From Ted McGinn:
GOODMORNING BLOOMINGDALE!!!!!!!!!
We had the biggest kick-off for the Bloomingdale farmer’s market ever! Over 600 market shoppers snatched up local strawberries, asparagus, mushrooms and lamb. We had outstanding breads, fresh pasta and organic greens. If your in town this weekend stop by for a Big Bear Latte and get your market on!Dear Friends of BFM:
Whether you are a meat eater or a vegetarian, we will have delicious things for a lovely Memorial Day weekend, join us Sunday from 10AM – 2 PM, at First and R streets NW, next to the Big Bear Cafe.
And don’t stint on the tradition of planting your garden over this weekend — Caitlan Reid is bringing plenty– a Garden Center of herbs and veggies and flowers for your gardens and containers. These are the very best varieties she knows.
But she is not the only one: check out Garner and SnowBear and Greenstone Fields as well!
ASPARAGUS are still abundant and you should grill them this weekend. I so much prefer them grilled to boiled. Try the recipe for Asparagus Strawberry Salad with Strawberry vinaigrette — it is on our market table
Recipe: a lovely, simple 2008 recipe from LeDroit’s Paul Baranowski: I steamed asparagus yesterday. Then, I diced fresh ginger and fresh tarragon, added sea salt and fresh cracked pepper with some olive oil to make a relish to put over the asparagus. Really turned out well.
Stefano Frigiero’s Copper Pot fabulous Pastas this week: Stefano brought too little last week so he is working overtime to have lots of pastas for you for your holiday weekend! Handmade pastas. of course. Rabbit ravioli, prosciutto tortellini, beets and goat cheese ravioli, sausage and sage ravioli, gluten free tagliolini, spelt tagliolini, cavatelli, gnocchi, spaghett. Jams with attitude: strawberries and vanilla, figs and balsamic, blackberries and ginger, peach and prosecco, and apple jam. Sauces: smokey bacon and parmesan sauce, tomato, and shallots and barolo.
Keswick: Yogurt with herbs (or chopped spring onions) makes a great sauce for grilled foods and Keswick’s is my all time favorite. — Stefano says their Ricotta is the real Italian kind –he loves it and uses it in his stuffed ravioli. Cheddar, Wallaby, Lesher, Vermeer, Fetas. Bovre, German style Quark and….. pudding.
Painted Hand Farm from Pennsylvania will have lots of pastured eggs, both chicken and duck, for egg salads. Duck eggs have deep colored yolks and a very rich flavor: I have used them both for hard boiled eggs (great on picnics) and omelets and the flavor is really good. Looking for burgers: beef, goat or veal here. She has very humanely raised, grass-fed ROSE veal and goat meat. All cuts: shanks, chops, ground, veal scaloppini (a thin cutlet), breakfast link goat sausage.
Sandy wrote: It was so nice to see familiar faces and be welcomed back to the neighborhood. I love your market and I love my customers!
Great on the grill: hot and sweet Italian veal sausage, traditional German-style Bratwurs t (veal and pork)
Greenstone Fields: Barbara and Dennis will have EGGS, MUSHROOMS and beautiful flowers from their Loudoun County fields.
SnowBear Farm: Certified Naturally Grown in the Virginia Suburbs, Jim and Nancy turned a suburban lot into a working farm. This week Snowbear will LOTS of arugula now that they know you love it. They are also bringing their Simpson’s Black Seeded Lettuce (a mild, green leaf lettuce with crinkly edges and a small sweet R omaine called Jericho. Two kinds of spring Onions, spinach, chives, scallions, baby chard, mizuna, kale, radishes, mustards. Plus lots of plant starts: herbs, vegetables and flowers.
Jim also wrote me a lovely note telling me how much he loved the market! BFM has the NICEST customers! All the producers tell me that.
Garner: Asparagus and strawberries. Beets, lettuces, romaine, red and white spring onions, radishes, Bright Lights multi colored Chards, arugula, turnip greens. And he hopes to have baby new potatoes so young and tender that you can steam them in just three minutes for your picnics. Toss with olive oil and fresh herbs. Perfect.
What to eat? Think Great Greens… Salad Greens, Mesclun, Spinach, Stir-fry greens made with Chard, Mizuna, Mustards and a little arugula. Spring Onions and oversized spring onions with the big bulb are great on the grill. Mint, Chives, Garlic Chives add a lot of zip to salads.
Plant Your Gardens and Patios: Caitlan says: Hopefully folks will use Memorial Day to get some plants in the ground! Besides the apples. apple- cherry cider, apple cider, apple sauce, apple butter. In the plant world are some herb gardens you can put on your deck or patio and clip as you need them, lettuce gardens that will last for weeks, heirloom tomatoes, red & green sweet pepper plants, red & yellow sweet Italian heirloom stuffing peppers, some hot peppers, “Titan” sunflowers with edible heads, heirloom crookneck squash plants, heirloom zucchini plants (white and green), pattypan plants, broccoli plants, and arugula plants. Our pesticide-free herbs: basil, catnip, chives, cilantro, dill, 9 kinds of lavender, lemon balm, lemon verbena, mint, oregano, parsley and chervil (including Gig, 8 kinds of rosemary, green & purple sage, summer&winter savory, french tarragon, 10 different thymes for culinary or landscaping uses.
The parsley is the “Gigante” variety straight from Italy, a vigorous flat-leaf people have been clamoring for as it never died back last winter.
Desserts for your Picnics: Strawberries, of course. With Keswick yogurt or ricotta. Or Keswick quark and one of Stefano’s jams….
And of course, Panorama’s great breads and rolls for your picnics: baguettes go well with sausages, ciabatta makes a great sausage sandwich with greens, foccaccia is lovely heaped with sauteed swiss chard or mustards. 9 grain rolls with toasted sunflowe r seeds go well with everything! Olive oil buns are on sale this week. Lots of French and multi grain breads for you…they all freeze very well for later in the week.
Enjoy your picnics and barbecues. New Asbury Lamb and Common Good will be back next week.
Robin and Ted
Bates Area Civic Association 