Columbus Foodie

Let me stress before I begin that this was a very, very, very light farmer’s market week for me, for a couple reasons that I’ll get into a little later. I’m so proud of myself - I only spent $12 total today. Way to stick to the budget plan. We did get up and at ‘em early - out the door by 7:15. Off to the North Market first, by 7:30am. Did some of the vendors wake up on the wrong side of the bed today? There was one (not sure who, tucked between Elizabeth Telling Farms and Toad Hill Organics) lady, first time someone approached her (didn’t even ask anything, was just looking) she snapped “I’m not open!”, when we were walking by a little later, after 8am, someone asked “what is this?” and she snapped back “parsley! don’t touch it!” Wowsers. And I thought I was in a pissy mood this morning. Good thing it wasn’t me she was barking at, as I would be having none of it. Which brings us to reason #1 why this is a light week - I did something bad to my hip and it’s killing me. Pain, pain, pain, and I’m not a very nice person when I’m in pain. So I can guarantee there won’t be much involved cooking coming up this week, unless it’s Paul that’s cooking it.

So anyway, back to the North Market. I didn’t even get my weekly dose of mushrooms, sadly enough. I deliberately planned the menu this week with no mushrooms so I wouldn’t be tempted to lay out a bunch of money for delicious shiitakes. Which brings us to reason #2 for a light week this week. Prices were so darn high. $5 for a pound of tomatoes. $1.25 for two (as in two total, not two pounds) small potatoes. $5-6/dozen for corn. Way, way, way too rich for my blood. I believe in eating local, really I do, but times are friggin’ tough. And unfortunately, I can’t justify paying what they’re asking for when I can get it cheaper at Whole Foods, of all places. I wouldn’t even pay $5/lb. for heirloom tomatoes, let alone a standard variety. I’m not sure if it’s just fuel costs trickling down to the consumer, or that the demand is higher because more people are buying at farmer’s markets due to the health scares with peppers and tomatoes and vendors think they can charge more now, but really - from now on, I’ll get locally what I can get a good deal on, and get the rest conventionally at the supermarket or Aldi or wherever it’s cheapest. Our biggest concern right now is to cut our food costs by like 50% and to eat mostly out of the pantry and freezer.

Rant over. I digress. Back to the North Market. Lots of variety this week. Unfortunately, Bridgman Farms no longer has that yummy lettuce mix until fall, so no local salad for me this week (although I just planted the salad mix in my Aerogarden, so only 2 or so weeks until I’m harvesting my own!) I got some Roma beans at Comb’s Herbs ($2.50 for a good sized container), but they also had these lovely green, purple, and yellow beans too.

Also at the North Market were these really cool looking hot pepper plants. I’m already up to my eyeballs in hot peppers (I never realized just how many peppers come from one plant!) so I passed, but I love the colors of this. It would make a pretty houseplant.

I didn’t find much else affordable at the North Market, so we were on our way, and got to Worthington way early, around 8:15 (supposedly 45 minutes before they open) and it was already so packed that it was really difficult to find a parking space. I picked up some interesting wineberries ($3) at Gillogly Orchard, and then headed across the street to look around. I was tempted by passed on these beautiful plums and apricots they were selling there.

Here’s some of that aforementioned $6/dozen sweet corn. Pretty but not $6/dozen pretty.

I also got some leeks across the way for $1.25 a bunch (2 per bunch), plus some sweet onions bunches ($1.25 each) from Pop and Judy’s.

And I saw the very first of the winter squash today. Tempting, but I passed, since most dishes I make with winter squash are more fall-oriented.

So then it was off to Clintonville, where I just got eggs (no milk or cream because Snowville wasn’t there today, unfortunately). No pics. My hip was killing me by then. So after a trip to Thurn’s, I’m home, hurting, and ready to go back to sleep. So where did you guys go today and what did you get?

Today was one of those days, if you know what I mean. Not only is it the Ohio Food & Wine Festival at the North Market (thus my normal parking space at the meter was being blocked off), but they were doing construction on the freeway I take to get to the Worthington market. Either way, it meant a detour, and since we had to change up our route, we decided to change up our routine as well.

We got to the North Market a little later than usual because I forgot the memory card in my camera and we had to go back for it. Still, I wasn’t planning on getting that much this week anyway, as I don’t want to cook every night. So, we get there and I got half a pound of shiitakes this time (because I can’t forego them all together), and a few ears of corn from Mrs. Rhoads to try. Not to say that there wasn’t plenty of beautiful produce out there this morning. There definitely was. For example, this variety of plum (”Methley”) that I’m not familiar with. I don’t often see plums at the farmer’s markets.

Or these cute tiny eggplant from Wayward Seed Farm.

We got to Worthington a little later than usual, and it was packed. I only picked up a couple of things here - some blueberries, pie cherries, and Rainier cherries from Gillogly Orchards (pictured below are some pie cherries from Pop and Judy’s), some fry pies and baby squash from 2 Crows, and Lavender Honey from Dawn at Mockingbird Meadows.

As usual, lots of pretty flowers everywhere you look. Can I just say how much I love the look of these? Screams summer to me.

So here’s where things get a little different. Paul and I wanted to hit Creole Kitchen for breakfast (they stop serving it at 10am), and we didn’t especially need any dairy or eggs, so we decided to skip out on Clintonville completely. We got our breakfast (more details later, I promise!), got home and ate it, and it was still only 10:45ish. So we decided to shake things up a bit by going to a new to us farmer’s market in Grove City.

I’ve got to say, I’m impressed by the size and selection there. While there are a ton of prepared/preserved foods there, there was also tons of vendors selling produce (although pickin’s were slim at 11am) and a bison farmer as well. It was the only place I saw Ohio peaches at this week - these are from Circle S Farms, I believe.

And from Lund Fruit Farm, interesting take on cider. Didn’t get any today, but plan to in the future.

Definitely shows promise, and since that market starts at 8, I may make a quick stop there next week early before going to the North Market. So where did you all go and what did you get? Any other hidden gem farmer’s markets I should know about?

For this week’s installment of One Local Summer, I decided to go with a nice traditional grilled meal. I made a ribeye steak from OMC Farms, which I sprinkled liberally with salt and pepper and grilled using the searing burner on my grill. I could have used local potatoes, but I had some russets that needed to be used up and it would have been a waste not to. I did, however, top that non-local potato with homemade butter (using Snowville Creamery cream) and Smith Dairy sour cream.

One of my favorite parts of this meal were the baby zucchini from Toad Hill Organics that I brushed with olive oil and put directly onto the grill. After letting them get browned, I took them off and sprinkled them with a little more olive oil, balsamic vinegar, and salt. Delicious.

Next week should be even more tasty, with more and more available at the farmer’s markets each week.

The theme for this month’s edition of the Waiter There’s Something in My… blogging event is berries, and I chose to feature the beautiful berries and delicious lemon quark I picked up at last week’s farmer’s market.

The recipe, if there is one, couldn’t be simpler. I tossed a combination of strawberries, blueberries, tayberries, mulberries, black raspberries and raspberries with a touch of sugar, and then layered them in a glass with some lemon quark from Blue Jacket Dairy. So, so simple, but the most delicious thing I ate last week.

I think that each week, our starting time at the farmer’s markets are getting earlier and earlier, because I’ve been wanting to get done with all three markets before 10am so my day isn’t shot. We were dead tired because of a late night of firework and watching Rick Springfield at the Dublin festivities last night, so we weren’t too excited about dragging our rear ends out of bed at the ass crack of dawn this morning.

First stop (as usual) - the North Market. You all know that I’ve been getting a pound of shiitakes every week, and this week was no exception. There’s definitely okonomiyaki in the works this week. We also picked up 40 pickling cucumbers for processing into pickles later tonight. We agreed we weren’t going to do as much preserving this year (since we still have so much left from last year), but pickles are one of the things we’ve been out of for months. Plus, they’re super easy to prep and process, so things should go quickly.

Comb’s Herbs had red currants again today, and I was sorely tempted (I ended up eating the jelly I made from last week’s batch on cream cheese biscuits instead of making a glaze with it), but from a cost to benefit ratio (a pint makes about 4-6 oz. of jelly, and costs $5 not counting sugar), it was just a little too rich for my blood since Paul has me on the budget plan for farmer’s markets now. Still beautiful to look at.

We also saw the first of the apples for the year, some sweet corn (2 ears for $1, way more than I’m willing to spend), lots of other veggies that I haven’t seen regularly yet, including these adorable baby zucchini (that would cost about $6 at Whole Foods) from Toad Hill Organics.

We were done at the North Market just as it was officially opening (at 8am), and headed off to Worthington, which when we got there at 8:15, was already in full swing. I picked up a couple of cucumbers at Wish Well Farms (I’ve been making a lot of things with cucumber lately for some reason), but other than getting fresh fruit, I’ve been controlling myself as far as regular produce goes as I still have some left to use up from last week. Although I didn’t pick them up today, there were tons of sour cherries available for pie/jam making at Pop and Judy’s. I opted instead for the dark sweet cherries at Gillogly Orchard

I was mostly berried out after last week’s berry bonanza, but I could resist these beautiful apricots. Yay to the beginning of stone fruit season!

I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention (although I hate to do it, because it means less for me) all the tasty new cheese additions from Blue Jacket Creamery. I already told you guys about last week’s lemon quark - this week they had garlic as well (it’s awesome!), plus excellent chevre and a tropical chevre whose flavor rocks my world. I think I blew the bulk of my budget here.

It was off to Clintonville before 9am. What we saw here was pretty much the same things we found elsewhere, but I did see some really nice looking rainbow chard at Just This Farm. I’ve never cooked with chard before, can anyone clue me in on what it tastes like/what you use it for? I love the color.

After picking up my eggs at 2Silos, we headed over to the snowville Creamery stand to get some whole milk and heavy cream. How cool is it that we can get local milk and cream right at the farmer’s market, and can talk production methods directly with the producer? The reason I love their milk so much is that because it is non-homogenized (which my lactose intolerant self can process without any issues), at a fraction of the cost of Hartzler’s milk.

So, that was my morning at the markets. Where did YOU go and what did you get?

For this week’s edition of One Local Summer, I made a recipe I’ve blogged about before, using as many local ingredients as possible. The chicken is from Speckled Hen Farms, the shiitake mushrooms from Toby Run, the onions from Two Crows Farms, the sour cream from Smith Dairy, the butter is Ohio Amish roll butter, and the egg noodles are from Ohio-based Mrs. Miller’s. While not 100% local, it’s more local than not.

If it ever stops raining, we’re doing an all local day today, culminating with grilling outside. Lots of local meals planned for this week, perhaps for next week’s post I’ll do a roundup of all the local things I’ve cooked for the week?

Knowing that this weekend is ComFest, and the Pride parade, and that there’s a gaming convention going on as well, our goal this morning was to get to the North Market as early as possible, and get done as quickly as possible so we could avoid the crowds - our main priorities were to get our weekly dose of shiitakes from Toby Run, plus some more of that wonderful 13-lettuce mix from Bridgman Farms. That, and it looked like it was going to rain (they’re calling for a 30% chance of storms today, raising up to 40% after noon) However, while there, I got distracted by these lovely red currants, which I picked up from Comb’s Herbs to make into a small batch of jelly which I’ll use in a couple of days to make a red currant-mustard glaze for a lamb shoulder…

As we pulled up to park, though, we noted that it’s getting to that time of year where there’s much more variety - I spied lots of broccoli today, and also the first pickling cucumbers of the year at Wish Well Farms.

We also got the lettuce mix we were looking for, along with some Napa cabbage from Just This Farm, and some cheese and baked goods inside. Still, we managed to get out of the North Market well before 8:30.

Worthington got an early start this morning - everyone was already up and running when I got there around 8:40ish, and it was aleady crowded, with especially long lines at Wegman’s and Wish Well.

At Worthington, there were cherries as far as the eye could see, most of them at Gillogly Orchard (any guesses to where my first stop was?) In addition to some sweet cherries (I got sours and Raniers at Pop and Judy’s), I also stocked up on tayberries, black raspberries, red raspberries, and blueberries, all of which will taste absolutely wonderful on the lemon quark I got at Blue Jacket Cheese (if you haven’t picked any of this up yet, you have no idea what you’re missing out on!)

Wegman’s had the last of the good looking strawberries of the season (this is the last week, folks - the ones at Wish Well were looking *rough*), so I picked up a quart to mix with my other berries.

I got a bunch of other stuff here and there - ribeyes and ground beef (for grilling) at OMC Farms, some kohlrabi from Pop and Judy’s, fry pies at Two Crows, so much more stuff that has absolutely slipped my mind - but I was just floored at how much difference just a week makes in variety and availability of fresh Ohio produce.

We made it to Clintonville around 9:15, and after picking up my eggs from 2Silos, I snapped a pic of a sunflower (at least I think it’s a sunflower - or is it a Black Eyed Susan? Beats me, botany’s not my area of expertise) along the way, and was so surpised at how well the pic came out. Funny how you can take dozens of pictures, and every once in a while you get a good one.

I was so happy to see that Arbor Hill Organics was back for the year, because I absolutely love these Red Thumb Potatoes which are pink inside.

This display of veggies that I saw over at Flying J is represtative of what else was available at the market today. Who knew there was such a thing as purple kohlrabi? I ended up getting some yellow squash and beets across the way, and cauliflower from Flying J.

I went overboard this week at the markets, but I have a lot of cooking planned for this week, including an all local cooking day. Stay tuned. So what did *you* get at your local farmer’s market this week?

Happy solstice, everyone! For better or worse, summer is finally here. Up at the crack of dawn again, and we made our way out to the North Market before 8am. It looks like strawberries are winding down (last week they’ll be available until fall from what I understand), and today I found these lovely raspberries at Rhoads - I got a couple of pints for salad and also to go into the lovely mixed berry cobbler I’ll be working on later today for Tuesdays with Dorie.

Since I didn’t go to the farmers markets last weekend, I was pretty much cleaned out of everything, so after getting raspberries, my first stop was at Toby Run to get my requisite pound of shiitakes. I’ve become quite the shiitake piggy lately, wanting that earthy flavor in nearly every meal. It was pure torture this past week trying to live shiitake-free (supermarket shiitakes just don’t cut it, they’re anything but fresh). And something else interesting I saw today but didn’t get were these garlic scapes from Toad Hill. Interesting in concept, but found that the last time I got them, I couldn’t find much to do with them other than making some really strong pesto.

I’ll be making a salad later with some lettuce mix I picked up at Bridgman Farms - no pic of the lettuce quite yet, but look at the varieties of lettuce in this mix! Wow, I haven’t even heard of some of these. Should be extremely tasty.

In addition to the above mentioned stuff, I picked up some red leaf lettuce (to use later on burgers) from Toad Hill, some grape tomatoes from Wish Well Farms, and some pea shoots from Elizabeth Telling Farms.

We had a bit of a delay in leaving the North Market (Paul needed to pick a few things up), so by the time we finally made it to Worthington at 8:50ish, the parking situation was already impossible. Paul dropped me off and circled around for nearly a half an hour before finding a space (and by that time I was already done). I think (I hope!) it’s because of the Art Sale they had going on this weekend, I’d hate to think that this will be a weekly issue. Especially since some of my favorite farmers are at the Worthington Market.

The first thing I did was pick up a couple of quarts of the last strawberries from Crum’s. They looked good for the last of the harvest, and unlike most people, I’m not quite strawberried out yet. And root veggies are starting to make an appearance - like kohlrabi (which I didn’t get because I just harvested some from my garden) and these beets:

I can always measure the appearance of summer by the sighting of the first green onions at Two Crows. Today was no exception.

Next week there will be sour cherries. I’m so looking forward to it, I’ve got quite a few plans for preserving cherries this year. I picked up some more cheese curds from Blue Jacket Cheese, and then I had to hunt down Paul so we could make our way to the Clintonville market.

Clintonville was hoppin’ today, with some pretty long lines for I’m not sure what (never did make it down that far). Lots of strawberries to be had at Clintonville, and the first appearance of my beloved Snowville Creamery, where I bought some cream for processing later on (let’s just say that I’ve been inspired by Lisa to try my hand at making my own butter from cream. Some of those delicious fry pies from 2Silos, and then some baby turnips and English peas from Wayward Seed Farms.

Why is it that something as simple as my weekend trips to the farmers markets bring me such great joy? I think Saturday mornings are the happiest I am all week, even more so than when I actually cook with what I got. Go figure.

After all that shopping, we got our okonomyaki fix on at ZenCha, and now we’re contemplating whether or not we’re going to grill tonight.

So what did you get at the farmers markets today?

Every time that I think I’ve got my husband figured out, he does something that surprises me and makes me fall in love with him all over again. If food is love, this dish is obsession. My husband volunteered to make this week’s recipe for One Local Summer, and he truly outdid himself. This came out tasting so mouthwateringly delicious that if I didn’t know any better, I would have thought that a chef at one of the city’s finest restaurants had whipped it up. The sauce is where it’s at with this one, and if there’s one thing my husband does well, it’s sauces.

I made it as local as possible - the pork tenderloin was from OMC Farms (they sell at both Worthington and Clintonville on Saturday mornings), the shiitake mushrooms were from Toby Run at the North Market farmer’s market, the baby leeks were from Comb’s Herbs (North Market farmer’s market), the shallots and garlic were from the Worthington Farmer’s Market (vendor name escapes me now), the beef and chicken broth were Kitchen Basics (manufactured here in Ohio), the butter was Ohio Amish roll butter (got it at Carfagna’s Market), the cream was from Smith Dairy (also got it at Carfagna’s), the potatoes (I made mashed potatoes instead of celery root potatoes) were from HW Organics, selling at the Worthington Farmer’s Market. The only non-local ingredients were the ruby Port (got that at Trader Joe’s, haven’t found a local source for this) and the olive oil. We had extra mushroom mixture, so we mixed it through with the potatoes and they went from good to awesome. We also doubled the amount of sauce we made, for no reason other than it tasted so good we wanted a lot of it. The timing for the tenderloin is spot on, the couple times we’ve made this in the past week or so, it came out done perfectly medium.

Mushroom Stuffed Pork Tenderloin with Port Reduction Sauce
recipe adapted from Bon Appetit

2 c. chicken broth
2 c. beef broth
1 c. ruby Port
4 tsp. minced garlic
10 tbsp. (1 1/4 sticks) butter
1/4 c. chopped shallots
8 oz. shiitake mushrooms, stemmed, finely chopped
1 1/2 c. chopped leek (white and pale green parts only)
1/2 c. heavy cream
2 (1 1/4 lb) pork tenderloins (from center or thick end), trimmed, each cut crosswise in half
2 1/2 tbsp. chopped fresh marjoram or 2 1/2 tsp. dried

1 tbsp. olive oil

Preheat oven to 400°F. Combine both broths, Port and garlic in heavy small saucepan. Boil until sauce is reduced to 1 1/2 cup, about 30-40 minutes. Set aside.

Meanwhile, melt 2 tablespoons butter in large skillet over medium-high heat. Add shallots and sauté until translucent, about 1 minute. Add mushrooms and leek and sauté until tender, about 6 minutes. Stir in cream. Cook mixture until vegetables are soft and most of cream is absorbed, about 5 minutes. Cool.

Insert handle of wooden spoon lengthwise into cut end of each tenderloin, forming 1/2- to 3/4-inch-diameter hole. Transfer mushroom mixture to pastry bag fitted with large plain tip. Force mixture into center of each tenderloin, filling hole completely. Rub tenderloins with marjoram. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.

Heat oil in large ovenproof skillet over high heat. Add tenderloins to skillet and cook until brown on all sides, about 6 minutes total. Transfer skillet to oven. Roast tenderloins until cooked through, about 8 minutes. Remove skillet from oven. Transfer tenderloins to platter; tent with foil to keep warm. Return skillet to stove. Whisk in sauce.

Bring to boil, scraping up any browned bits. Remove from heat. Whisk in 8 tablespoons butter.

Cut tenderloins crosswise into slices. Spoon mashed potatoes (I don’t need to tell you how to make these, I’m sure everyone here has their own favorite mashed potato recipe) onto plates. Arrange tenderloin slices around mashed potatoes. Drizzle sauce over and serve.

We got another super-early start to our Saturday market crawl, but I was a bit more cranky than usual, in part due to lack of sleep, but also because it was pretty darn warm and humid even at 8am. First stop was the North Market, where I didn’t have to stand in line to get strawberries from Rhoads (the early bird gets the 4 quarts for $17 worm, natch). Can I just say that I had made my way through last week’s 2 quarts in a matter of days, and have been craving these strawberries all week? I made a beeline as soon as we got there. Aren’t they lovely?

I ran into Lisa and also a reader who recognized me (I’m so sorry I seemed rushed and didn’t have time to chat - we were trying to get in and out of there before 8:30am; I’m really a nice person, I swear, even though I know I didn’t come across that way this morning - please leave a comment and introduce yourself, I’d love to talk to you and get to know you better in a lot less chaotic atmosphere. )

Wishwell Farms had some asparagus (to be honest, I’m asparagus’d out at the moment) and these pretty greenhouse grown tomatoes, or as my husband noted, “tomatoes that taste like tomatoes”.

We picked up some of the eggs that Lisa recommended from Toad Hill, plus a whole pound of shiitakes (oh, how I love these!) from Toby Run. Just This Farm had some really pretty baby turnips, which I plan on roasting with a chicken this evening.

It was then off to Worthington, where when we arrived there 15 minutes early at 8:45, was already in full swing, including a 50+ person line for strawberries at Crum’s. Now, I’ve had both Crum’s and Rhoad’s, and truthfully, they both taste about the same to me and are about the same price. Me? I think I’ll skip the ginormous line and get them at the North Market this season. For some reason, people were a bit pushy and rude this morning, much more so than usual. I guess I’m not the only one who woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning. We didn’t buy much at Worthington (some beer brats and beef sticks from OMC Farms, some cheese curds and fresh mozzarella from Blue Jacket Cheese, and some hand pies and lovely Easter Egg radishes from Two Crows Farms. These are delicious when sliced thin, and sprinkled with coarse sea salt on a dark heavy bread like pumpernickel that’s been slathered with cultured butter. Yum, I’m drooling just thinking about it.

So we zipped out of there fairly quickly, and got to the Clintonville Farmer’s Market around 9:30 this morning. I finally got to meet Alan of Alan’s Bread face to face (hi, Alan! It was nice meeting you, and I’ll be sure to check out the Clintonville Community Market soon). Let me tell you, that market was hoppin’ today! It’s exciting to see more and more selection now that we’re getting out of spring and heading into summer. I picked up some beautiful carrots (also going into the roast chicken tonight) from Sippel Family Farm.

Naomi’s Garden, as usual, had several different types of lettuce, but it looked especially stunning today.

And Frijolito Farms had cups of mulberries (I picked one up to put in a trifle tonight), a taste of which immediately brought back a sensory memory of being 5 years old and foraging these, eating my fill, and coming home stained from head to toe by the berry juice. Amazing how a single taste of something can just bring memories flooding back.

I won’t be doing Saturday markets next week, as I’ll be at 2Silos in Mt. Gilead Meeting My Meat. We’re thinking of hitting one of the Sunday markets near Cincinnati before making a trip to Jungle Jim’s.

So that was my weekend at the market - what did you get?