Fresh with a Side of Wonder

Fresh + ingredients you won’t find in grocery stores. That is the beauty of our tailgate markets. My sandwich ingredients from today’s tailgate market:  ripe purple tomatoes, crispy white cucumbers, and pan-roasted Italian sweet pepper on a bed of sweet basil, and from the grocery store – organic cream cheese, balsamic vinegar, and local artisan bread.

Yes, you can buy basil and purple tomatoes from the grocery store, but are they this fresh and from people who farm in our neighboring counties? People with kids that they are raising. People with land payments. People we know. Will my meager purchases help send their kids to college? Well, no, not exactly. But each little purchase adds up.

I pray that when they count up their money at the end of each market, it is enough to sustain them and their families. Cause these are some hard working folks. Heros. Their food tastes like it came from my home garden. Just look at the color of that tomato. I mean really look. Soak it in. This food brings me to my knees.

I have missed this food during my recent period of busy-ness. I have missed the people too. Many have been so kind to ask about my recently married daughter. Some conversations have made our eyes well up with emotion. Together, all of us have watched these tailgate market children grow and blossom. Suddenly the baby is a seventh grader is a college student is adventuring in Europe is being married or becoming a parent. Again I am on my knees with wonder, and so grateful that I am sailing along on this lovely planet amid this miraculous journey.

Back to sandwiches. This is important – sandwiches taste so much better when they are made on good bread. It is worth the splurge to get good local bread if you are a sandwich-eater. Pan-roast the peppers. Pile the ingredients to the edge of the bread and grill in a skillet with your choice of fat (I used olive oil).

Pistachio shortbread cookie for desert from Sweetheart bakery.

Purple tomato from Green Toe Ground Farm. White cucumber from Full Sun Farm. Peppers from Gaining Ground Farm. Basil from Mountain Harvest Organics. Bread from Annie’s Naturally Bakery.

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Report From The Trenches

Yes. Tailgate Market Fan Club has been on a bit of sabbatical.

I bought a house last summer. Much of my time has been occupied with renovating my “new” 1964 red brick rancher. It is amazing how much time every little thing seems to take. Wonderful carpenters have done most of the work, but I am the painter and decision maker. Since the trim is now brand new, all of the trim has received 3 coats of paint. And the new doors are still mostly unfinished. As they might say in Madison County…Oh, law.

On top of that my daughter is getting married this June. Both the bride and groom have lots of extended family members, and then there are the dear friends. So between wedding planning and my house…my extra time is nonexistent. I feel like I have been under water for months. Luckily I have a few really sweet friends who have been extra thoughtful lately.

Mark’s eggs. Notice caulking gun and paintbrush on counter.

My carpenter friend, Mark, has gifted me with fresh eggs from his hens a couple of times which has resulted in some delicious breakfasts and dinners of breakfast food. Gracious, good eggs are a blessing. To imagine Mark’s hens running about seeing  blue sky and puffy white clouds – compared to the poor little hens penned up in industrial slavery. There is no comparison. In either the happier life Mark’s hens have, or the way his hen’s eggs taste that reflect their happier life.

Things should ease up around mid-July. My daughter will be married and on her way to Switzerland. I will have the luxury of working in my yard, starting a garden, and perhaps taking an adventure or two.

Happy local eating. Enjoy this glorious season of bounty to the maximum. Because, believe it or not, winter will soon

Real good eggs!

return. Most every market is open now with amazing food to be had on each market day. Savor this luxury.

With fond regards, Ruth

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Carrots with a Jimi Hendrix Twist

‘Purple Haze’ Carrots, Mudluscious Pottery & Gardens

Vitality filled my nostrils as I scrubbed the carrots. Just brushing their skins brought home the power of local. This soil. This good Earth. The personal association with the farmers – Cindy Trisler and Rodney Bowling. I suspect this carrot is called ‘Purple Haze’, and being a Jimi Hendrix fan I gotta love that name.

I added these beauties to a creamy potato and kale soup. Chilled to the bone after working most of the day in the rain (even though it is relatively warm), a cozy soup with buttered bread sounded just right as a quick and satisfying supper.

Now I must find the inspiration to stir up some primer paint and roll it on the walls…but that is another story.

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One Two Dollar Flower

Tuberose from Flying Cloud Farm

This simple flower, the tuberose, is sending me to my knees every time I walk down my hall. She is getting more fragrant by the hour; slowly intoxicating the house. I wonder if she is pumping out her breathtaking scent in hopes of finding a pollinating bee.

Anticipating my sister and niece spending Saturday night with me (along their route to Charlottesville), the North Asheville Tailgate Market was packed when I arrived to shop around 8:30. I gathered goodies at the market for the happy occasion – Pecan Sandies from Jean (we ate ALL of them in one sitting); Rosemary Fig Chevre from Spinning Spider Creamery; Roots and Branches crackers; beautiful lettuce mix from Full Sun Farm; Asiago Ciabatta from Wake Robin Farm Breads, and blueberries from a farmer I don’t know. All of it contributed to our LOCAL hors d’oeuvres, dinner, and breakfast. And the tuberose from Flying Cloud Farm got right to work putting out her sweetness. Thank you farmers!

From North Asheville Tailgate Market this Saturday

P.S. My niece contributed a delicious bottle of wine from Argentina – San Gimignano Cabernet Sauvignon 2012.- very lovely!

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Markets are Full of Summer Bounty (Local that Is!)

Been kinda quiet on the blog front here…especially in the bountiful middle of summer. Right? Well… I bought a house and moved. That is

This is what my life looks like right now (actually last week). Demolition in progress.

time  consuming, especially when you start tearing out parts of your house. So I am more or less camping in my new house for a while. Before I moved, I was a few blocks from a wonderful Saturday market. Even on Saturdays when I was working, I could quickly grab a few things when the market opened and make it to work on time.

I am going to have to be a little more organized to pull that off now. My new house is closer to the Wednesday Weaverville Market, so I anticipate becoming a regular at that market. I also get an occasional delivery from some Mars Hill farmer friends. Plus this week I bought two pints of blueberries while I was a work – out of a farmer’s trunk.

On the Fourth of July, The North Asheville Tailgate Market was cooking – with customers everywhere and fresh local food piled up in the farm stands. Truly marvelous. Here are some pictures of that market:

Beautiful!

The line at the Full Sun Farm Stand!

Full Sun Farm Eggplant

Sweetheart Bakery Mini-Pies

Gaining Ground Farm Stand. I made red, white, & blue potato salad with those fresh-dug potatoes.

Ivy Creek Family Farm. Can’t remember the name of these striking, almost black, flowers.

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Local Lunch on My Day Off

Ivy Creek Farm Spinach, Gaining Ground Farm Eggs, & City Bakery Ciabatta

This morning was spent working in my garden and pulling out volunteer potatoes. Lunchtime came around, and I made a sandwich on a buttered and toasted City Bakery Ciabatta roll. I sauteed onions and spinach in olive oil, and then gently scrambled two eggs and added them to the sandwich. A splash of balsamic vinegar topped the spinach, and the warm sandwich was HUGE. I could not eat all of it in one sitting, so I will finish the rest of it as an afternoon snack.

The spinach was from Ivy Creek Farm, and the eggs were from Gaining Ground Farm (and came in a bright green box). The ciabatta roll was from City Bakery. I tossed a few tiny potatoes from my garden into the saute pot. Next time, I will kick it up a notch by adding warm salsa picante as a sauce.

The North Asheville Tailgate Market was packed on Saturday. Wonderful jazz music drifted through the market as we shopped and visited with friends. So exciting that the markets are open again (or soon to be open!).

Gaining Ground Farm Eggs, Ivy Creek Farm Spinach

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Oh Glorious Morning

Oh glorious morning. To walk outside and not cringe from cold. Exuberant birdsong singing open the stomata of plants. Green bursting forth from the earth. Daffodils. Tentative peony sprouts. The vague green hue surrounding the weeping willow. Spinach seedlings. And suddenly, puddles of sunshine.

My community of friends is mourning the loss of a supremely warm-hearted friend. Her being left us wrapped in the coziness of the love she exuded to all of us – especially to children. This loss underscores the preciousness of every single moment on the planet. And yet, embracing each minute challenges most of us. Crazy drivers and long grocery store lines can cloud our connection to the miracle that surrounds us everywhere we turn.

I think about just laying on the ground and studying everything contained in one square foot of earth. Universes.

I saw Tailgate Market farmer Ron Gagliano yesterday. He was cheerfully buying pea inoculant. His last two years have been personally challenging, including losing his home to fire. He left me with his current mantra – an ancient Vedic saying:

Water does not wet me,

Wind does not dry me,

Fire will not burn me,

Nor can any weapons cleave me.

 I am ancient.

I am unborn.

Which brings the unmovable strength and fierceness of my friend Libby right to mind.

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Made it to the Winter Market…Barely

A Few Goodies for A Cold Weather Supper

The YMCA WINTER MARKET has moved. It is now located at the Grace Covenant Presbyterian Church at 789 Merrimon Avenue from 10 to 12:30 every Saturday morning until April. That is the church with the giant community garden in the front yard facing Merrimon Avenue – most of the harvest goes toward feeding the hungry.

With only a few minutes to shop, I stocked up on grits and eggs from East Fork Farm, two kinds of potatoes from Meadow Cove Farm plus some beautifully dried shiitake mushrooms, AND a beautiful apple turnover decorated with a heart (smile) from Aimee Mostwill of Sweetheart Bakery plus a yummy coconut shortbread cookie.

On this blustery day, doesn’t a cozy soup (based on potatoes and shiitakes) with an warm apple turnover for dessert sound marvelous and comforting?

NOTE: All the greens were gone quickly…I missed them by a long shot. Meanwhile over at CITY MARKET, Missy of Jake’s Farm said she sold out of her veggies within ten minutes. Wow. Asheville City Market’s winter location is indoors at the Public Works Building on Charlotte and Eagle Streets from 10 to noon.

Hint, hint…Don’t lollygag like I did. Get to these Saturday markets at 10 o’clock if you are serious about winter greens!

 

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Fall Excelled and So Did the Farmers

Tailgate Market This Saturday – Even Though I Arrived Late

Fall excelled this Saturday with a perfect market day. Because I was late I missed out on some goodies, but look at this luscious bag-full I gathered before the farmers started packing up.

–Spinning Spider Garlic Dill Chevre, and a buttery harder cheese from Three Graces Dairy called Castenets

-My favorite Roots & Branches crackers – Olive Oil and Rosemary – to go with the cheese

–McConnell Farms Granny Smith Apples for a rustic galette inspired by Mark Bittman

–Cathy Osada’s Pound Cake for a tea party to celebrate my friends’ new home and promote good mojo for the upcoming paper signing

-Ultra-fresh green chard gifted by Vanessa of Full Sun Farm to experiment with in lieu of spinach (gardener alert – she says it is VERY cold hardy)

-One dozen eggs from East Fork Farm (not pictured)

-And…the most essential of ingredients – onions from Gaining Ground Farm, one was irresistible  because of its soft red color

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Hard-Core Saturday Market

North Asheville Tailgate Market, Nov. 1, 2014

Brrrrrr. Fierce or crazy? As farmer Tom Elmore put it…”either these farmers are very committed or they need to be committed!” Snow coated every tree branch on Saturday morning. Temperatures were bitter with a biting wind chill, but the roads were fine. I arrived at the North Asheville Tailgate Market bundled in a wool coat, wool socks, hat and scarf. After about an hour at the market my hands and feet were freezing; farmers had been exposed to brutal temps since early morning. I heard Asheville City Market was also up and running too, and I bet the Madison County Farmers & Artisans Market and others were too.

The Holy Trinity – Onion, Green Pepper, & Celery

Despite the cold, the farmers were admirably jovial. I stocked up for dinner and the week ahead. My newlywed niece, Cecile, and her husband were visiting – which motivated some cooking to stave off the frigid outdoors. Isn’t that one luxury of cold wintry days? They inspire cooking cozy foods and drinking lots of tea (wine, beer, cider…).

A perfect bread making day, I baked mostly-local multigrain loaves that included flours from Carolina Ground and Steadfast Farm, and a secret stash of cornmeal from Bee Tree Farm. The coarse dough was surprisingly receptive as I kneaded. Cecile concocted a salad with local greens, Bill Whipple’s pears, walnuts, and Kalamata olives. While the bread baked, we nibbled on an hors d’oeuvre of Carol’s mushrooms sautéed in butter and served on toasted pita points. Then came supper – hot bread and butter, salad, and a hearty soup made with many homegrown and local ingredients. The ingredients included carrots that were gifted to me by my sister-in-law during her recent visit. She grew them behind the flowers in her front porch window boxes.

Meals cooked with love from ingredients grown with care nourish us on so many levels. Thank you fierce farmers!

Market Finds on A Freezing Saturday

Saturday Morning at B & L Organic Farm

Bread Dough

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