Apples and Cheddar

My grandfather Paul was a Wisconsin farm boy, who loved many things dairy.  One of his favorite snacks was a sliced apple with chunks of cheddar.  On my homebound stop at Trader Joe's today, I enjoyed a sample of the very same (served in little paper cups, rather than off a plate).  Took me right back to my grandparents' kitchen. Autumn and nostalgia, an excellent pairing.

Corni di Toro

Take the bull by the horns!

Corni di toro sound hot, and look suspiciously like chipotles, jalapenos, and other spicy pepper vareities; but they are actually sweet.  So if you've skipped chile rellenos or other stuffed pepper dishes from fear of scalding your taste buds, try these.

This summer is the first time I've seen them in local farmers markets, so they may still be a rare find for shoppers. Fortunately, many seed catalogs carry them.

Zero-waste Plate

As Coastal Cleanup Day winds down at Ryder Park in San Mateo, the grill fires up.  Does the celebration lunch create more waste than the volunteers remove from the creek and shoreline?  Not by a long shot. In fact, the city aims for zero waste, employing compost, recycling, and reusables.  My favorite twist on this increasingly common event theme is the use of frisbees, turned under-side up and topped with a layer of wax paper, as the plates.  Volunteers may keep theirs as a souvenir, or leave them to be washed and reused.

Dahlias!

Dahlias may not be edible, but they do brighten a table.  At dahlia farms (free range, every one) outside of Seattle, one can stroll through aisle after aisle of these flowers, and never see the same variety twice.  Some specialty growers have over 300 types in one several-acre garden; and you would hardly guess that all of them belong to the same category of flower.

At the West Seattle farmers market, a hint of this diversity was represented in the bouquets for sale.  In my head I heard the voice of Ann Lovejoy, the first time I ever met her.  As I put fresh-cut dahlias into coffee cans of water on dinner tables in a rustic cafeteria, I heard a woman exclaim happily, "Dahlias! Nothing subtle about them."

And indeed, they nearly shout, "Look at me!" from any venue - field, florist's stand, or even a coffee can vase. They never whisper seductively, like a rose or scented vine. And they never ever attempt to be overlooked, like a few of the shy edible flowers.

Their brilliance attracts pollinators, to whom all of us who like to eat are deeply indebted. So perhaps in their own outspoken way, dahlias are tied to the table as more than just decoration.

Season Lengths

Finding strawberries in the local farmers markets from April (sometimes even February) through October (sometimes November) shocked me the first year I lived in San Francisco Bay Area.  The next few years, it still seemed odd but marvelous, a gift from a stranger too enticing to be trusted entirely.

At the West Seattle Farmer's market over the Labor Day weekend, the paucity of berries reminded me just how fortunate we are.  A half-flat of organic strawberries will probably not hit $10 here, even at the end of the season.  And the vendor in Seattle made it quite clear that the following week would be the last for his area's season.

On the other hand, he offered an item I have never seen down here - fresh blackberries. They do grow wild in the Northwest, in alleys and yards and public parks.  Anyone willing to get scratched and sweaty can easily fill up buckets in August, and make pies into the winter.  Perhaps I should have picked some of those up . . .

Bitter Eggplant?

What does eggplant have to be bitter about?
Could it be the way that so many get smoked down to a little bowl of baba ganoush?
Or perhaps the unjustness of its reputation as less than marvelous in any way?

Or - maybe it's the common misperception that all eggplant are the same, which this display clearly refutes (without even showing several more varieties commonly found in farmers markets here).