onions

Spice up your night with salsa fresca made from North Park Thursday Farmers’ Market ingredients, great on grilled meats and veggies, or for dipping.

Start your shopping at Valdivia Farms, where you’ll find tomatoes, green onion and cilantro, then head across the aisle to Proios Family Farm for fresh garlic, sweet bell peppers and spicy chiles including jalapenos and habaneros. JR Organics has red and yellow onions and a dazzling array of heirloom tomatoes, but be sure to ask about tomatillos - they make an excellent salsa verde. Toss in other fresh vegetables like cucumbers, radishes, and banana peppers from African Sisters Farm, or add more complexity to your salsa by including sweet antohi peppers, poblanos or padrons from Suzie’s Farm.

Like sweet salsas? Grab a bunch of grapes from Smit Orchard and try this grape salsa recipe. Diced green tomatoes from Kawano Farm add a little tartness to any salsa, as does a squeeze of fresh lime from Paradise Valley Ranch or R&L Farms. If you don’t have time to make your own, pick up freshly made salsa from Gourmet Tamales. If you’re happier on the dance floor than in the kitchen, spice up your exercise schedule with a salsa dancing lesson at the Queen Bee Art & Cultural Center. 

GET LUCKY THIS WEEK!

Every culture has traditional foods for inviting luck in the New Year and whichever you choose the Pacific Beach Tueday Farmers' Market offers all the ingredients you need for eating in the New Year right.

In Italy, as in many cultures, pork is usually on the menu since pigs move forward and represent the fat of the land. Conversely, hope you finished that lobster on New Year's Eve. They move backwards and are considered bad luck on New Year's Day. Ditto chickens and turkeys that scratch backwards, but we're thinking rabbit would be auspicious. Along with the pork, Italians eat lentils symbolizing money, like the beans and peas that many cultures consume.

Why is it a natural reaction so say "oh that's so cute"  whenever you see something that is smaller than it normally should be (like baby chickens, Smart cars, or those itsy bitsy Mexican gherkin cucumbers)? If the cucumbers got you, you'll be sure to fall hard for this season's tiny Cipollini onions at the Little Italy Mercato. Sweet and elegant, Cipollinis add amazing balance and richness to any dish. You can find some of the cutest little ones at Schaner Farms this weekend, and head home with them to make a tasty, full bodied Fall salad. 

Buy a few heirloom potatoes from Sage Mountain Farm and one or two stalks of sweet, fragrant fennel from Suzie's. Dice the onions and halve the potatoes, sauteeing them both in a Tuscan Herb Roasted Olive oil from Gianni Fine Foods. Add a bit of vegetable stock, and flat leaf parsley from JR Organics, let it simmer until the potatoes are soft. Then drain most of the liquid (saving it for your next soup, of course!), dust with a grating of Spring Hill Goat Cheddar, and serve warm, with salt and pepper to taste. 

If you want the pure flavor of the onions, roasting them with a bit of balsamic vinegar and thyme is an excellent option as well. This way, you can pair the onions with meat, chicken, or fish, or simply have an incredibly flavorful side dish to accompany soups or salads during these cooler nights. 

Tomatoes, corn,  green beans, okra, oh my!   So many choices for delicious produce at the North Park Farmer's market, how can one decide what to buy?   Not to worry-succotash to the rescue! 
At the heart of succotash is corn and beans and the dish resembles a stew in texture.   However, there are as many recipes for succotash as there are imitations of Sylvester the Cat  lisping over the syllables..  Our version of succotash  starts by  sauteing Da-Le Ranch bacon and removing it from the pan.  In that same pan, saute Valdivia farms zucchini, Suzie's purple okra, onions from the Produce Stand,  Kawano farms corn,  green beans and cherry tomatoes from JR Organics.  Finish by adding back the bacon and season with Salt Farm's roasted garlic infused salt.  The result is no more sufferin' succotash!

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.

NEXT, ON OKRA

Okra is here at Little Italy's Mercato market! You’ll find it at JR Organics, Suzie's Farms and Kawano Farms. And, we hope that it doesn't cause you any fear. Okra has gotten a bad rap over the years because when cooked, it produces a viscous substance, or "slime" that makes an excellent thickener for gumbo, but turns most folks against okra for life. We want to change your minds about the much-maligned vegetable and offer a few cooking methods that  eliminate or minimize the slime quotient.

First, try coating the okra with olive oil, season with salt and pepper and grill them or sauté them in very hot oil. The extreme heat significantly reduces the slime factor! Another way is to add plain white vinegar to the okra when it's cooking. This rids the slime every time and nobody is the wiser.

With that tip in mind, why not try this simple dish of smothered okra and tomatoes? Heat some olive oil in a Dutch oven; add okra, red or white onions from Vang's, and tomatoes and garlic from Sage Mountain Farms. Stir mixture together and add salt and pepper to taste, and let it cook for an hour! Delicious addition to any summer meals. It's time you give okra another try. You may find the flavor to be truly sublime!

NEXT, ON OKRA!

Okra is here at the North Park Farmer’s market. You’ll find it at JR Organics, Suzie's Farm and Rodney Kawano Farms.   And, we hope that it doesn't cause you any fear!   Okra has gotten a bad rap over the years because when cooked certain ways it produces a viscous substance, also known as "slime".  That slime makes an excellent thickener for gumbo but turns some folks off okra for life!

We want to change your minds about the much-maligned vegetable and searched for cooking methods that would eliminate or minimize the slime quotient.  First, try tossing the okra in olive oil, season with salt and pepper and grill them or sauté them in very hot oil.  The extreme heat of the grill/oil kills the slime factor completely!

 
Another way is to add plain white vinegar to the okra when it's cooking. It gets rid of the slime every time and nobody is the wiser.  With that tip in mind, why not try this simple dish of smothered okra and tomatoes.  Heat some Gianni's herb infused olive oil in a Dutch oven; add okra, red or white onions from Valdivia farms, tomatoes and garlic. Stir mixture together and add any salt from Salt Farm and pepper and cook for an hour!  It's time you give okra another try.  You may find the flavor to be truly sublime!

There’s a movement going on, getting people to give up meat one day a week and it’s called Meatless Mondays. The overall goal is to reduce meat consumption by 15% in order to improve personal health and the health of the planet by decreasing some health risks and reducing your carbon footprint. And now that the biggest grilling holiday is over it’s the perfect time to embrace the change and do your body and Earth good.

Luckily shopping at the North Park Farmers' Market hardly limits you and may even inspire new menu ideas. How about fresh corn chowder using corn from Kawano Farms, first of the season Stupice tomatoes from Suzie’s Farm and spring onions from JR Organics? Stir-fry is always a solid way to bring a ton of vegetables into a meal, and our farmers hasve so many gorgeous  vegetables right now it’s hard to choose just which ones to use. Or build your own frittata starting with eggs from Paradise Valley Ranch.

It’s only one day a week – heck it doesn’t have to be Monday, Monday just has a nice ring to it – but oh what a difference it can make!

There’s a movement going on, getting people to give up meat one day a week and it’s called Meatless Mondays. The overall goal is to reduce meat consumption by 15% in order to improve personal health and the health of the planet by decreasing some health risks and reducing your carbon footprint. And now that the biggest grilling holiday is over it’s the perfect time to embrace the change and do your body and Earth good.

Luckily shopping at the Little Italy Mercato hardly limits you and may even inspire new menu ideas. How about fresh corn chowder using corn from Kawano Farms, first of the season Stupice tomatoes from Suzie’s Farm and spring onions from JR Organics? Stir-fry is always a solid way to bring a ton of vegetables into a meal, and Vang Farms has so many gorgeous Asian vegetables right now it’s hard to choose just which ones to use. Or build your own frittata starting with eggs from Schaner.

It’s only one day a week – heck it doesn’t have to be Monday, Monday just has a nice ring to it – but oh what a difference it can make!

POT LUCKS CALL FOR POTATO SALAD

For Memorial Day picnics or any pot luck, potato salads are a perennial hit. With potatoes back at the Little Italy farmers' market, we have all the ingredients to make your family favorite or a new variation on the theme.

My daughters are firmly hooked on the classic they grew up on. It's easy to make with yellow fingerling potatoes from Weiser Farms (find them at the Polito Farms stand), lots of hard boiled eggs from Schaner Farms or Swiss Mountain Ranch, and chunks of dill pickle from Happy Pantry. Salt and pepper and moisten the whole thing with a mix of plain yogurt and mayonnaise and they're happy. Mr. Market likes things a little fancier. For him, red potatoes, boiled eggs, spring green onion from Sage Mountain Farms, some crisped up bacon from SonRise Ranch and a vinaigrette dressing are the way to go. He doesn't mind at all if I toss in garlic scapes from Schaner Farms, or mix things up with purple peruvians or sweet potatoes from Vang's Farm. You can imagine the diplomacy required to plan a picnic at our house.

Whatever your favorite potato salad recipe (and we'd love it if you'd share), our insulated Little Italy market bags will keep a well chilled tub nice and cool on the way to your potluck this weekend. Pot appetit!