d match them up with cheeses, and both were better for the partnership. Each one was my favorite until I tried another. Now I love them all equally- just like I do my kids.

To make my stash last, I used them sparingly, was stingy when it came to sharing, and saved them for special moments and meals. This miserly behavior was prompted by the fact that the woman doesn’t have a website for online ordering. I only had a brochure with the company name- the awkward Garden.Vineyard.Grove, Ltd.- her phone number and email address. I feared it would be a big hassle to re-supply. But I need more wine jelly. I’m yearning to taste the Sauvignon Blanc & Ginger, the Cabernet & Chocolate, along with mustards, fruit leather, and other stuff she does. Finally, I called.

She was making strawberry butter. There’s good news and bad news. Ferry prepares everything she sells herself in small taste-tested batches, and even grows the herbs she uses. It takes her two hours to cook up 12 jars of jelly, and she adjusts each batch depending on the vintage’s particular profile and the strength of the herbs. Needless to say production is limited so there’s no guarantee she’ll have everything on her list, anytime I want it. On the positive side, it turns out it’s easy to get her products shipped to my front door. Some of her culinary creations are also available at The Cheese Shop in the Westside Market , at Nature’s Bin in Lakewood, at the NorthUnion Farmer’s Market in Shaker Square the last Saturday of every month, and at Crocker Park market every 3rd Saturday. For a product list and order form contact Ferry at 330-483-3359 or deannaferry@zoominternet.net