mint

FILL YOUR EASTER BASKET
You’ll find everything you need for a magnificent Easter brunch or dinner at the Little Italy Mercato this Saturday. Begin with an appetizer of grilled asparagus from Suncoast Farms topped with a perfectly poached quail egg from Spur Valley Ranch, and a salad of Sage Mountain Farm’s organic greens, just picked strawberries from Kawano Farms and Nicolau Farm’s fresh chevre. Fill the bread basket with fresh-baked hot cross buns from Bread and Cie or Belen Bakery, brioche from Patisserie Soleil and croissants from Loic Patisserie.

Pick up potted basil, mint and parsley from Rivera’s Treasure Garden to make a super fresh salsa verde to spoon over grass fed lamb chops from Son Rise Ranch. Bring home honey from Mikolich to thicken a Lone Oak Ranch pomegranate juice glaze for a locally raised ham from DaLe Ranch. Polito Farms has tiny potatoes to roast alongside.

Paradise Valley Ranch has beautiful hand woven Easter baskets and they've already hard-boiled your eggs; the various breeds of hens there and at Schaner Farms means pretty colored eggs so there's no need for dye!  Or pick up a Wheat Grass basket from Suzie's Farm.

Buy a box of Caxao Chocolates' exquisite truffles, and add treasures like lavender sachets from Keys Creek or colorful toys from Casa Artelexia to make baskets for all ages.  Don’t forget flowers to give your table a special touch - JR Organics and Maldonado Growers have beautiful Calla Lilies and Hidalgo Flowers and Dram and Echter have gorgeous  bouquets ready to grab. Hoppy Easter to all!

Watermelon Gazpacho

JR Organics is impressing us at the Pacific Beach Tuesday Farmers' Market with ripe golden yellow melons and Kawano Farms offers some super sweet baby reds.You can make a watermelon salad, serve it up in standard, succulent slices, or use it as a canteen for your favorite mixed beverage! (Even early world explorers like Magellan used melons this way, come on!)

It's time to try on watermelon gazpacho this week and dazzle your friends at your next dinner gathering. Ready? GO! There are nearly 1,200 varieties of watermelon, so this dish could always have new flavors. Grab one or two sweet watermelons to start. Dice the melon (sans rind) and one medium sized Armenian cucumber from Suzie's Farm. Add freshly chopped red bell peppers, mint, and parsley from your favorite farmers, a dash of aged balsamic vinegar from Gianni's and one minced shallot. Drizzle with olive oil from Bari, and a hint of sea salt from Salt Farm.

PS: Go ahead and make yourself a double batch- seems to run out quickly on these hot days!!
  

WHERE THE WATERMELONS GROW

In the summertime, when the sun is shining and you have a beautiful view of the bay, your thoughts turn to picnics and watermelon. That's right, the watermelon's have made their debut at the Little Italy Farmers' Market! These sweet and juicy melons herald in the season of eating outdoors, where it's perfectly acceptable, encouraged even, to eat with your hands and get messy. Find them at JR Organics in shades of pink and yellow, but you better come early, these guys disappear fast.

Sliced into triangles and eaten plain. Sprinkled with Tajin - a seasoning mixture of salt, chile and lime for fruit and vegetables - found at Gourmet Tamales. Cubed and tossed with slivers of fresh mint leaves from Maciel & Family. Blended with a bit of lime juice and water to make an agua fresca. Watermelon, we love you so.

While there are no shortage of ways to eat this summertime staple, I find myself daydreaming about a watermelon salad I had in San Francisco last summer. A darling of restaurant's summer salad menus, this one was like no other I've ever had - it was a plate of summer's best offerings. Chunks of heirloom tomatoes, crisp cool watermelon, green and fragrant basil, slightly pickled onions and pops of nicoise olives. I've waited patiently for almost a year for the watermelons to return to the markets, and now that they're here it would be a shame not to make this salad again. JR Organics has your melons and basil, Suzie's Farms has a gorgeous rainbow of heirloom tomatoes, Vang Farms has onions of all kinds (I use sweet onions, but red onions that have been rinsed with cool water to take away some of the sting and then pickled would be great too), the nicoise olives are at Lisko Imports and the recipe to put it all together is right over here.