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03/31/10 - Early Spring at the Port Angeles Farmers' Market

It's still rather wintry out there, but we are seeing signs of spring, at least at the Farmers' Market. There are more vegetables coming in, including some good cauliflower at Nash Huber's stand, and, if you are Jewish, the all too seasonal Passover horseradish at Westwind Farms.

Since we live on garlic, we've been haunting the Garlic Lady, who has our favorite scallions in stock, but no garlic yet. We're waiting.

We should also note a newcomer, Kol Nidre Farms, offering lamb for sale. We haven't tried any yet, but we plan to, and we'll report here. It's great to see more local foods at the market. For years, people offered the fruits and vegetables, but now one can also find mushrooms, seafood and meat. We are never going to become true locavores. We'll never give up coffee, but we do like to support our local suppliers.


Westwind Farm celebrates the horseradish harvest.

Our favorite scallions, but no garlic yet

Kol Nidre Farm: newcomer offering lamb

Keywords: farmers' market, farms, nash huber, spring, westwind farm, garlic lady


03/08/10 - Sefrina

Sefrina isn't the next town after Hilda. Sefrina is a Moroccan cholent, a great, easy to make Moroccan stew with a ridiculously long cooking time. We found out about it in Couscous and Other Good Food from Morocco. Aside from the six hour cooking time, it is an easy dish to make. That's right, it cooks for six hours total, but your oven does all the heavy lifting. Everything gets wonderfully tender, and the eggs develop an amazing creamy texture as they hardboil.

We made this version with a 3lb 10oz pot roast from the Clark Family Farm. It had a nice big marrow bone which you can see floating there in the photo. The potatoes were from the Johnston Farm and the eggs from Westwind Farm, so this qualifies as a Port Angeles Farmers' Market dish. We also used dried chick peas, but they weren't from the Farmers' Market. You can make this dish with canned chick peas, but this is obviously not a dish you can throw together in a hurry, so why bother with time saving conveniences?


Our Moroccan stew

The eggs get tan and creamy.
The recipe:
  1. The night before, soak a cup of dried chick peas in water overnight.
  2. Start boiling six cups of water in a tea kettle.
  3. Preheat the oven to 375°F.
  4. Take a big casserole with a lid and dump in the chick peas.
  5. Add 3 or 4 pounds of beef cut into big chunks. Pot roast is great, but it is better if there is a bone or two.
  6. Add six potatoes.
  7. Gently tuck six raw eggs into the ingredients so far.
  8. Chop up four cloves of garlic and sprinkle them on top.
  9. Sprinkle with a few pinches of salt, 1/2 teaspoon black pepper, 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger, 1/4 teaspoon of saffron or turmeric.
  10. When the water comes to a boil, pour it on.
  11. Cover and put it in the oven for an hour.
  12. Lower the heat to 250°F and let it cook for another five hours.

Keywords: farmers' market, johnston farm, port angeles, food, westwind farm, clark family, recipe, kale


01/02/10 - Winter Market

Just because it is the middle of winter doesn't mean that the Port Angeles Farmers' Market is closed. It's open every Saturday from 10-2 at the Gateway Center, and the farmers are there including Westwind, Johnston and Nash Huber stands along with Tuna Dan, Bell Street Bakery and the guy with the mushrooms and seafood whose name we have forgotten. We bought a lovely piece of black cod from the guy whose name we forgot, so he is worth a trip to the market in his own right.

Johnston Farm

Westwind Farm

Nash Huber

Tuna Dan

Bell Street Bakery

Keywords: farmers' market, johnston farm, nash huber, port angeles, winter, westwind farm


05/10/09 - Farmers' Market Update

The Port Angeles Farmers' Market is really gearing up with more and more vendors arriving each weekend. The stalwarts, Westwind, Johnston and Nash Huber, were there along with a lot of others including Red Dog, Bob's, Black Sheep, Lazy J farms. (We apologize if we missed a few.)

The big news this week is that Westwind Farms has their amazing asparagus, but do come early.

Tuna Dan was the first regular at the market selling seafood, right now halibut and ling cod; he has been joined by at least two others include Wild West and Quil Bay. The latter two are selling clams and oysters, as well as fish. This has been a great new addition to the market.

There were also two bakeries at the market. Bell Street Bakery had their own booth from Sequim and Joy's mom was selling her own from another booth. Joy runs Joy's Wine Bistro in Port Angeles, in case you were wondering.

The Kim Chi lady was selling her Korean pickled cabbage and other Korean goodies. There is nothing like good strong Korean garlic. We also found out that it was Dynasty Restaurant selling dim sun. This time they had a nice sign.

We also saw Harley of Dry Creek Farm, though we didn't get a change to talk to him. We're hoping his chickens will be laying in June, and he'll be back with his Dry Creek stand.


Local produce is what it is all about.

Clams, oysters and fish - free nettles, what an incentive

More clams, oysters and seafood

Bell Street Bakery

Joy's Mom's bread

Vegetables and ...

... more vegetables

Dim sun from Dynasty

Kim Chi and other Korean goodies

Keywords: dry creek farm, farmers' market, farms, nash huber, port angeles, oysters, westwind farm


04/05/09 - Spring Comes to the Port Angeles Farmers' Market

To start with, Westwind Farm is offering nettles. You have to cook these carefully, but once blanched, they are delicious. We had ours in a soup with shitake mushrooms from Sunny Farms and miso from McFee's bodega. We also spotted fresh arugula and kale raab which is young kale with flowers, so spring cannot be far behind. As for the QuilBay oysters, we tried some. They were wonderful on the half shell. Finally, Johnston Farms is back for the season. It is good to see the market gearing up after a long winter.

Keywords: farms, johnston farm, spring, farmers' market, oysters, westwind farm, kale


04/01/09 - Unusual Potato

At one time we had hoped our web site would never become one of those sites packed with photographs of curiosities like this unusual potato we spotted at the Port Angeles Farmers' Market. Unfortunately, we have succumbed to temptation.

That sure is an unusual potato. Potato courtesy of Westwind Farms.

Keywords: farmers' market, food, science, westwind farm



01/17/09 - Kim Chi Pancakes and the Port Angeles Farmers Market

The winter isn't a great time for the Port Angeles Farmers' Market. It is still held every Saturday in the Clallam County Courthouse parking lot from 10AM to 2PM, but there are only a few farmers and venders there. The regulars include Westwind Farm, Dry Creek Farm, Tuna Dan and Nash Huber.

Harley at Dry Creek Farm says his hens are laying through the winter thanks to his new henhouse and the new breed of hens he has. He sold 100 dozen eggs in perhaps an hour this last Saturday, so come early. Also, in February, he will be selling stewing hens. He says the new lot is not quite as fatty, and the birds are a bit smaller, but we know that there is nothing quite like a good old stewing hen, braised for a winter dish.

A new regular at the market is the Korean kim chi and garlic lady. We haven't gotten her name yet, but she sells great big heads of garlic which seem to be much stronger than a lot of local garlic. She also sells jars of kim chi, Korean spicy pickled cabbage, and kim chi pancakes. We haven't tried the kim chi proper, but the pancakes are delicious. No, they aren't horribly spicy, but they have a nice light burn.

We don't expect a lot of action at the market this time of year. We've been enjoying the steelhead from Tuna Dan, and we've been rounding up the usual vegetables at Westwind and Nash Huber's. Things may be a bit slow, but the market is open, and it is still worth a trip.

Keywords: dry creek farm, farmers' market, nash huber, port angeles, winter, westwind farm, birds, garlic lady


02/09/08 - Eggs At The Market

The winter is the slowest time of the year for hens, so it is sometimes hard to get farm fresh eggs. The good news is that Westwind Farm has been selling their eggs through the season, and they've been excellent. The other good news is that Dry Creek Farm is back with a new flock of chickens, so there are now two stands selling eggs at the market. Don't be surprised if some of them are double yolkers. Young hens often lay eggs with two yolks in them.

The final good news is that Dry Creek Farm is selling stewing hens again. For more on the glories of stewing hens and our coq au vin recipe, see our Stewing Hen Page. You can call Harley and arrange to pick up a frozen bird or two at 360 457 2943. These might be tough old birds, but they are delicious stewed.

Keywords: birds, dry creek farm, winter, farmers' market, westwind farm, recipe



05/05/07 - Peashoots and Asparagus at the Port Angeles Farmers' Market

We are just back from the Farmers' Market, and we have to report that spring is moving along.

Westwind Farm has the most amazing asparagus. We've never tasted any this good before. Go for the big fat ones, if there are any left when you get their. When you get them home, peel them and steam them, or boil them. Also, this may be the last week they have their nettles, so hurry up if you want to dry making nettle soup or ravioli.

The Johnston Farm is selling pea shoots, a sure sign of the season. They also have their baby potatoes, lots of herbs, carrots and coriander.

Harley at Dry Creek Farm says that his salad greens are doing nothing, but he does have his eggs. His organic oats are also doing well, but the cold weather has slowed things.

Nash Huber has great looking Swiss chard and lots of little cauliflowers. We bought three bunches of the stuff, so we'll be making our Swiss chard and tuna spaghetti again real soon.

Keywords: farms, nash huber, dry creek farm, johnston farm, food, spring, farmers' market, westwind farm


10/12/06 - Boarlets

We recently took advantage of Arianne's freezer sale at d'Artagnan to buy some wild boar miniroasts, as she calls them. We called them boarlets, and we bought two. We used the recipe from The D'Artagnan Cookbook, except we used Westwind Farm shallots instead of onions, and Westwind's excellent carrots. We cooked it in a Dutch oven in the oven instead of a casserole on the stove top. We left the bouquet garnis in the mix while it cooked, and we ate the vegetables.

So, how were the boarlets? Kaleberg Kitchens says that they were great, or as Variety would put it, Boarlets Boffo!

Keywords: food, westwind farm, recipe, kale



06/19/05 - West Wind Farms We've updated a few things in our gallery of local farmers, so now Westwind Farm has its own page. Stay tuned while we improve our Farmer's Market web page.

Keywords: farms, westwind farm


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