Iām buying dry-farmed Early Girls from Dirty Girl (at the Tuesday South Berkeley market) each week. Other vendors also have dry-farmed tomatoes, but Dirty Girlās are always the best, and worth paying a little extra for.
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GoodEggs has Gravenstein apples from Devoto Gardens $2.99/lb
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A very small haul this week. The first market of the New Year as most of the markets near us were impacted by the holiday weekends which is both a blessing and a curse, no?
Because of the rain, only a few vendors were there. Mostly fruit and product, not a lot of veg-based farmers so by the late hour we got there, picking were slim, but not so slim that we couldnāt get what we needed.
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Nice! I got mostly the same stuff! What are you going to make with the beets? What will you do with the citrus? I have sooo many tangerines.
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Twinsie!
The beet greens and kale will be garlicky greens as a pasta side dish later this week. The beets will be roasted with olive oil & salt and kept for snacks and a hummus bowl lunch.
Mister is going to eat most of the mandarins but if I am lucky I will be able to steal a few to make a Nigella clementine cake. You can use any mandarins for it but I prefer when the skins are tight.
What are your plans?
Shrugs 
Iām sure the beets will get roasted, but not sure what will happen after that. Maybe a salad.
Iāll probably juice and drink most of the oranges, but Iād love to try jam or ājamaladeā. I made jamalade last year and weāve really enjoyed it.
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I might do that as a chicken breast side.
Like this
Can the beet greens and kale be cooked together, the same way? I think of beet greens like chard, and they seem to cook faster than kale.
Why does it say serve immediately? I hate when recipes say that!
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Yet another reason recipes irritate me too. Assumptive.
This is not the abbreviation of Joy of Cooking. It would nice if you explain āServe immediately so that the kale retains some crunch.ā
Letās one choose for oneās self.
Yeah! It worked out.
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Has anyone else noticed that tomatoes seem to be less abundant so far this year in the markets? Wondering if all the rain we got this winter affected the size and timing of the crop.
I also feel like pluots should be showing up around now, but I still havenāt seen any (though the plums Iāve gotten so far have been better-than-expected).
Yes. Monterey Market and Berkeley Bowl in Berkeley had very few local tomatoes until just last week. Corn was also late, coming in about two weeks ago. I havenāt been to a farmersā market recently, though.
Stone fruits are late by about 2 weeks to a month because of the cold weather and rain, according to Frog Hollow
Well it is hella hot up this way, and tomatoes are ripe! At least in my yard. Pluots ripe just within the last day or so.
That certainly tracks, based on the color of the plums on my backyard tree. Theyāre usually ready the first week of August, give or take, but no way are they going to be fully ripe in two weeks.
As far as the farmers markets go, Iāve just been enjoying lots of apricots. Strawberries have finally hit their peak. Blueberries are pretty much over, at least per the Berkeley vendors. Waiting for the dry-farmed tomatoesā¦
Stonestown farmers market, Dirty Girl Produce, said they wouldnāt have dry farmed tomatoes until August.
Rainbow vendor expects those excellent blackberries then.
Yeah. Dirty Girl is at the Tuesday Berkeley market, and their prices are always a little higher, but they usually have the best dry-farmed tomatoes.
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Yeah, itās the rain and unusual cold. (63 in Oakland the other day.) Iāve noticed fewer or general lack of decent tomatoes at farmers markets, Old Oakland, Oakland DMV, Half Moon Bay. Seems to be improving as it gets warmer. Got some decent early girls and grape tomatoes today at Old Oakland but on the sparse side.
Side note: strawberries have been lacking as wellā¦figure itās the same, too much rain and cold and Watsonville got hammered by rain this past year. Got some very good ones from Ventura a few weeks back, but sort of spotty from NorCal. Celery has been weird as wellā¦most coming from the Monterey area.
re: dry farmed tomatoes, if I recall, donāt usually see those at Berkeley Bowl or Monterey Market until August.
Lots of pluots, plums, etc. at my local farmerās markets last weekend. They should be coming into their own now.
Not exactly farmers market but they just have a booth on the side of the road. Lao Farms in Sebastopol, Albion strawberries were quite excellent. I forget the other kind but good as well. $40 for a big ass flat. Cukes were great too.
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Any thoughts on this weeks stone fruit / tomato selection at farmers markets?
