The summer is moving into fall, slowly, as each day gets a little cooler. In Vancouver we tend to stay hot through September so it is not quite time to mourn. It is time to start snapping up late summer deals at the market.
There are two main deals at the market right now: seconds and large crops.
It is the height of the stone fruit growing season and stone fruits ripen fast and don't transport well. If you want to make jam or pie or any sort of baked good with stone fruits, ask the vendor if they sell stone fruit "seconds". This is code for damaged fruit that is perhaps not a consumer's first choice, however, it tends to be ripe and sweet meaning it is perfect for canning and baking and saucing.
The best way to score deals on seconds is to, again, get to know your farmer.
Let them know you are wanting to make jam or preserves or what have you
and that you are looking for seconds. Of course be polite and wait
until they aren't super busy with other customers.
The heat wave also leads to large amounts of some produce ripening at the same time, this is what I mean by large crops. Cucumbers, for example, were plentiful last weekend at Klipper's and were on sale for a buck a cucumber, any size! That is a great deal for a certified organic, locally-grown cucumber.
As with the seconds, just keep your eye out for possibilities and ask your local farmers. Because we don't really live in a bargaining culture we can think that it's rude to ask for discounts, it's not. Just let them know that you are trying to feed yourself and your family healthy food on a limited budget and ask if they are expecting any large crops. Maybe they have bulk discounts and you can pair up with a few friends? It never hurts to ask.
Good luck and happy hunting! I would love to hear about success stories!
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Shonagh explores the guts of food in An Offal Experiment.
Showing posts with label certified organic. Show all posts
Showing posts with label certified organic. Show all posts
Saturday, September 1, 2012
Sunday, June 17, 2012
Volunteering at the Market and Spinach Salad
This is my last semester of classes before I finish my Masters degree. While I still have a practicum to finish and thesis to write I am beginning to feel like I am close to the end. In honor of this ending, I wanted to really celebrate the student life this summer, by this I mean not working full time. One of the many activities I have scheduled is volunteering at the farmer's market for a small certified organic farm called Klippers Organic Acres!
I am planning to profile the lovely couple that runs the farm in a later post, however, until then I am continuing my farmer's market series by describing my volunteer experience. The program is simple: Come to the market super early in the morning, help them set up all the produce, and then keep it stocked during the day, while chit-chatting with market-goers. Then, at the end of the day, you fill up your bags with certified organic produce. Sounds good to me!
I have volunteered twice now and I absolutely love it! I am a chit-chatterer and I seem to run into about a dozen people I know at the market and it is lovely catching up. The owners are really relaxed and give all of the volunteers time to wander off to check out the other vendors. I am sold. Check out the website and email Kevin and Anna-Marie if you are interested in helping them out at the markets.
So to celebrate my second week of volunteering I am using the delicious, crunchy spinach as inspiration for a delicious spring salad.
Ingredients
1) Rinse the spinach (or not if you like the extra minerals that the dirt brings) and chop it finely. I like my greens chopped finely. If I don't do this I get oil all over my face. In fact, I've always wondered how other people eat salad and don't get oil all over their faces??? Seriously it mystifies me.
2) To make as little mess as possible I pour the oil and vinegar in the bottom of the bowl I'm using to serve the salad. The oil is Palestinian from a company called Zatoun. I heard about Zatoun when I attended a lecture on the Israeli occupation of Palestine. The olive oil is fair trade and some of the money goes to replanting the olive trees that are being destroyed by the occupation.
3) I like to grate the orange peel straight into the bowl using the small setting. Looking at the picture below, you can see the spray of orange essence on the gray of the bowl. If you grate the orange peel onto a cutting board or into a bowl then you lose all of this loveliness. Don't lose the loveliness.
4) At this point throw the spinach leaves into the bowl and toss, toss, toss. I like to dress the greens without the rest of the salad for two reasons. First, it is nice to pile the "meat" of the salad on top - it looks really pretty. Second, you don't want to mush the avocado or crush the orange pieces. They will migrate into the rest of the salad as you serve it.
5) To segment the oranges, first cut the top and bottom off so that it sits on the cutting board without rolling around.
6) Then cut the peel off deeply enough so that the inner flesh of the orange is exposed. Don't compost the outer orange peel until you have squeezed the juice into the tossed salad.
7) Using a knife, cut the segments out leaving the membrane behind. You will end up with gorgeous segments of orange with no peel or membrane. For my salad, I like to cut each segment up into three pieces for ease of eating. You don't have to.
Again, squeeze the orange membrane onto the spinach salad to get all that delicious juice.
Arrange the segments onto the top of the salad with the cubes of avocado.
8) Run out to your garden or reach up to your window sill and pick a few
nice pieces of parsley. Place them on top of the salad.
At this point you can add the chopped walnuts and a twist of black pepper.
I love the slight bitterness of the walnuts against the fattiness of the avocado and the bright juiciness of the orange with the crunchiness of the spinach.
If you have time to stop by the Trout Lake farmer’s market, make sure you take a swagger by the Klipper’s booth and chit-chat with me!
Now on to the most important question: What am I going to make the next time I volunteer? Check back to find out!
-----
Shonagh writes An Offal Experiment - exploring the guts of food
I am planning to profile the lovely couple that runs the farm in a later post, however, until then I am continuing my farmer's market series by describing my volunteer experience. The program is simple: Come to the market super early in the morning, help them set up all the produce, and then keep it stocked during the day, while chit-chatting with market-goers. Then, at the end of the day, you fill up your bags with certified organic produce. Sounds good to me!
I have volunteered twice now and I absolutely love it! I am a chit-chatterer and I seem to run into about a dozen people I know at the market and it is lovely catching up. The owners are really relaxed and give all of the volunteers time to wander off to check out the other vendors. I am sold. Check out the website and email Kevin and Anna-Marie if you are interested in helping them out at the markets.
So to celebrate my second week of volunteering I am using the delicious, crunchy spinach as inspiration for a delicious spring salad.
Ingredients
- Certified organic spinach - two cups
- Olive oil - two teaspoons
- White wine vinegar - one teaspoon
- Orange zest - one orange
- Orange segments
- Avocado - half and avocado, cubed
- Sea Salt - to taste
- Parsley - just a sprig or two
- Walnuts - chopped roughly
1) Rinse the spinach (or not if you like the extra minerals that the dirt brings) and chop it finely. I like my greens chopped finely. If I don't do this I get oil all over my face. In fact, I've always wondered how other people eat salad and don't get oil all over their faces??? Seriously it mystifies me.
2) To make as little mess as possible I pour the oil and vinegar in the bottom of the bowl I'm using to serve the salad. The oil is Palestinian from a company called Zatoun. I heard about Zatoun when I attended a lecture on the Israeli occupation of Palestine. The olive oil is fair trade and some of the money goes to replanting the olive trees that are being destroyed by the occupation.
3) I like to grate the orange peel straight into the bowl using the small setting. Looking at the picture below, you can see the spray of orange essence on the gray of the bowl. If you grate the orange peel onto a cutting board or into a bowl then you lose all of this loveliness. Don't lose the loveliness.
4) At this point throw the spinach leaves into the bowl and toss, toss, toss. I like to dress the greens without the rest of the salad for two reasons. First, it is nice to pile the "meat" of the salad on top - it looks really pretty. Second, you don't want to mush the avocado or crush the orange pieces. They will migrate into the rest of the salad as you serve it.
5) To segment the oranges, first cut the top and bottom off so that it sits on the cutting board without rolling around.
Again, squeeze the orange membrane onto the spinach salad to get all that delicious juice.
Arrange the segments onto the top of the salad with the cubes of avocado.
At this point you can add the chopped walnuts and a twist of black pepper.
I love the slight bitterness of the walnuts against the fattiness of the avocado and the bright juiciness of the orange with the crunchiness of the spinach.
If you have time to stop by the Trout Lake farmer’s market, make sure you take a swagger by the Klipper’s booth and chit-chat with me!
Now on to the most important question: What am I going to make the next time I volunteer? Check back to find out!
-----
Shonagh writes An Offal Experiment - exploring the guts of food
Monday, June 4, 2012
Early Spring at the Market - On the Cheap!
When people talk of visiting the Farmer's Market they don't often exclaim over its cheapness. More usually you hear grumbling and groaning over the prices, so much more expensive than the supermarket, is it actually worth the money...
All opinions aside over whether it really is that much more expensive, I am here to offer the market through another lens - my Scottish thrifty lens. My Scottish thrifty lens is an inheritance from a long line of thrifty Scots. When it comes to sniffing out a deal or using the very last drop of dish soap, few do it better than the Scottish. So if you are heading towards the market, make sure to keep your eyes out for these smokin' early spring deals.
1) Apples - In Vancouver, apples are a fall fruit. They are at their peak as the air crisps up, signalling the oncoming winter. So the spring is the best time to find deals on apples. They have been in cold storage and aren't at the height of crunchiness but who says you have to only eat apples raw. Stock up on big bags of apples and make apple sauce, apple pie, apple chutney, etc. etc. I found big bags of certified organic apples for only $5 bucks!
2) Beet Greens - So I've actually been volunteering at the market and I've discovered that most people don't want the beet greens. They ask the farmer to strip them off. I know! Crazy! All that delicious and nutritious greenery going straight into the compost bin. So what is a thrifty person to do? Well you have two options:
4) Market Membership - With all the hustle and the bustle of the market many things escaped my notice in the past. Now that I am volunteering I have time to soak in the market culture. Lesson from last weekend? Get a membership to the farmer's market society. Then, as you wander around the booths, you will get deals on specific items. It's a win-win situation. Get on it.
I would love to hear about other deals and steals that people find at the market either through commenting or email.
Check back soon to hear more about my experiences volunteering at the market this summer.
All opinions aside over whether it really is that much more expensive, I am here to offer the market through another lens - my Scottish thrifty lens. My Scottish thrifty lens is an inheritance from a long line of thrifty Scots. When it comes to sniffing out a deal or using the very last drop of dish soap, few do it better than the Scottish. So if you are heading towards the market, make sure to keep your eyes out for these smokin' early spring deals.
1) Apples - In Vancouver, apples are a fall fruit. They are at their peak as the air crisps up, signalling the oncoming winter. So the spring is the best time to find deals on apples. They have been in cold storage and aren't at the height of crunchiness but who says you have to only eat apples raw. Stock up on big bags of apples and make apple sauce, apple pie, apple chutney, etc. etc. I found big bags of certified organic apples for only $5 bucks!
2) Beet Greens - So I've actually been volunteering at the market and I've discovered that most people don't want the beet greens. They ask the farmer to strip them off. I know! Crazy! All that delicious and nutritious greenery going straight into the compost bin. So what is a thrifty person to do? Well you have two options:
- Option 1: Stand by the beets and start makin' deals. Ask people if they are going to eat the greens and if they say no, offer to take them off their hands. You are doing them a favour by relieving their "throwing it away" guilt.
- Option 2: Speak to the farmer directly. Explain that you are a beet green fanatic and are horrified that people don't eat them. As you ask what they cost train your children to chime in with a "mommy I'm hungry" and I am sure you will get them for free. Ethics you say? You're talking to a thrifty Scot.
4) Market Membership - With all the hustle and the bustle of the market many things escaped my notice in the past. Now that I am volunteering I have time to soak in the market culture. Lesson from last weekend? Get a membership to the farmer's market society. Then, as you wander around the booths, you will get deals on specific items. It's a win-win situation. Get on it.
I would love to hear about other deals and steals that people find at the market either through commenting or email.
Check back soon to hear more about my experiences volunteering at the market this summer.
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