What's New at www.SeasonalChef.com

Jersey Corn at Princeton farmers market

2007-07-15T02:07:00.000-07:00

Farmers in New Jersey got a late start with their planting this spring, so for a while, it looked like New Jerseyans might have to make it through the 4th of July holiday without the usual Jersey sweet corn and Jersey tomatoes. That disaster was averted by a favorable turn in the weather in late spring. The harvest of tomatoes and corn commenced just in time, in the week before the 4th.

Local corn and tomatoes were just a couple of the crops on display in a couple of farmers markets that I visited in the Princeton area the weekend after the 4th.

Here's my report on my June 7 and 8 visits to Mercer County, N.J. farmers markets.

Lively Evening Farmers Market in Chico

2007-06-30T17:59:00.001-07:00

Chico is a charming, community minded, environmentally conscious college town near the western foothills of the Sierras north of Sacramento. It is surrounded by mile after mile of orchards and farmland. It's a town you'd think might have a good farmers market -- and it does.

Here's my report on my June 28, 2007, visit to the evening market in Chico, where the farmers selling their fruits and vegetables are part of a full-fledged street festival that fills several blocks downtown on Broadway until 9 p.m. every Thursday from April through October.

It was interesting to see that perhaps two-thirds or more of the farmers selling at the market are Southeast Asian, reflecting the influx of Hmong and other Indochinese immigrants into California's Central Valley, where many have taken up farming.

On the Road with Seasonal Chef

2007-06-26T18:33:00.000-07:00

Just in time for the carefree (ha! I wish) days of summer, here's a new page -- Seasonal Chef on the Road -- with links to reports from some journeys to far-flung farmers market.

Why not add a trip to a local farmers market to your summer travel itinerary.

Heirloom tomatoes in Walnut Canyon, Arizona

2007-06-21T16:59:00.000-07:00

I like to drop by the Flagstaff, Arizona farmers market every time I'm passing through Flagstaff on a summer Sunday. That last happened in the fall of 2005.

This time, I'm here near the start of the season, and the heirloom tomatoes from Crooked Sky Farm down in the desert near Glendale, are at their peak. After I visited the market, I headed for Walnut Canyon, five miles away, and hiked down to some of the ruins that fill many of the caves and niches in the canyon walls.

Here's a report on what I found at the Flagstaff Community Farmers Market on June 17, 2007.

A visit to the Venice Beach, Calif., farmers market

2007-06-17T21:36:00.000-07:00

I came to the market today specifically to pick up some fixings for vegetarian sushi. The avocados, sprouts, and cucumbers that I found fit that bill. I picked up four varieties of avocados, including one of my favorites, the bacon avocado. Here's my report on what I bought at the Venice, Calif., farmers market on June 15, 2007.

The Friday morning market in Venice is just a few blocks from the beach. After doing my shopping, I went for a quick stroll on the beach, and photographed some of my market purchases on the sand.

Savory Ways to Use Sweet Cherries

2007-06-12T08:34:00.000-07:00

Sweet cherries aren't just for dessert. To promote other uses of the fruit, associations representing cherry growers in California and Washington state have offered a wide array of recipes that use sweet cherries in savory salads, main dishes and spicy sauces and salsas.

From those sources, here is a sampling of eight savory recipes featuring sweet cherries. They include recipes for sweet cherries with pork, chicken and duck, a cherry slaw and another salad, a salsa and a couple of sauces, one with citrus flavors and another infused with mustard.

A Nifty Ice Cream Maker and other Chef Gadgets

2007-06-03T23:25:00.000-07:00

The one I've ordered hasn't even arrived yet, but I'm already thrilled by this gadget, based on the testimonials of other users. It's a new-fangled, hand-cranked ice cream maker. You put it in the freezer the night before you plan to make ice cream (or sorbet or frozen yogurt) and a liquid substance in the device freezes hard, so you don't have to use crushed ice and salt to whip up a batch of old-fashioned homemade ice cream. I like the fact that it's hand cranked. My kitchen is already overloaded with electric appliances.

Mine will arrive shortly, just in time for summer fruit season. You can order one of your own. Or check out one of the other ice cream machines, along with dehydrators, juicers, woks, salad spinner, graters, knives and various and sundry other kitchen gadgets, that you'll find in the Seasonal Chef Culinary Supply Store.

Cooking with Apricots

2007-06-03T23:12:00.000-07:00

In Southern California farmers markets, apricots appear in early May, the first of a succession stone fruits -- including peaches, nectarines, and plums, pluots, apriums, and other variations on the theme -- that will run well into the fall.

The apricots, however, won't be around much past June. So now's the time to get your fill of them.

Here are 10 recipes featuring apricots, ranging from a couple of apricot chicken dishes to an apricot vinaigrette and a cake, a cobbler and a scone topped off with a recipe for apricot ice cream.

A Bunch of Recipes Starring Flat-Leaf Parsley

2007-06-03T22:51:00.000-07:00

When tomato season rolls around, I've always got to have a bunch of Italian flat-leafed parsley on hand. That's because there's no better -- and no prettier -- summer salad than a multi-colored platter of heirloom tomatoes sprinkled with salt, pepper, olive oil, vinegar and a handful of minced flat-leafed parsley. I also use parsley in a couple of other summertime staples: pesto and gazpacho.

An herb than can so effectively enhance the flavor of other ingredients deserves, it seems to me, an occasional opportunity to be the star of the show.

Here are four recipes featuring Italian flat-leafed parsley, ranging from an Argentine condiment to a Persian omelet.

Six Ways to Serve Red Amaranth

2007-05-28T22:45:00.001-07:00

The Southeast Asian farm stand where I bought this at the Santa Monica farmers market called it "Chinese spinach." In fact, it is red amaranth, called hin choy in Chinese. Though it is unrelated to spinach, there is some similarity in tastes. The smallest most tender leaves can be eaten raw but is is more commonly cooked.

The plant is indigenous to South America, but it was carried to Asian centuries ago and has become part of the diet throughout the region, from China through Southeast Asia to India.

Here are six ways to use the nutrious green.

Picnicking at the Farmers Market

2007-05-28T22:34:00.000-07:00

Fresh fruits and vegetables play second fiddle to other attractions at the Sunday farmers market on Main Street at Ocean Park in Santa Monica. Vendors of prepared foods and other merchandise outnumber the farmers.

It makes for a festive atmosphere. It also keeps the local merchants happy, since the market management offered them space in the market to peddle their wares.

Here's my report on what I purchased on my May 27 visit to the market, including my first sampling of stone fruit this year.

Two New York City Greenmarkets in May

2007-05-19T17:06:00.000-07:00

My last three visits to New York City -- in December, January and March -- happened to coincide with weather so bitterly cold that I could barely make it a couple of blocks on the street, from subway to office. So I passed up the chance to stroll through a wintertime greenmarket, as I did the winter before, when the weather was less forbidding.

On my visit in May, the weather was glorious, so I happily checked out the Union Square and Tompkins Square greenmarkets. This was a quick trip to New York, with my two daughters in tow this time. And I wasn't doing in cooking while I was in the city, so I didn't buy much. But some cheese and apples were good for a picnic in Central Park, and I bought a bunch of ramps to carry home with me to L.A.

Here's my report on my visit to the two markets.

Springtime is Time for Ramps

2007-05-19T16:51:00.000-07:00

In a couple of decades of shopping at California's cornucopic farmers markets, I've seen just about every type of fruit and vegetable that grows in the temperate latitudes. But I've never seen ramps. I'd heard of them, but never had a chance to sample this plant, also known as the wild leek, that is native to eastern North America, until my visit to New York City in May. I arrived just in time for the peak of the brief ramp season. They were everywhere in the Union Square Greenmarket, which was otherwise still fairly sparse, less than two months after the last ice storm blanketed these parts. I bought a bundle to carry back with me on the plane to L.A. They held up well in my carry-on luggage. I wish I had picked up three or four bundles. I had barely begun to experiment with them when my tiny supply ran out.

Here are five ramp recipes, including my very own (and excellent, if I might say so myself) Ramp and Carmelized Shallot Pesto Pasta. I didn't have enough to try pickling some ramps, but next year I'll give these three pickled ramp recipes a try.

April at a farmers market in LA

2007-04-30T11:13:00.000-07:00

It's still a little too early for strawberries, in my opinion. It's got to get hotter for them to sweeten up -- and that'll happen in about six weeks. But the price is coming down, so I figure it's time to try my first strawberries of the season. Blood oranges won't be around much longer. Time to buy a bunch, juice them, and boil the juice down to reduce it by half or more to make syrup for salad dressings that I'll freeze and use for months to come. Fava beans have been in the markets for some weeks now, but at $3 a pound unshelled, they're a pricy delicacy. They'll get cheaper until they vanish in about month. Today, I got these for $2 a pound -- a fair price for a fleeting springtime treat. Here are nine fava bean recipes that I like. The Catalan stew is time-consuming, but well worth it, once a year.

2007-04-07T21:22:00.000-07:00

Ever wondered what to do with the oddball vegetable celeriac, also known as celery root? Wonder no more....

Here are five celeriac recipes.

Spring 2007 Farmers Market reports

2007-03-30T20:59:00.000-07:00

Here are my latest market reports from Santa Monica and Culver City, California.

I haven't posted a New York City market report lately because my last three trips -- in December, January and March -- coincided with Arctic blasts and an ice storm so I missed any greenmarket that braved the weather on those days. I haven't been to a market in the city since November.

Recipes: Nine things to do with green beans

2006-07-16T16:09:00.000-07:00

Green beans are a versatile vegetable, as these recipes will attest. Try them in a pesto cream sauce, with lemony yogurt, in tomatoes and jalapenos, or pickled or in potato salad.

Nine green bean recipes.

Market Report: Summer arrives in Santa Monica

2006-06-24T00:37:00.000-07:00

I returned home from my June 10 visit to the Santa Monica farmers market laden with, among other things, stone fruit, tomatoes, basil and eggplant, sure signs that summer has arrived. One of my seasonal staples is basil, bunches of it, much of which I convert into pesto.

Here are six recipes that call for lots of basil, including my recipe for pesto.

Market Report: a visit in May to two New York City greenmarkets

2006-05-20T22:18:00.000-07:00

Big fat parsnips are one item that I don't believe I've ever seen in the farmers markets that I frequent near my southern California home. So I snapped up a few when I spotted them in the Tompkins Square greenmarket, in the East Village of lower Manhattan, on Mother's Day. They were probably left in the ground through the cold New York winter, which helps them build up sugar. The next day, I dropped by the market in Union Square and found something else that was new to me: red spinach.

Read my report on my visits in May to two New York City greenmarkets.

Recipes: Nine things to do with fava beans

2006-05-18T10:39:00.000-07:00

Fresh fava beans are a fleeting seasonal treat, readily available for only a few months each spring. So you'll have to move quickly if you want to try out some of these recipes, which range from a simple Roman style dish featuring fava beans sauted with pancetta and a garlicky fava sauce, which could be served with rice or roast chicken, to three fava beans stews from Spain, Italy and Morocco.

Nine fava bean recipes.

Recipes: Eight things to do with blood oranges

2006-05-11T08:58:00.000-07:00

It's getting late in the season for blood oranges in my neck of the woods, California. So if you, too, are around here, you'll have to hustle off to the nearest farmers market as soon as possible to load up on blood oranges, if you want to try these recipes this year.

Each spring, I always make and freeze a large jar full of blood orange syrup and use a spoonful at a time in salad dressings for the much of the rest of the year.

Here's a recipe for syrup and seven other blood orange recipes.

A bunch of new cookbooks

2006-05-10T23:57:00.000-07:00

It has been awhile since I updated Seasonal Chef's bookstore. Now, I've done so, and I found lots of great new cookbooks that would be of interest to readers of Seasonal Chef.

There is, for instance, a book about one of the best of the farmers markets in northern California, called The San Francisco Ferry Plaza Farmer's Market Cookbook: A Comprehensive Guide to Impeccable Produce Plus Seasonal Recipes.

And there are lots of more narrowly focused books, such as Olive Trees and Honey, a book of Jewish vegetarian recipes from around the world, and The Berry Bible, which, as the name suggests, is all about all sorts of berries.

Here, you'll find all of the latest additions to the bookstore.

Recipes: 11 cabbage salads

2006-04-19T22:27:00.000-07:00

Cole slaw is the English transliteration of the Dutch word that means "cabbage salad." The name says nothing else about what the salad is composed of, and opinions on that differ.

Some slaw connoisseurs insist it must include mayonnaise while others swear by vinegar. Some recipes use a bit of both, but some make do with neither, using a citrus juice or yogurt instead. In this eclectic selection, other recipes branch out from the basic shredded cabbage and dressing of choice by adding other ingredients ranging from apples to toasted ramen noodles.

Try them all, if you like, and then come up with your own variation.

Here they are: Eleven cabbage salad, a.k.a. cole slaw, recipes.

Market Report: Post-Katrina New Orleans, alive but ailing

2006-04-06T14:58:00.000-07:00

I returned in March to New Orleans, a city that I fell in love with when I lived there for several year about a quarter of a century ago. I wanted to see how much had survived the devastating blow inflicted by Hurricane Katrina.

The short answer is, a lot survived. In fact, the city is so incredibly rich in local culture that if 90 percent had been wiped out, New Orleans would still have many times more character than most American cities. The damage wasn't nearly that extensive. Large, important areas of the city survived the wind and were untouched by flooding.

The longer answer, however, is that the city will never by the same. Endless miles of devastated neighborhoods still stand, untouched since Katrina, in large parts of the city. And more than half of the population is still missing.

The city's farmers markets are one sign of a return to a semblance of normalcy, though in March, only two of the pre-Katrina city's four markets were back in operation. The markets are cheering consumers, who are tired of long lines in the supermarket, and helping get farmers and fishermen back on their feet. Here's my report on farmers markets in New Orleans.

Recipes: A dozen things to do with oranges

2006-02-26T15:48:00.000-08:00

Oranges can lend a welcomed sweet, citrusy kick to meats, cooked vegetables or salads, as this selection of a dozen recipes featuring oranges will attest.

With this sampling of recipes, you could produce a multi-course meal consisting of nothing but orange-infused dishes, including an orange barbeque chicken, orange fried rice, orange-glazed snow peas and a couple of orange vinaigrettes suitable for salads.

Market Report: Santa Barbara market may be world's best

2006-02-26T15:27:00.000-08:00

You'd be hard-pressed to find a farmers market anywhere on earth that is better than the Saturday market in Santa Barbara, California. To begin with, few if any other places can boast as staggering a diversity of year-round growing regions as can be found within a few hours' drive of this balmy town, which is squeezed between the beach and rugged mountains, with high plains, alpine heights and deserts beyond. It is also a very tightly-regulated market, which has kept out peddlers of second-rate wholesale produce, who threaten the integrity of far too many so-called farmers markets. The innovative farmers who come to this market are the real deal and are driven by the market's sophisticated customer base to offer extraordinary produce.

On a warm, sunny mid-winter Saturday in late February, there were more than 75 vendors on hand, selling countless dozens of varieties of fruits, nuts and vegetables. Cherimoyas were a great bargain, at prices ranging from $2.50 to as low as $1.25 per pound. I loaded up on those. I also picked up some unusual varieties of citrus fruits, including four types of oranges, limequats and some kaffir limes, which I'll use along with the lemon grass I also bought in some Thai chicken soup.

Here's the report on my Feb. 25, 2006 visit to the Santa Barbara farmers market.

Market Report: Cardoons on the dock on San Francisco Bay

2006-02-15T23:26:00.000-08:00

The Ferry Plaza Farmers Market, situated alongside the historic Ferry Building on a pier that juts into San Francisco Bay, is a Mecca for the city's legions of sophisticated foodies. Dozens of varieties of seasonal fruits and vegetables from regional farms can be found at this market year round, including such exotic fare as cardoons. What should you do with this cousin of the artichoke? The Contra Costa County farmer who brought these to the Ferry Plaza market provided Victoria, Seasonal Chef's Bay Area contributor, with a recipe for cardoons sauted with potatoes.

Read Victoria's report on her Feb. 11 visit to the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market.

Market Report: In San Diego, subtropical fruits are stars of the show

2006-01-28T16:05:00.000-08:00

Flowers and avocadoes are the most valuable cash crops in sunny San Diego County, which shares a long border with Mexico. Subtropical fruits aren't produced in sufficient volume to register in the annual tally of agricultural production compiled by the county agriculture department. But they're a highlight of any visit to a San Diego County farmers market. My purchases on my Jan. 15 visit to the market in the Hillcrest neighborhood include sapotes, a Buddha's Hand citron, passion fruit, longan, and, of course, cherimoyas. I buy two varieties, the nobby-skinned Dr. White, one of the earliest of the cherimoya varieties, and the other variety, whose name I did not jot down.

Recipes: Eight great ways to use arugula

2006-01-22T13:42:00.000-08:00

This pungent Mediterranean green was virtually unknown in the United States a couple of decades ago. It is now widely available in farmers markets, though you still won't find it in a typical American supermarket.

It is excellent in salads mixed with fruit or tossed with a sweet, fruity vinaigrette, offsetting the peppery bite of the greens. It also makes good pesto. If you're not familiar with the green, these eight recipes featuring arugula -- ranging from arugula and pear salad to arugula and olive pesto -- are sure to turn you into a devotee.

Market Report: Satsumas, Fremont tangerines and Page tangors square off in taste test

2006-01-21T08:27:00.000-08:00

The farmers market in the heart of the Hollywood district in Los Angeles has a lively street scene with music, prepared foods and a large section for arts and crafts. But there's a serious farmers here amidst the hoopla, with dozens of farm stands filling two long blocks. I buy some broccoli and Chinese greens, some apples (including an Australian variety known as the Lady Williams) and a cherimoya, some Asian pears and lemons, and three colors of cauliflower.

I also buy four varieties of tangerines and mandarins, intending to submit them to a taste and "peelability" test. For "best of the bunch," it was a three-way tie.

Read more about the tangerine comparison, and my visit to the Hollywood farmers market.

Recipe: Duck Breast with Carrots, Cabbage and Grapes

2006-01-11T22:41:00.000-08:00

Victor Scargle, head chef at Julia's Kitchen, in California's Napa Valley, recently talked to Victoria Slind-Flor about what he's cooking these days. Think citrus and kohlrabi, which he purees or deep-fries or carmelizes in butter or dices them and crisps them in a skillet like hash browns. He also offered a recipe for Liberty Duck Breast with Carrots, Cabbage and Grapes.

Seasonal Chef: Napa restaurant's garden keeps Victor Scargle stocked with superb ingredients

2006-01-11T22:23:00.000-08:00

It's not easy being head chef at a high-end restaurant, particularly one named after the high priestess of American cooking Julia Child. Victor Scargle, of Julia's Kitchen, a restaurant at the nonprofit center in the Napa Valley called Copia: The American Center for Food Wine and the Arts, has thrived in just that situation thanks in part to the superb ingredients at his disposal. About 60 percent of what he grows -- more in summer -- comes from the 3.5 acre farm on the grounds of the restaurant. Here's more about Scargle.

Recipes: Seven ideas from around the world for using kale

2005-12-22T00:23:00.000-08:00

Lacinato kale, a Tuscan heirloom variety, was a novelty in California farmers markets 10 years ago. Today, it is one of the more common winter greens in the farmers markets that I frequent. It's the best variety of kale for cooking, in my opinion.

A few bites of kale will give you your daily recommended dose of Vitamins A and K -- good for your vision and your blood, respectively -- and it is chock full of numerous other nutrients. Better yet, it's tasty and versatile, as these seven recipes illustrate.

Recipes: Lemony tabouli, Italian chard pie and farmers market jambalaya.

2005-12-16T09:01:00.000-08:00

Victoria picked up fixings for three different recipes on her recent visit to the farmers market in Campbell, Calif. With some late season tomatoes, which weren't particularly tasty when eaten fresh, she whipped up a southwestern Louisiana-style (ie. wet) jambalaya.

Victoria also made some tabouli, a refreshing salad that features lemons.

Victoria's most unusual concoction features chopped chard mixed with ingredients including almonds, raisins, sugar and ricotta cheese, baked in a crust. As the ingredients suggest, it is a sweet pie and it is called erbazzone, a traditional dish from Bologna, in Italy’s Emelia Romagna region. You can make a savory variation by holding the sugar and stirring in some browned pancetta.

Market Report: Oysters amidst the vegetable displays in this market

2005-12-16T08:48:00.000-08:00

The farmers market in Campbell, a bedroom community in Northern California's fabled Silicon Valley, strikes our reporter as more of a venue for recreational food-shopping than a place to stock up on the necessities of life. Thus, you can get your knives sharpened, listen to some live music, pick up some healthy treats for your dog and slurp down some miyagi oysters on the half shell at the Intertidal Aquafarm oyster bar, and yes, you can also find plenty of seasonal vegetables at this market.

Read Victoria's report on her Dec. 4 visit to the Campbell, Calif., farmers market.

Market Report: Heirloom apples in winter markets in New York City

2005-12-15T13:41:00.000-08:00

Last week, for the first time in years, I visited New York City, where I lived when I was in law school from 1979 to 1982. The city's now-fabled greenmarkets were just starting in those years, and I was oblivious to their existence. Denise Matychowiak has given Seasonal Chef readers a good sense of what they've grown into these days with her reports on visits to some of the city's largest greenmarkets in August, September and October. But on my trip, I looked forward to seeing a greenmarket or two for myself. Having lived in relentlessly sunny Southern California for going on 20 years, I was also curious to see whether winter markets are viable at all in the cold, snowy northeast. The two tiny markets I visited on a hectic workday in the big city were viable indeed. I picked up some interesting heirloom apples (including this Golden Russet, the grandfather of the Golden Delicious), four types of pears and some "grass-fed cheese."

Here's my report on my visit to a couple of winter markets in New York City.

Seasonal Chef: Roy Breiman uses local produce, even during long, rainy Pacific Northwest winters

2005-12-04T10:37:00.000-08:00

Breiman, the executive chef at the Salish Lodge & Spa in the mountains near Seattle, is committed to buying most of his ingredients locally, which is easy enough in summer and fall, when nearby farms and orchards supply him with a bounty of fruits and vegetables. It's somewhat more of a challenge in winter. But Breiman dries lots of fruits when the local harvest is underway, and revives them in compotes when the inclement weather sets in.

Here is a profile of Roy Breiman. And here is his recipe for braised short ribs with autumn fruit compote.

Here, you'll find lots of other profiles of seasonal chefs.

Recipe: Romescu, a garlicky, nutty sauce from Catalonia

2005-12-02T01:09:00.000-08:00

Every winter, the people of Catalonia, in northern Spain, celebrate an unusual vegetable with an ancient connection with the region. The vegetable is an extraordinarily large green onion called the calcot. As legend has it, a farmer "discovered" them in the 14th Century when he found some spring onions that had been left over the summer wrapped in burlap in a dark storage space. When he replanted them in the fall, they awoke from their hibernation and within a few months had swelled into gigantic, mild-tasting scallion-like onions. At the winter food festivals where they are the featured attraction, they are roasted over fires and eaten with a dipping sauce called romescu (or in English, romesco).

Here is a recipe for romesco sauce, which can be used in any number of ways besides as a dipping sauce for roasted calcots.

Market Report: In Barcelona, Spain, olives and rovellon mushrooms are specialties of the season

2005-12-01T16:33:00.000-08:00

On a trip to Catalonia, Spain in early November, I visited an array of markets -- from the bustling and touristy Mercat de la Boqueria in central Barcelona, to a smaller, neighborhood market in an off-the-beaten-track part of town, to a small sidewalk market in the Mediterranean beach resort of Sitges 25 miles south of the city. I found olives -- lots of different types of olives -- and some other regional specialties of the season, such as calcot onions and rovellon mushrooms.

Read the report on my recent tour of farmers markets in Catalonia.

Here are lots of other recent reports from farmers markets in California, New York and beyond.

Market Report: Citrus and greens abound in Santa Monica

2005-11-30T15:44:00.000-08:00

You could probably find a couple dozen different varieties of citrus fruits in the Santa Monica farmers market at this time of year. But on my visit today, I buy only one type: satsumas.

I can't handle more citrus fruit on this particular trip because my shoulder bag is already stuffed with greens, including collards and lacinato kale. And the multi-colored carrots at one farm stand looked so nice that I bought a bunch of all three, some of which I'll roast together with the beets, Tokyo turnips and German Butterball potatoes that I also purchased today.

Read the full report on my Nov. 30, 2005 visit to the Santa Monica farmers market.

Market Report: Catering to low-income clientele in Richmond, Calif.; Plus, recipes for two Italian specialties

2005-11-26T14:26:00.000-08:00

The 21-year-old farmers market in the San Francisco suburb of Richmond offers Asian vegetables such as gai choy and taro and also a selection of vegetables that our Bay Area correspondent, Victoria Slind-Flor, carries home and turns into a couple of Italian specialities. With eggplants and tomatoes, she makes a Sicilian relish called caponata. And with these fresh-shelled cranberry beans, some chard, a leek, and other vegetables, Victoria makes a hearty Italian soup called ribollita.

Here is Victoria's report on her recent visit to the Richmond, Calif., farmers market.

Market Report: Autumn is in the air at New York City's Union Square Market

2005-11-21T22:07:00.000-08:00

Denise Matychowiak, Seasonal Chef's New York City correspondent, finds a Hen in the Woods mushroom -- and a tip from the "mushroom lady," Judy Chen, about how to use it to make a tea that fights colds. She also picks up a stem of brussel sprouts -- along with a new idea about how to prepare that vegetable. Braise them with tart apples, advises the vendor, from Yuno's Farm in Bordentown, New Jersey.

Read Denise's most recent report from the Union Square Greenmarket.

Seasonal Chef: Annie Somerville, of Greens, San Francisco's acclaimed vegetarian restaurant

2005-11-20T10:32:00.000-08:00

The San Francisco Bay area is a nirvana for vegetarians, a fact nowhere more apparent than at Greens, a restaurant founded by the Zen Center in 1979. In the decades since then, dozens of small farms and dairies catering to the city's sophisticated gourmands and bustling farmers markets have sprung up within a couple hundred miles of San Francisco, a region blessed with a phenomenal variety of growing climates. In a profile by Victoria Slind-Flor, Seasonal Chef's Bay Area correspondent, Annie Sommerville, the head chef at Greens, describes her mutually beneficial close relationship with her suppliers, who farm in areas ranging from the foggy coast to hot, dry inland valleys.

Sommerville also shares with Seasonal Chef a recipe for kabocha squash soup. Infused with Asian flavors, the recipe is from Sommerville's most recent book, Everyday Greens: Everyday Cooking from Greens, the Celebrated Vegetarian Restaurant.

On an asphalt lot in Brooklyn, local youths make money growing food

2005-10-26T14:30:00.000-07:00

Five years ago, a couple of community activists in the Red Hook section of Brooklyn persuaded the New York City parks department to let them cover a large asphalt playing field with dirt and compost and turn it into a working farm. These days, the farm supplies local restaurants and a two-day-a-week farmers market with dozens of varieties of fruits and vegetables. The farm doesn't really turn a profit, at least not yet, but with grants from foundations and government agencies, the farm provides job training to dozens of teens.

Read Jill Slater's profile of Red Hook Community farm.

The farm's founder, Ian Marvy, defends the value of training in sustainable agriculture for inner-city youth.

Recipes: A roundup of apple desserts plus four preserves.

2005-10-22T17:11:00.000-07:00

From a selection of state apple marketing boards, here are recipes for eight apple classics for sweettooths: a pie, cake, crisp, tart, muffin, cookie, bar and sauce. And if you want to can some of the fall bounty of apples, here are four more recipes for apple chutnies, preserves and butter.

Market Report: mushrooms amidst the vineyards of the Napa Valley

2005-10-22T13:47:00.000-07:00

Pears, mushrooms, fingerling potatoes and heirloom tomatoes are among Victoria Slind-Flor's finds at the farmers market just outside of St. Helena, surrounded by the famed vineyards of northern California's Napa Valley. Victoria also finds grapes, but not the sort that are turned into wine. These are indigenous American Niabel grapes, which are too "grapey" for some, but not for Victoria.

Read Victoria's report on her Oct. 21 visit to the St. Helena farmers Market.

Market Report: organic produce is the big draw at the Berkeley farmers market

2005-10-19T14:52:00.000-07:00

On October 15, our Bay Area market reporter, Victoria Slind-Flor, dropped by the farmers market in Berkeley, where most of the growers are organic.

She found, among other things, sweet Hungarian paprika peppers, sorrel, white corn and an old Italian green called stridoli.

Read Victoria's report on her visit to the Berkeley market.

Market Report: Asian flavors at the Old Oakland Market

2005-10-13T19:29:00.000-07:00

Asian vegetables abound at this market, as well as other Asian favorites ranging from duck eggs to green dates. See Victoria Slind-Flor's report on her Oct. 7 visit to the market.

Recipes: How to open up a pomegranate, and make Eggplant in Fans

2005-10-13T19:20:00.000-07:00

On a trip to the Old Oakland Farmers Market on a recent Friday, Victoria Slind-Flor picked up some vegetables ranging from every-day bell peppers to exotic hyacinth beans -- and a nifty demonstration on how to deftly open up a pomegranate, without crushing half the kernels in the process.

Victoria also found some nearly-round Prosperosa eggplants, which were perfect for this recipe, called Baby Eggplant in Fans.

Market Report: exotic foraged finds at the Flagstaff, Arizona, farmers market

2005-10-12T21:17:00.000-07:00

The Flagstaff farmers market, and its founder and administrator, the Center for Sustainable Environments at nearby Northern Arizona University, are fervently committed to supporting regional food producers and native ingredients. You can usually find some foraged food items here -- or so I hoped. I wasn't disappointed. I found wild-harvested elderberries, service berries and an indigenous southwestern herb with a wonderful name, Scented Lippia (though oddly enough, some insist on insulting it with a misnomer, Sonoran oregano). Pumpkins, winter squash and a couple of pomegranates are other items that I find impossible to pass up. So, too, a drive along the south rim of the Grand Canyon and back to Flagstaff by way of the Indian ruins in Wupatki National Monument.

Here's a link to my report on a visit to the Flagstaff farmers market.

Seasonal Chef: A culinary pioneer in South Dakota's Black Hills

2005-10-05T23:05:00.000-07:00

MJ Adams sometimes misses New York City, where she was trained as a chef and worked for years before moving far away to the Black Hills of South Dakota. But she is finding fulfillment -- and lots of interesting local ingredients -- in her new neck of the woods. Many of her discoveries, from Cinderella pumpkins and locally dried tomatoes to buffalo and house-smoked trout, end up on the menu of her acclaimed restaurant, The Corn Exchange. Read the profile of MJ Adams, written by food writer, blogger, patio gardener, and now Seasonal Chef contributor Victoria Slind-Flor.

Market Report: It's still high summer in Santa Monica

2005-10-05T14:26:00.000-07:00

There are harbingers of fall on display today at the Santa Monica farmers market, from pomegranates to winter squash. But the sizzling hot summer weather puts me in a mood for tomatoes, eggplants and Romano beans. To boil with the beans, a bay leaf, and butter, I also pick up some little German Butterball potatoes. Last but not least, I load up on peaches, because they won't be around much longer and I still haven't made my annual batch of peach chutney. That's at the top of my to-do list for later this week.

Market Report from Dublin, Ireland

2005-10-04T07:49:00.000-07:00

Joanne Seiff, a Seasonal Chef contributor from Bowling Green Kentucky, reports from the Temple Bar farmers market in Dublin, Ireland.

Market Reports: Concord grapes and more in New York City; Fuyu persimmons, among other things, in Santa Monica

2005-09-27T19:51:00.000-07:00

Seasonal Chef's New York City-based contributor, Denise Matychowiak, reports that it's Concord grape season at one of her favorite farmers markets, the small, friendly St. Mark's Church Greenmarket, in the East Village. In other news from Denise, a cookbook of hers was published earlier this month. A "zany but ultimately reverent" look at Catholic culinary tradtions, it is titled A Bad Catholic’s Guide to Good Living: A Loving Look at the Lighter Side of the Catholic Faith with Recipes for Feasts and Fun. Click on the link to go to Amazon. com, where you can read more about the book and order a copy. Congratulations, Denise!

From the West Coast, I have posted a report on what I found at the Ocean Park Farmers Market in Santa Monica this week. Among my purchases: my first-of-the-season Fuyu persimmons.

Recipes: a global roundup of things to do with okra

2005-09-19T20:18:00.000-07:00

I bought these okra on my visit to the Santa Monica farmers last week, intent on using them in a gumbo, and that's what I did with them. But in the meantime, I was inspired to look into other ways to use this crop, which thrives -- along with its cousins in the plant kingdom, cotton and hibiscus -- in hot climes around the world, where it has been incorporated into the local diet. Here's a representative sample of nine okra recipes from locales ranging from Louisiana to Iran.

Vintage Recipes: reorganized...and new books added to bookstore

2005-09-18T14:56:00.000-07:00

After years of benign neglect, the heavily-trafficked Vintage Cuisine Section of Seasonal Chef has gotten a much-deserved facelift. Here's the new Vintage Cuisine home page. And here's the Vintage California Cuisine online cookbook.

I've also added lots of new books to the culinary history section of the Seasonal Chef bookstore, ranging from The Medieval Kitchen: Recipes from France and Italy to a new edition of The Route 66 Cookbook: Comfort Food From the Mother Road.

Recipes: make your own ketchup

2005-09-14T22:30:00.000-07:00

Tomato ketchup has got to be one of the most standardized of condiments. Why not get adventurous with it -- and surprise your friends and family -- by making some yourself? Here are three recipes. If you're really adventurous, you could try one of these century-old recipes for ketchup made from mushrooms, plums and grapes. But before you try them on your friends and family, you might want to first try them yourself.

Market Report: Basque peppers, bean varieties galore, and more from the the Santa Monica Farmers Market

2005-09-14T16:21:00.000-07:00

This is the time of year when everything seems to be in season at the Santa Monica farmers market. You'd half to eat a dozen meals a day for a week to sample everything. So the process of picking and choosing tends to get downright arbitrary (except for a few specific things I buy for recipes I'm going to try out.) Noticing the array of varieties of beans on hand today, I go on a bit of a bean kick. And spying okra, I grab some of that, as well, in homage to my favorite city (and home town for a while, years ago): beleaguered New Orleans.

Go here to see what else I found today, and what I intend to do with it.

Recipes: two pepper relishes, one with corn, the other with onions

2005-09-14T02:05:00.000-07:00

I'm a pepper aficionado, constantly on the lookout for new ways to put up some for consumption long after pepper season has passed. Here are my latest discoveries, two pepper relish recipes.

Fans of this seasonal item, now at their peak here in Southern California, might want to consider five other ways to preserve peppers, which I posted last month.

Recipes: cookies, a cake and a tartlet using fresh figs

2005-09-13T14:32:00.000-07:00

Fresh figs are an ephemeral, exceedingly fragile, summer-time treat. Fans of this ancient fruit have to get their fill during the short window of opportunity when fresh figs are raining down from backyard trees and filling tables at farmers markets. In Southern California, that time of year is now, and to celebrate, here are four recipes for baked desserts that make use of fresh figs.

Recipes: John Sharpe's Native American Thanksgiving feast

2005-09-13T08:57:00.000-07:00

Before John Sharpe moved to Winslow, Ariz., to open The Turquoise Room restaurant, he cultivated an interest in the culinary traditions of American Indians at the Topaz Cafe, in the Bowers Museum of Cultural Art in Santa Ana, Calif. There, he hosted an annual Thanksgiving feast featuring these Native American inspired recipes.

A seasonal chef in Navajo country finds Native American foods for his restaurant

2005-09-12T21:21:00.000-07:00

After a two-decade career as a restaurateur in the Los Angeles area, John Sharpe moved to Winslow, Ariz., in 2000 to open a restaurant in the newly restored, historic La Posada Hotel. He had grown accustomed to buying produce directly from farmers in Southern California, but in the forbidding environs of Winslow, on the vast, canyon-riddled plains of northern Arizona, there were no local food producers -- at least none that he could immediately find. So with help from the Center for Sustainable Environments in nearby Flagstaff, he set out looking for local suppliers. Five years later, Sharpe has assembled a far-flung network of farmers, shepherds and foragers who supply his restaurant with a surprising bounty of indigenous ingredients, from Navajo Churro lamb and tepary beans to cholla cactus buds and skunkbush sumac.

Read about John Sharpe's culinary discoveries in Navajo Country