Memorial Day Market, May 28th, 2016

May 24, 2016June 1, 2016 / The Farmer's Wife / Leave a comment

What does Matt grow best? Salads!!! They are so good that James Beard award winning Chef Dylan Fultineer, executive chef for Rappahannock Oyster Company buys our salads to serve at his restaurant every week. Chef Fultineer is truly a “farm to table” chef. The food he serves is outstanding and his restaurant has been named as one of the best in Esquire Magazine. I am very proud to see Black Creek Farm listed on their menu. We bring our fresh greens straight to Rappahannock’s kitchen each Saturday right after market! You can pick up a bag of our salads straight from The South of the James Farmer’s Market each Saturday. We have these yummy salads every week from now through November!

Watch our salads grow:

Whenever I eat Matt’s salads, I am sure to honor it with fresh homemade salad dressing. My favorite recipe is simple. I pull out a mason jar and mix a 1/2 a cup of olive oil, 1/4 cup of apple cider vinegar, 2 tablespoons of Black Creek Honey, 2 teaspoons of dijon mustard, salt and pepper to taste and shake. It is truly simple and delicious. I toss the salad with fresh strawberries, goat cheese, and walnuts. If I want to make it a meal, I toss a fresh grilled chicken breast on top. Truly one of my favorite summer dinners!

This week, we have a wonderful late spring treat coming to market, GARLIC SCAPES! Garlic scapes taste mild and sweet with a hint of a soft garlicky flavor. There is just a small window that these are available and we will only have them for a few weeks.

What do you do with them, you ask? I always get great ideas from our customers. We have one customer that buys a bunch and makes garlic scape pesto. She freezes the pesto and enjoys the taste throughout the summer and fall. Based on her suggestion, I made a garlic pesto pasta and it was delicious! Another customer made pickled garlic scapes. Another great way to preserve the flavor of late spring! I love to grill them and serve them in stir fries. Matt and I are busy folks, I am a principal of an elementary school, he farms alone (I help him on weekends), and together we raise a beautiful son. The results are a lot of hours working, so simple is what we need!

So, after all of this…..what is coming to market??? We will be bringing: garlic scapes and fresh garlic, baby squash varieties, our signature salad, baby leaf arugula, young and tender romaine and butter crunch lettuces, turnips, swiss chard, radishes, honey, eggs, leeks, and spring onions. We are all blessed with this mild weather that brings forth abundance of fresh, tender greens.

See you at market!

Market May 21, 2016

May 20, 2016May 21, 2016 / The Farmer's Wife / Leave a comment

I have to be honest, my favorite market days are rainy market days. The slower pace gives us more time to chat with our customers and really hear about what they want and how they cook their food. The foodie in me loves to hear about their favorite recipes! The best part is you know it’s gonna rain, so pull out your best rain gear and show it off!

So what are we bringing to market? We have beautiful squash, green garlic, leeks, field greens, arugula, Asian turnips, baby romaine lettuces, baby butter crunch lettuces, eggs, and honey. A full booth of quality food for the most dedicated foodies in town!

Let’s talk about green garlic. It is available for such a short window that is coming to a close. Don’t miss out on this scrumptious treat. These tastey treats are milder than regular garlic and are a mix between a garlic and a scallion. They are great in stir fries.

Here is my favorite way to use them: Toast some pine nuts and sautée the green garlic in olive oil. Toss in a can of drained and rinsed cannelloni beans with the toasted pine nuts. Throw in a whole bag of our arugula and cook it until it wilts. Squeeze the juice of one lemon over the yumminess and serve. Easy peasy fanciness!

I am so excited about our early squash. Matt has really babied them through the late freezes. I love to sautée them in olive oil and eat them up. They taste like summer!

Matt and I look forward to seeing you at market! Market is best in the rain. Parking is easy and there are no crowds. There is also a small donut line! Total perks.
We have lots of surprises next week. Garlic scapes will be in among another things. See you soon!

May 14th, 2016 Market

May 14, 2016May 15, 2016 / The Farmer's Wife / Leave a comment

We finally made it to our first market! For the first time, we were able to bring our seven year old son, Sage. He was such a big help and I am so proud that we are raising a child with a strong work ethic. He proudly boxed and displayed the romaine lettuces for us. The best part was him helping us prepare for market Friday night. It was awesome watching him play.

We really missed our customers and they missed us! It is so good to feel loved! We brought out a great spread. We had honey, spring garlic, the most beautiful leeks, arugula, field greens, chard, spring onions, cute baby butter crunch lettuce, and romaine lettuce.

My favorite thing this week was the romaine lettuces. I love to copy cat PF Changs famous lettuce wraps with them! Total fresh yum!

Spring garlic is an awesome treat this time of year. For some great ideas click here. My favorite way to eat this is truly the simplest. Sautée in olive oil and toss some fresh shrimp in it and DONE. Easy and healthy dinner!

Matt grew the best leeks ever! Many folks told me they were going to grill them! Simply split them in half, brush some olive oil on them and put them on the grill. Yumm!

Get ready for squash and garlic scrapes! We expect to have them next week. As always, thank you for patiently waiting for our return. I am happiest at market because of each of you! Blessings until next week.