More marketing

I don't know much about harvest schedules, but it looks like okra has two harvests. We had one earlier this year and another one is going on now. Josh is certainly happy; he loves okra. Here I cut the okra in half the long way, which is the way we like it fried at Floataway. Then I sauteed it with some similarly cut sweet peppers that we got from the Burge stand last weekend. It was fantastic.

This week, we seem to have gone all out at the market. There is supposed to be a crop of tomatoes coming but either we have missed them or we just sleep too late on Saturdays. We checked in at the Yoder stall (glad they have returned) and when we didn't see any, we headed over to the Burge stand. There, we picked up a nice collection of things. Fingerling sweet potatoes, which I plan to just chunk up and roast in the oven. Hakurei turnips which just looked great. Eggplant, which I'll steam and serve with the spicy Chinese sauce that Josh loves. More sweet peppers which I'll probably saute with okra again. And some poblanos because we are going to make some bloody marys and the recipe I have from Lara Creasy calls for poblanos.

And that's not all! We also got a bag of arugula which we'll turn into a nice salad as usual. Then some wee okra which the guy at Burge told us would be much better skillet fried than the bigguns. And then a pile of sunchokes. The first time I made sunchokes, I pureed them with half n half and butter. They were good. Last night, I added olive oil and less half n half to try to keep them healthier. Today, I bought some potatoes, which I've heard goes well with the sunchokes for texture and creaminess but hadn't done it before because we didn't go to the store last weekend. :)

Then we took a full circle before deciding what else to buy. Everyone pretty much had the same thing -- which is normal. We usually try to see what one stand has that no one else has. At Yoder, we ended up buying kale and broccoli raab, even if they look the same in this photo. The kale is going to go into a minestrone that I haven't started yet. The broccoli raab, they told us, is best if you chop it and then steam it for 2 min before sauteing it. We also got some lettuce mix. I have the recipe for Todd Ginsberg's buttermilk ranch so I'll make some off that later.

We stopped at Farmer Jeff's stall to pick up some of these beautiful green tomatoes and heirloom okra. Josh just cannot get enough okra. I also spied some fresh shitakes, which I think Jeff grows on a log. They look gorgeous.

It was a slow day at the market for customers. It meant that when we got there at 10, there was still a lot at each stand so, except for tomatoes, we got our pick. Nice for us, but bad for the vendors.

Our last stop was at Country Gardens, where we haven't shopped before. The last time I looked for oxtails, they had run out but this time, we were in luck. I'm going to braise them. Then we also got a goat roast, which we've never had before. There is a braise in its future too.

Right now, I have a chicken stock simmering on the stove plus a pork and wintermelon soup. I'm determined to start bringing food for lunches. I also have some beans simmering for when I start the minestrone.