Cooking Local: The Farmers Market is All Green!

Tender turnips and refreshing early radishes at the Farmers' Market

Text and photos by Greta Hardin

At the beginning of the Farmer Market season, many a savvy shopper asks,

“Why bother with the Farmers Market this early in the year? It all seems to be leaves.”

As the fresh produce of last fall faded away, and all the local stuff petered out to stored roots – onions, beets, potatoes, parsnips with the occasional hardy bunch of kale or mustard greens, the glamour and glory of the Idea of the Farmers Market wore off. The green and the sweet and the bright of spring and summer are forgotten. And then I, and many of my fellow NorthWesterners feel the need for something fresh, and head back to the grocery stores for our produce needs.

But with Spring back in town, get up and go to the very early Farmers Markets. It may seem all asparagus, radishes and kale, but there are plenty of prizes waiting for the spring shopper. This is when you can wake up your taste buds and remind yourself of the whole point of local produce. 

The asparagus is most obvious, but for a real reminder of why Farmers Markets are such a big deal, reach for a bunch of tender little turnips, or the refreshing early radishes – things you are unlikely to find at any grocery store.

The Lake Forest Park Farmers' Market is held every Sunday, from 10am to 3pm, in the lower level of Town Center at the intersection of Ballinger Way and Bothell Way.

Pickled Spring Salad with fresh bread

Pickled Spring Vegetable Salad

Ingredients:

• 1 bunch salad turnips
• 1 bunch spring radishes
• 1 bunch lettuce or tender kale
• chives or green onions
• 1 bunch herbs – chervil, parsley or other tender spring herb
• 1C vinegar (rice, cider or white all work)
• 2/3 C water
• 2/3 C sugar
• 2 Tbs salt
• 2 Tbs mustard
• pepper to taste
• ¼ C olive oil (or other oil you like)

Equipment:

• cutting board
• knife
• sauce pan
• large spoon
• slotted spoon
• fork or whisk
• salad bowl and servers

Prep:

1. Wash all your produce well.
2. Trim the stalks and roots off the tiny turnips and radishes. Save a handful of good looking leaves from each. (Both radish leaves and tender turnip leaves add flavor to a salad.)
3. Rinse and spin/pat dry the salad greens and about half the bunch of herbs.
4. Chop the lettuce or tender kale and herbs into small bite sized pieces.
5. Stack the radish and turnip leaves and slice into thin shreds.
6. Slice the radishes thinly and quarter the little turnips. Trim and slice the chives/ green onions.

Cook!

On a stove combine the vinegar, water, sugar and salt in the sauce pan and bring it to a boil. Stir the sugar and salt to make sure they dissolve. Remove from the heat and add the sliced radishes, turnips and half the chives/green onions. Set aside.

In the salad bowl, use the fork/whisk to stir together the mustard, 2Tbs of the pickling liquid, the oil and pepper to taste. Stir in the chopped salad greens and herbs, including the radish and turnip greens.

Use the slotted spoon to remove the pickled vegetables from the pickling liquid and toss them with the other vegetables.

Spring Salad is yours. If you want to turn this into a meal, soft boil some (Farmers Market) eggs (1-2 per person, depending on the person) by stirring them in boiling water for about 3 minutes. Let then cool while chopping some Farmers Market bread into 1 inch cubes and frying it.

Place the fried cubes on the salad, then peel the eggs. A beautiful meal. A glass of rosé wine might be called for.

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Starting Saturday Jun 14th - October 4th

The Shoreline Farmers Market will be at Shoreline City Hall

Top level of the Parking Structure (Free Parking underneath)

17500 Midvale Ave N, Shoreline

Sunday May 11th - October 26th

10am to 3pm

The Lake Forest Park Farmers Market is at Third Place Commons

Lower Level Parking Lot (Free Parking in surrounding spots)

17171 Bothell Way NE, Lake Forest Park

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Greta Hardin is a science teacher, food nerd, and the author of Cooking Your Local Produce: A cookbook for tackling Farmers Markets, CSAs (Community Supported Agriculture) and your own back yard.