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!
Yet another reason recipes irritate me too. Assumptive.
This is not the abbreviation of Joy of Cooking. It would nice if you explain âServe immediately so that the kale retains some crunch.â
Letâs one choose for oneâs self.
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 havenât seen any (though the plums Iâve 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 havenât been to a farmersâ market recently, though.
That certainly tracks, based on the color of the plums on my backyard tree. Theyâre 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, Iâve 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 tomatoesâŠ
Yeah, itâs the rain and unusual cold. (63 in Oakland the other day.) Iâve 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 wellâŠfigure itâs 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 wellâŠmost coming from the Monterey area.
re: dry farmed tomatoes, if I recall, donât usually see those at Berkeley Bowl or Monterey Market until August.
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.
Funny you ask, we got some more strawberries at Lao Farms last weekend and also picked up nectarines that were pretty spectacular. Their cukes werenât as good, but their garlic was also great. I havenât gotten tomatoes.
I got my first dry-farmed Early Girls this week (from Dirty Girl, which are $$ at $5.50/lb!), and while theyâre not quite peak, theyâre quite good. DGâs are often the best, but always more expensive, so Iâll try others from my local market vendors as the season progresses.
I got 3 baskets of strawberries from Rodriguez Farms at the Old Oakland FM. So far so good, very sweet. Also picked up some nice Early Girl tomatoes from the Asian farmers who are at the NE corner of 9th and Washington, $2/lb. Seems too inexpensive given EGs at Berkeley Bowl were $4/lb, not dry farmed. They also had 3 colors of grape tomatoes that looked very nice but I didnât have a use.
Got some excellent stone fruit at the Castro Valley Farmerâs Market last weekend (7/29)âmostly plums/pluots. I expect itâll be good for the next few weeks.
Dirty Girlâs prices have always been highest across the board. I tend to only buy from them when the item is especially better than other vendorsâ.