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10/02/12 - Market Mushrooms

This is just a quick Port Angeles Farmers' Market update. The fall mushrooms are coming in at WIld West along with king salmon and black cod. Nash has cauliflower, carrots, arugula and broccoli. Johnston Farms has amazing lettuces, celery, potatoes and lots of little tomatoes. In other words, autumn is a coming in.

Wild West mushrooms

Nash Huber

The Family Farm

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


08/05/12 - Farmers' Market Update

The Port Angeles Farmers' Market is finally warming up for summer. The sparse stands are now abundant.
  • Johnston Farms had its last English and snap peas, but is now getting great salad greens, thai basil, garlic and the very first tomatoes. We got a basket of a heritage variety and had our first real tomato salad of the season.
  • The Korean Garlic Lady has gone full summer, and the garlic is back, along with potatoes, scallions, cucumbers and romaine.
  • The Family Farm has gone back to its roots with potatoes and kohlrabi, along with their wonderful flowers.
  • Clark Family had their usual beef, but also some young goat. We had goat mixiote (more below), and it was wonderfully tender and mild.

Goat mixiote is based on one of our favorite dishes at Rosa Mexicano. You can make it with lamb shanks, or goat, or pork for that matter. You just make up a chile paste with dried chiles, add some oregano, cumin thyme, garlic, cloves, pepper and a splash of cider vinegar. Rub down the meat. Wrap the various pieces in parchment, secured with twine. Then steam them for two or three hours over boiling dark beer. Be careful opening the packets, because the meat will be falling off the bone and delicious.


Nash Huber's stand

Johnston Farms

The Korean Garlic Lady

The Family Farm

Johnston Farm tomatoes

Tomato salad

Clark Family goat mixiote

Keywords: clark family, farmers' market, johnston farm, nash huber, summer, garlic lady


07/15/12 - Pea Report - Spring Comes To Port Angeles

The Johnston Farm had the first garden peas of the season at the Port Angeles Farmers' Market this past weekend, and the Korean Garlic Lady had her first new potatoes, so we Kalebergs had one of our favorite spring dishes, and well before August at that. It's based on an Edna Lewis recipe and it's a simple dish to make.

Just boil the potatoes until they are almost cooked through, but not quite. Microwave the peas for a minute or two. Then drain the potatoes, add the peas, a half cup or so of chopped dill and a cup of milk. Bring the milk to a boil and finish cooking the potatoes. Season with salt and pepper, and you're done.


Peas!

Garden peas, new potatoes, dill and fresh whole milk

A market meal with salmon burgers, swiss chard and our favorite pea dish

Keywords: farmers' market, johnston farm, recipe, salmon, spring, garlic lady, kale


06/13/12 - Port Angeles Farmers Market

This has been a cold spring, so the Port Angeles Farmers' Market is still a bit lean, but there have been signs of spring, and, with the solstice coming soon, we are hoping for signs of summer. We've been buying eggs, spinach, arugula, chards of various colors, salmon, halibut, salad greens, potatoes, garlic and asparagus. Yes, Westwind Farm still has asparagus in June. According to the farmers, things are looking up, but already we are buying more and more of our groceries at the market, and we're looking forward to more.

Nash Huber

Westwind Farm

The Korean garlic lady, with greens

Johnston Farm

Kol Simcha with lamb - The Clark family was also there selling their beef and pork.

The Family Farm is back.

Mystery Bay has steamed clams and oysters.

Keywords: clark family, farmers' market, johnston farm, nash huber, oysters, port angeles, salmon, spring, summer, westwind farm, garlic lady


04/28/12 - Spring Comes to the Port Angeles Farmers' Market

It's starting to look like spring at the Port Angeles Farmers' Market. Westwind Farm has their first asparagus along with potatoes, winter squash and their wonderful eggs. Johnston Farms is back with fresh coriander, squashes, braising mix, sunchokes, potatoes and other goodies. The Korean garlic lady has her garlic and greens, and Nash Huber's stand is loaded with a broad variety of raabs - flowering kales, cabbages and so on. In other words, the long winter is over.

Johnston Farms

Westwind Farms asparagus - We bought most of these, but there will be more next week.

Nash Huber's stand

Keywords: farmers' market, johnston farm, nash huber, port angeles, spring, westwind farm, garlic lady, kale


11/13/11 - Port Angeles Farmers Market Report

The autumn market is here. There are potatoes, in red, brown and blue, squashes, pumpkins, celery, lacinato kale, garlic, cauliflower, broccoli, carrots, baby turnips, bok choy, savoy cabbage and all of our fall favorites. The four stalwarts, Nash Huber, Westwind Farm, Johnston Farm and the Korean garlic lady are all there along with a number of other sellers.

It isn't just vegetables either. You can also buy beef, pork, lamb, cheese, salmon, halibut, steelhead, oysters, bread, and an array of seasonal mushrooms. If you search a bit, you can find a last few tomatoes, arugula, coriander and a few other hold outs, but the cold weather is coming.

Don't miss out on the prime of the harvest. Drop by the Port Angeles Farmers' Market this coming Saturday.








Keywords: autumn, farmers' market, johnston farm, nash huber, oysters, port angeles, salmon, weather, westwind farm, garlic lady, kale


08/18/11 - Summer Comes to the Port Angeles Farmers' Market

Let's see, there are all sorts of greens, lettuce, chard, carrots, scallions, broccoli, cauliflower, basil, summer squash, bok choy, cucumbers, cabbages, raspberries, and even tomatoes. Don't forget the oysters, salmon, beef, lamb, bread, rolls, croissants and cheeses. You can do an awful lot of your grocery shopping at the Port Angeles Farmers' Market on Saturdays (10-2) and Wednesdays (2-6). (We're guessing on the hours. The official web site doesn't seem to have them anymore.)

West Wind Farms

The Korean Garlic Lady - with a lot more than garlic and dumplings

Johnston Farm

The market survey, preliminary results

The venerable Nash Huber

Keywords: farmers' market, johnston farm, nash huber, port angeles, shopping, summer, garlic lady


06/09/11 - Port Angeles Farmers' Market Update

The Port Angeles Farmers' Market gets greener by the week. Everyone has salad greens and the baby turnips are tiny, but tasty.

Preston, of Wild West Seafood, has been selling gathered foods: morels, bear claw shoots and wild ginger. We tried the wild ginger, which has no relation to the ginger root one buys at the supermarket, and it did indeed have a gingery taste, but it did not go down well. As with a lot of gathered foods, a lot can depend on preparation. Next time, we'll do a bit more research.

We also dropped by the Good To Go stand and tried some of their croissants. They definitely went down well. The baking at Good To Go just seems to get better and better.


Wild ginger - one of the asarums

Baby turnips at Westwind Farm

Salad greens and eggs

Greens and garlic at Johnston Farm

A high speed photograph of a Good To Go croissant 50 milliseconds before it was eaten. This was a true photographer's challenge.

Keywords: farmers' market, good to go, johnston farm, port angeles, westwind farm


05/09/11 - Look Who's Back

The Port Angeles Farmers' Market is getting more and more spring-like. This time the asparagus were back, real spring vegetables. Both Westwind and Johnston Farms had them. That's right, Johnston Farms is back. That's wonderful news.

Johnston Farms is back at the market.

Keywords: farmers' market, johnston farm, port angeles, spring


05/01/11 - Farmers' Market Update

The Port Angeles Farmers' Market is going green now that the weather is a bit more cooperative. There are lots of raabs. Those are just kales and cabbages and the like that have started to flower. They have a wonderful, slightly fuller and perhaps sweeter note than the unflowering vegetable. They're great sliced thinly as the base for salads or sauteed.

Johnston Farm was only present by proxy. This time Westwind Farm had their salad mix, and a welcome sight they were. Westwind is also selling kale and cabbage raab along with those sure signs of spring, rhubarb and nettles. Yes, they're awfully late this year. Late too are the asparagus. Usually we've been living on Westwind Farm asparagus for weeks now, but not this year. We haven't seen a spear. Hope springs eternal and all that.


Westwind raab and rhubarb

Westwind was selling Johnston Farm salad mix.

Raabs and more at Nash's stand

Keywords: farmers' market, johnston farm, port angeles, spring, westwind farm, kale


04/27/11 - A Word From Johnston Farms

We just heard from Christy at Johnston Farms. They haven't been at the Port Angeles Farmers' Market lately, but they are planning on coming back by summer. For now, the Clark Family Farm beef people are selling some of her salad mix, and if you call (360-452-1936) first, they'll be selling salad mix and other vegetables at the farm on Heusline Road off Old Olympic. That's great news. Johnston Farms was a real important part of the market.

Salad mix - That's proof!

Keywords: clark family, farmers' market, farms, johnston farm, port angeles


03/09/11 - Farmers' Market Update

This is just some Port Angeles Farmers' Market gossip:
  • Leela, of Lazy J, will now be working with Westwind Farms. She's sharing stall space with them for now and still has her baby potatoes, but this season she'll be farming with them, and we're looking forward to her new goodies.
  • Christy, of Johnston Farms, is on sabbatical for a few months, so we won't be seeing her for a while. She's hoping to be back some time in June, so if all goes well, she'll be back with the summer harvest.
  • Allan,of Dungeness Seaworks, was off to Sitka. He'll be fishing up in Alaska. That's where the fish are. He isn't sure when he'll be back at the market. Given the vagaries of fish and weather, the best we can do is wish him good luck.
  • Preston, of Wild West Seafood, says he is expecting black cod very soon, and halibut season is opening, so he's hoping to have halibut after that.

Keywords: farmers' market, johnston farm, port angeles, westwind farm, alaska


12/02/10 - The Winter Farmers' Market

It's the winter Farmers' Market, and we've gotten way behind with our photos and updates. Just about all of the summer vegetables are past, but this is our favorite season, so there are finally lots of lacinato kale, all the great local potatoes, carrots, cabbages, and brussels sprouts. Everything was a bit late this year, and it has been a cold autumn, so we have been making the most of what is available.

If you do go, remember that Preston and Tuna Dan have been selling salmon, steelhead and black cod, and Preston has been selling chanterelles and white truffles. It's a great place for food shopping. We get our eggs, Clark Family beef, Bell Street Bakery bread and most of our seafood there. The Mystery Bay folks have been at the market too, selling oysters and clams, in the shell or steamed with butter and garlic. We've been sore tempted on some of these cold days.


Lazy J Farm

Johnston Farm

Nash Huber's Produce

Westwind Farm, a carrot close up because we didn't take an even number of photos.

West Wind Farm

Keywords: autumn, farmers' market, oysters, shopping, winter, clark family, westwind farm, johnston farm, nash huber, salmon, kale


09/21/10 - At Long Last, The Harvest

It is almost autumn, and the Port Angeles Farmers' Market is in full gear. It hasn't been the best year, but we'll let you judge from the pictures.

Westwind

Johnston Farm

Johnston Farm

Nash Huber

Nash Huber

Keywords: autumn, farmers' market, johnston farm, nash huber, westwind farm


08/12/10 - The Summer Port Angeles Farmers' Market

We haven't been writing very much about the Port Angeles Farmers' Market lately. This has not been because we haven't been shopping there, but because we've been lazy. The slow start to the season didn't help, but now the summer vegetables are coming in thick and fast. The Korean Garlic Lady is selling her wonderful, almost overpowering garlic, along with her excellent scallions. Lazy J and Johnston Farms have their great potatoes. Everybody seems to be selling cauliflower, and it's about time.

We should also note that Mount Townsend Creamery is selling Trailhead again. They aren't getting their milk from Dungeness Valley Creamery anymore, but the cheese is almost as good as ever.


Trailhead cheese is back.

Great garlic

Potatoes! We're saved!

Cauliflower in living color.

Those are Nash's watermelons.

Lazy J always puts on a great display.

More vegetables

Keywords: farmers' market, farms, johnston farm, port angeles, shopping, summer, mount townsend creamery, garlic lady


05/10/10 - The Commodities Market

We've decided to go for some commodity trading, so we bought some hog belly futures from Johnston Farms. Right now they are just piglet futures and are as cute as anything.

Oink, oink, oink!

Keywords: farms, johnston farm


05/02/10 - The Port Angeles Farmers' Market

The asparagus are out in force, as are the salad greens. We are big fans of West Wind asparagus, which may be the best on the peninsula, but the ones from Johnston Farms - this is their first year - were not far behind. We also bought some great looking black cod from Wild West Seafood, and a big eye round roast from Clark Beef. If you get some of the tender little turnips from the Korean garlic lady, consider simply scrubbing them, slicing them, and sprinkling them lightly with some fancy salt. You may have gottle some fleur de sel or the like for Christmas. Just a pinch or two will bring out the flavor of the turnips. Think of them as quick pickles, only better.

Now playing: parsnips at West Wind Farms

Keywords: farmers' market, johnston farm, garlic lady


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