Asparagus et al.: What I look forward to at the Farmer's Market

I don't remember when was the first time I had asparagus. I didn't grow up with it, but somehow I knew the vegetable. I guess my first encounter with asparagus was not as dramatic nor impressive as the one with bagels. The cooked spears tasted pretty bland. I didn't bother with them for a long time. Once my friend, who was in a graduate school then, invited some friends over for dinner. He fed us wonderful food, and his grilled asparagus was excellent. I learned that asparagus can be good, very good.

Now fast forward a couple of years. I am buying freshly picked asparagus from the farmer's market. The same day, I am cooking the asparagus, trying not to overcook and keep the bright green color. They are so sweet, fresh, and delicious! People have a myth about the thickness of asparagus and try to pick thin ones. I had great tasting asparagus that was as thick as four pencils. The point is not the thickness but the timing. Asparagus tastes best when they are just picked. You want to minimize the time between picking and eating. The best way is growing your own patch (join Shannon, Chelsea, and me in starting one) and the next best option is the farmer's market. I will be at the market extra early this Saturday morning to procure this seasonal delicacy.

So, who has asparagus? Chris and Ruth of Jubilee Organic Farm comes to my mind. Rick of Summer Creek Farm has an asparagus bed but I am not sure if he is bringing some this Saturday. Scenic View Orchard should have some. Glade-Link Farm is famous for their asparagus but sadly, they don't come to the market till the blueberry season starts.

Photo by Dan

Spring farmer's market won't be complete without lettuce, spinach and radish. Rick says he will have all of these. Nancy of Chesapeake's choice will have spinach. I expect Erland and Rieko of New Hope Farm and Jim of Tomatoes et al. will bring their specialty - gourmet green salad mix. Scenic View Orchards will probably bring the most diverse vegetables along with some apples they have kept in a cold storage. Jubilee Organic Farm will have the spring vegetables and cut herbs.

My friend Sandra and her two friends are visiting this weekend. Dan and I are very excited to have house guests staying with us. We have not decided on our brunch menu for Sunday yet, but our friends will be pretty hungry after running a half marathon and thus we plan to cook a lot of food. Most of the dishes will be made from the produce we pick up on May 2 at the market. The timing is perfect.

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Plants: What I look forward to at the Farmer's Market.

At the annual Master Gardener's plant sale, I bought two tomato plants to take advantage of the hot weather and have a jump start on tomatoes. I also purchased a couple of native columbine plants and a native honey suckle along with a few others. However I was very conservative in my plant purchase because I knew that there will be diverse plants offered at the farmer's market.

Herb, Tomato and Vegetable Plants

Wendy of Persimmon Pond Plants is bringing herb plants (thyme, tarragon, winter savory, lavender and rosemary) and possibly tomatoes, lettuce and arugula plants on May 2. Nancy of Chesapeake's choice will bring potted herbs, and Rick of Summer Creek Farm will offer organically grown plants . I expect Jim of Tomatoes et al. and Erland of New Hope Farm will offer young plants this year again. So Very Special offers a wide array of herb plants and I got a curry plant from them last year. Some of them will offer a pot with pre-selected herb plants so that you can start your window herb garden right away! For those who are just starting a herb garden and wondering what to grow, these are my top five recommendations:

• Basil (warm weather annual)
• Parsley (likes cool weather, biennial - will go to seed after the first winter)
• Rosemary (tender perennial, will over-winter if a protection is given)
• Thyme (perennial)
• Sage (perennial)

I would add cilantro (cool weather annual - eventually will bolt when the weather gets hot), lemon verbena (annual, awesome in iced-tea), tarragon (tender perennial, terrific in potato salad), lavender (tender perennial, some cultivars will survive winter better than others), mint (perennial, very invasive - keep it in a pot), chives (perennial) and oregano (perennial) to the mix if there is more room. Even if you have a pretty decent selection of herb plants already, you might still find some others to add to your selection. Look for fennel and savory to make your own Herbes de Provence. Maybe there will be garlic chives, thai basil or lemon grass for those who love asian flavors. Visit every farmer and ask what they have and what they plan to bring. You will be amazed with the varieties that are offered.

On top of many varieties of tomato and pepper plants that most of the mentioned farmers will bring, we will also have eggplant and tomatillo plants if Thistle nursery is back with their usual offerings.

Flowers, Shrubs, and Trees

Thistle nursery also brings overwhelming varieties of annual flowers! The quality and price is unbeatable. If you are looking for plants to decorate your front porch, I highly recommend that you come out to the farmer's market and check out Thistle nursery. M & W nursery brings a beautiful selection of flowers, dwarf and unusual shrubs and trees.

Photo by Dan

You must stop at M & W and take a look at what they've got. Last year they even had blueberry plants. Wendy also brings flower seedlings - I got Lisianthus from her which bloomed beautifully last summer.

I have a pretty good variety of seedlings that I started indoor and outdoor this spring. Even with those seedlings, I am pretty sure my fellow farmers will bring herb, vegetable, flower and shrub/tree plants that will make me so excited that I have to adopt. Don't laugh if you find me carrying a huge basket filled with plants. I can't help it, and it feels good to succumb.

Organic potting soils and Rain Barrels

You've got plants - do you need some good soil and a better strategy to water your plants? Rick will have organic potting soils and rain barrels. Now that's a complete picture for your garden.

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Cucumber Kimchi

While talking to Erland and Rieko at New Hope farm stand, I learned that Erland used to make and sell Kimchi in New York. He told me that he interviewed many old Korean ladies for a Kimchi recipe and they all told him different ones. I wholeheartedly agree that a Kimchi recipe isn't easy to obtain. There are probably millions of variations in making Kimchi. Even my mom couldn't tell me a "recipe" per se. The thing is that she doesn't really measure anything. She just knows how much to throw in and what to look for, from making Kimchi thousand times. And yes, Kimchi-making is an art.

Erland gave me 4 nice looking cucumbers and asked if I could make and bring some Oee Kimchi (오이 김치, Cucumber Kimchi) for him. It's been a while since I made Kimchi last time, but cucumber Kimchi is relatively easy, and I had garlic chives going wild in my garden, so I took the offer.

Cutting and salting the cucumbers
First, cut cucumbers 1.5 - 1.75 inches long log. Then you cut them lengthwise twice in a criss-cross pattern close to the bottom of the log, leaving about 1/8 - 1/4" inches of the bottom uncut. This style of cucumber Kimchi is called oee sobakee (오이 소박이) and takes more time and effort to make, but looks nicer. If you don't want to bother, just cut the log all the way into quarters so that you have wedge-looking cucumber pieces.
For four of ~11 inch long cucumbers, I used 1/4 cup of coarse sea salt and 1/2 cup of water and mixed them in a bowl. Let them rest for about 1 ~ 1.5 hour, till cucumber pieces are nicely salted and bendable. You might think that is a lot of salt, but once the cucumber pieces are salted, you throughly rinse them in cold water and drain.

Ingredients in the top row from the left:

• cucumber pieces salted, rinsed, and drained.
• sugar
• salted shrimp: these are tiny tiny shrimps that are preserved in salt.
• anchovy fish sauce: I am using a Korean brand fish sauce, but I was told Thai or Vietnamese brand works well too.
• salt, which I didn't use other than salting the cucumbers.
• cayenne pepper flakes: very important. If you are buying a bag of dried cayenne pepper from Asian grocery stores, make sure it is made within a year and has nice deep red color. It can be mild hot to very hot, but since you cannot taste it before you buy, and it would be more of a trial and error. I use one that my mom sends me and it has nice heat to it.
  

Ingredients on the cutting board

• garlic chives: related to chives, but have flat leaves and a nice garlicky flavor. Essential ingredient in making oee sobakee.
• scallions, garlic, ginger: three ingredients that show in almost all Korean recipes.
  

chopping and mixing the ingredients

• garlic chives: cut into 0.75 inches. 1 cup.
• scallions: chop them small. 1/2 cup.
• ginger: very finely minced. 1/2 Tbsp.
• garlic: very finely minced. 1 1/2 Tbsp.
  

• cayenne pepper flakes: 5 Tbsp
• sugar: 1 Tbsp
  
• salted shrimp: 1 Tbsp
• anchovy fish sauce: 1 Tbsp
  

Mix all up and now you are almost ready

Take the cucumber pieces and gently stuff into the filling you made. The filling is pretty hot and salty and thus you don't need much.


Unlike cabbage kimchi, cucumber kimchi doesn't last long. As it ferments, cucumber pieces become mushy and acidic too quickly. Keep it refrigerated and eat within a few days of making. This one is hot, spicy and cool at the same time. Definitely worth the effort.

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Cool me, soothe me, cucumber soup

When I came back home from the farmer's market this past Saturday, I was hot, hungry, and tired. I was so tired that anything around me was irritating. It was too bad that I was extremely hungry too and had to feed myself and my companion. It is our rule that if we are too sick (physically and/or emotionally) then we don't cook food because the state of our body and mind gets reflected in the food. We were too tired to even consider going out for lunch, so I was stuck with cooking late lunch.
Dan suggested NaengMyun (냉면, literally a cold soup), but we were out of the dry noodles for making NaengMyun. Instead I made this variation of cold cucumber soup (오이냉국, Oee NangGuk) which my mom always made in the hot summer days when I was young.

Oee NaengGuk that my mom made always had cucumber, onion, and seaweeds. Add vinegar, sugar and salt to make it pleasantly sweet and sour. Being a Korean dish, my mom probably adds chopped fresh garlic too, but I don't use garlic here. I like using red onions for its pretty color and mild flavor. They add a nice layer of flavor and it is not too loud as garlic.
To make it a substantial dish, I added buckwheat noodle. It is the same kind that you use to make Japanese cold noodle soup with dashi and grated daikon. To finish up my variation of Oee NaengGuk with buckwheat noodle, I added a sprinkle of toasted sesame seeds and a drop of dark sesame oil.

It is a simple dish, and cucumber takes the center stage in this dish. I picked up a Japanese variety of cucumber (Tasty Jade) from Rieko at the New Hope Farm stand. Jim at the Tomates etc. stand gave me a few small Japanese cucumbers too. Those cucumbers were perfect for this dish.

As I ate and drank the noodle soup, I felt better. It was refreshing and tasty. A little bit of the dish came from my past, and a little bit came from who I was now. After the lunch, I took a long deep nap which I really needed. And everything was good again.

Yeon

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