Fresh Produce from Local Roots Market
I love my local farmer’s market, it’s fantastic. I enjoy chatting with the vendors and seeing all the things they grow. If I want endive or arugula I have to grow it myself or do without, none of the vendors at my local market carry the more exotic vegetables. If I want regular potatoes I can find them, fingerlings – not a chance. If I wanted anything but apples past September I was out of luck. I thought I hit the exotic vegetable jackpot this summer when I spotted one savoy cabbage.
Not so with the Local Roots Market. I spotted lots of arugula, endive, fingerling potatoes, bitter winter greens and lots of other interesting things. I mentioned yesterday that I was impressed with the variety of produce I spotted on Saturday. It was a hard choice deciding what to buy, but I finally settled on these things.
Four stalks of brussles sprouts and a big celeriac root. The sprouts we’ll roast or saute with bacon and onions. The celeriac is most likely going to be made into this soup.
These fingerlings were roasted in the oven last night. We ate half last night and the other half will be eaten with eggs tonight.
These oyster mushrooms will be sauteed in olive oil and tossed with some soy sauce. The winter greens don’t have a plan yet, I think perhaps they’ll end up being paired with a warm mustard bacon vinaigrette and topped with those mushrooms and some caramelized onions.
I scored a huge bag full of red onions and a few cipollini onions. The red ones will be caramelize and made into caramelized red onion soup to be enjoyed with a crusty bread. Some of them will make their way into braised red cabbage and others will most likely top potatoes and grace other savory dishes.
These carrots were roasted in the oven whole and we enjoyed them with a side of fingerling potatoes, brussels sprouts, and mushrooms. I also bought a few more balls of hand spun yarn from Trinity Woolen Mill, I forgot to take a photo of them until too late last night.
I also scored a few bunches of sage which will come in handy for our Thanksgiving feast on Thursday and for savory soups throughout the winter. I didn’t buy any endive, I forgot actually. I have arugula growing in the garden so I didn’t buy any of that either.
What’s your favorite exotic vegetable?
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And the Winner is: MAYBELLINE
Mr Chiots made a random number generator to pick the winner of the calendar. Who did it choose? Maybelline, is the winner of the large 2010 Chiot’s Run calendar.
I must say, I’m very impressed with the quality of the calendar, the paper is heavy, the photos look great and it’s way bigger than I thought it would be (although I knew the dimensions, it seems bigger in real life). It’s quite amazing to see my photos this BIG. I never print them off and usually just looking at them on my computer or on the blog!
If you’d like to buy one use the links at the top in the sidebar, there’s a big one and small one. A big thanks to all of you who buy a calendar, I get a few dollars from each sale (helps me pay for the one I gave away and perhaps I’ll be able to buy a miniature Meyer lemon tree with the rest). Remember, calendars make a great Christmas gift, everyone needs one! Even if you don’t buy a calendar head on over to Lulu and rate my calendar (you can use the links in the sidebar)!
A big thanks to all of you who read my blog and take the time to comment, I always appreciate reading what you have to say. I wish I could give you all a calendar.
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Local Roots Market in Wooster, OH
This past Saturday I went to the Local Roots Market in Wooster, Ohio. I heard about it this summer while at the local fair and I’ve been watching their website for news and updates. They opened recently and since I had Saturday off, I headed over to Wooster to see what the market was like.
Their plan is to have an year-round indoor farmer’s market to connect the community with local sources of meat, dairy, vegetables, honey, and other locally produced products.
I was given a tour and told all about the future plans of the Local Roots Market. They plan on opening up a cafe that uses local food. A local butcher would like to open a shop in the back of the building selling locally raised meat. They want to install a commercial kitchen the farmers can use to add value to their produce. It’s a wonderful plan that I can get behind. I’m very excited to have a source for produce all winter long. I plan on attending several times a month (when I have a Sat off) and supporting this great initiative.
There were a variety of farmers/artisans there on Saturday because they were holding their annual Holiday Market. Generally they don’t have vendors selling crafts. This is a nice change. I’ve heard that some farmer’s markets are more craft markets than produce markets.
The variety and quality of produce available was wonderful. I do love my local farmer’s market (which ended yesterday morning), but because it’s a very rural area the variety of produce is at times lacking. I’ve never seen arugula, endive, bitter greens, fingerling potatoes and other interesting items at my local market. This market featured many of the items I love to eat. I saw endive, arugula, purple and white carrots, all kinds of herbs, ground cherries, brussels sprouts on the stalk, spelt artisan bread, raw milk cheese, grass-fed beef, celery roots and much more.
All the vendors have signs with their farm name, the type of farming they do: organic, conventional, integrated pest management, etc. This is great because you can look at the sign and know right away if the use chemicals or practice organic methods.
The market was packed, which is always good to see. It’s clear that there are a lot of community members that are interesting in eating locally and strengthening the local food system and the local economy. I’ll show you all the delicious things I got tomorrow.
Have you found that the local food movement is growing in your area?
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Last Chance
The calendars arrived yesterday, so I’ll be drawing a winner tomorrow. Make sure you comment on the calendar post for your chance to win. Maybelline is the winner but you can still buy a calendar. See the top of the sidebar for details.
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Protecting Hydrangeas from Winter Weather
Hydrangeas are beautiful shrubs, I’d have to say my favorite flowering bush. I have 12 hydrangeas in my gardens, 11 different kinds. I don’t know if I can pick a favorite, I really love them all.
I have a few that have never bloomed because they’re the kind of hydrangea that only blooms on old wood. They aren’t hardy to this zone and the buds freeze out on the stems each year. I also have some hydrangeas that bloom on both old and new wood, these varieties are nice for our zone because if the buds freeze out you still get some blooms.
This was my hydrangea ‘Endless Summer’ in 2008, it’s 2nd year in the garden. This past winter was tough on the hydrangeas, we had some very cold weather. Because of all the snow on the ground, the local deer decided hydrangea buds made for delicious winter eating. My ‘Endless Summer’ hydrangeas didn’t bloom all summer long because the deer ate all the early summer blooms. They bloomed this fall, but they weren’t nearly as pretty as last summer.
I have “Nikko Blue’ hydrangea that has only bloomed 3 years of the 8 we’ve lived here. This one needs crated to bloom because it only blooms on old wood. I have a few other varieties like this, a variegated hydrangea, another red one (can’t remember the name) and one that gets wintered over in the garage in a big pot.
This year I finally decided to protect a few of my hydrangeas from the harsh NE Ohio winters and the nibble deer. My efforts should be rewarded with beautiful blooms all summer long!
There are several different methods for protecting hydrangeas. I’m going to use 2 of them. The first method will be used on my large mature hydrangeas. I’m wrapping them with burlap and stuffing the burlap with leaves. This should insulate the stems from the cold and keep the deer out.
I used red yarn to tie off the burlap because it’s easy to see. Next spring it will make it easy to unwrap the hydrangeas, I’ll be able to spot the ties easily. It also makes for easy spotting of your needle in case you drop it.
I put stakes around the shrub, 3 spaced in a triangular shape. I used 3 instead of 4 because I only have 6 nice wooden stakes and I have 2 very large hydrangeas that require heavy stakes. I’ll use smaller bamboo stakes around the smaller bushes.
I wrapped burlap around the stakes (it’s 4 ft tall) and filled the area inside with leaves. I finished wrapping one and I still have another large one to wrap. I’ll fill you in on the second method I’ll be using next week when I have some photos to show.
It’s not the prettiest thing, but I think in the snow it will look nice. I think it’s worth looking at burlap all winter to see beautiful hydrangeas all summer long. One hydrangea down, 11 more to go.
Do go to any great lengths to protect any specific plants in your garden?
