peppers

November usually brings apples and pears, pomegranates and pumpkins to the Little Italy Mercato Farmers’ Market (and you will find those things this week!), but the heat wave a few weeks back means we’ll also see another wave of warm weather crops that are usually gone by this time of year.

JR Organics is still picking heirloom tomatoes; stretch summer out with this cool tomato and basil salad, using olives from Lisko Imports, basil from Schaner Farms and crumbling some chevre from Taste Cheese on top. Or welcome winter with a warm bowl of tomato soup! Belen Bakery country French bread and cheddar from Spring Hill Cheese Company will make a tasty grilled cheese to go with that salad!

Kawano Farms and Proios Family Farm have more eggplants and summer squashes, and we spotted sweet and hot peppers Suzie’s Farms.

Lone Oak Ranch and Smit Orchards are still harvesting peaches and pluots, and cantaloupe and watermelon are especially sweet right now. Enjoy the fall that feels like summer!

You’ll find sweet and spicy peppers at the Little Italy Mercato to pep up all your favorite recipes. Red, green, orange and yellow bell peppers from Vang’s Farm are great for stuffing or cut them into rings and grill with flank steak from Sonrise Ranch for a fajita plate. Use jalapenos or serranos from Sage Mountain Farm for the salsa!

Want to try your hand at making roasted red pepper hummus? Try this easy recipe. If you need a great sidedish, try this southwestern salad using quinoa from Sustainable Pantry, corn from Kawano Farms and your favorite color of bell peppers. Or grab a basket of avocados from PV Ranch and make a sweet corn guacamole. 

Suzie’s Farm has more than a peck of peppers, including sweet nardellos, antojis, and golden treasures, slightly spicy poblanos, hotter jalapenos and Hungarian wax peppers, and red hot cherry bombs. Proios Family Farm offers baskets of mixed hot peppers for the indecisive.

Spice up your Saturday at the Little Italy Mercato!

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. 

USING UP THE SUMMER SURPLUS

Summer has hardly left San Diego, or at least it hasn't left the farmers' markets yet. The stalls at the Little Italy Mercato are still bursting with heirloom tomatoes, sweet smelling melons, crunchy green beans, bell peppers, and sweet stone fruit that will make you salivate just looking at them! Salads are a quick and healthy way to make the most of this long lasting harvest, so try these different recipes this week and enjoy the splendor of summer for a few more days.

Grapefruit and Avocado Salad
-Soft, tender wedges of sweet pink grapefruits from Polito Farms and a few slices of tasty reed avocados from Paradise Valley Ranchwill make your taste buds soar with delight. Mix with fresh baby greens and parsley rom Suzie's Farm and drizzle with some extra virgin oil from Marians Olive Oil. Even your kids will enjoy this bright, yummy salad.

Melon with Fig and Proscuitto Salad
-Choose the most fragrant of JR Organics honeydew and cantaloupe melons, pick up a lean cut of ham from Da Le Ranch or thin-sliced prosciutto from Mona Lisa, a bunch of basil from Maciel & Family, and a handful of succulent, delicious figs from Terra Bella Ranch…dice the melons, layer a few strips of meat on top, and garnish with chopped basil, fig slices, and drizzle with fresh olive oil. This makes an appetizing and romantic salad for two.

Grilled Zucchini Pepper Salad
-Take advantage of bumper crops this season by firing up your grill. You can pick up a few pounds of summer squash and zucchini from Schaner or Sage Mountain Farms, pick a peck of pipin' hot peppers from Suzie's farm, coat them in olive oil and grill in batches till browned. Garnish with fresh basil and a chipotle balsamic vinegar from Gianni's Fine Foods for a savory, sizzling salad.  

SUMMER SALADS

Summer has hardly left San Diego, or at least it hasn't left the farmers' markets yet. The stalls at our North Park Farmers’ Market are still bursting with heirloom tomatoes, sweet smelling melons, crunchy green beans, bell peppers, and sweet stone fruit that will make you salivate just looking at them! Salads are a quick and healthy way to make the most of this long lasting harvest, so try these different recipes this week and enjoy the splendor of summer for a few more days.

Grapefruit and Avocado Salad
-Soft, tender wedges of sweet pink grapefruits from John Gilruth and a few slices of his tasty reed avocados will make your taste buds soar with delight. Mix with fresh baby greens and parsley rom Suzie's Farm and drizzle with some extra virgin oil from Bari's Olive Oil. Even your kids will enjoy this bright, yummy salad.

Melon with Fig and Proscuitto Salad
-Choose the most fragrant of JR Organics honeydew and cantaloupe melons, pick up a lean cut of ham or prosciutto from Da Le Ranch, a bunch of basil from Maciel & Family, and a handful of succulent, delicious figs from R&L…dice the melons, layer a few strips of proscuitto on top, and garnish with chopped basil, fig slices, and drizzle with fresh olive oil. This makes an appetizing and romantic salad for two.

Grilled Zucchini Pepper Salad
-Take advantage of bumper crops this season by firing up your grill. You can pick up a few pounds of summer squash and zucchini from JR Organics or Valdivia Farms, pick a peck of pipin' hot peppers from Suzie's farm, coat them in olive oil from Bari's Olive Oil and grill in batches till browned. Garnish with fresh basil and balsamic vinegar for a savory, sizzling salad.  

SPICE IT UP SAN DIEGO

Let's face it- people in California love Southwestern food. And in our small San Diego corner of the world, that means any fusion of ingredients that Spaniards, cowboys, Native Americans and Mexicans might have noshed on. The Pacific Beach Tuesday Farmer's Market is bursting with ingredients for you to satiate those taste buds and get creative with your own Southwestern cuisine.

If you haven't already tried a sample, Bitchin' Sauce offers a spicy chipotle sauce that you can smother over just about anything. Make yourself a Southwestern breakfast bowl with fresh black eyed peas from JR Organics and diced tomatoes from Kawano Farms. Add a couple of sliced jalapenos from Suzie's Farm, and creamy chunks of Reed avocados from Paradise Valley Ranch. You can add farm fresh poached eggs from The Produce Stand and top it off with chopped cilantro from Maciel & Family.

When you need a simple afternoon snack, reach for a handful of Smoked Chipotle almonds from Hopkins AG to give you that spicy kick you need to make it to dinner. Too hungry to cook when you're done shopping the market? Take a pack of locally-made Gourmet Tamales, have a Salvadorean pupusa, or stop by the Olive Oil Cafe stand to order their incredible Southwestern Sandwich, stacked tall with sliced turkey, pepper jack cheese, spinach, jalapenos and a homemade chipotle aioli. Ole!

Despite no rain for many weeks, rainbows can be spotted all throughout the North Park Farmers market!  Stop by JR Organics, The Produce Stand, Valdivia  or Kawano Farms and your eyes will be treated to multi-colored melons and tomatoes.  Suzie's farm has peppers of every color;  R&L Farms has vibrant yellow & orange stone fruit;   John Gilruth's avocados are emeralds in the rough;  Smit Orchards' deep purple blueberries shimmer in the sunlight and Hillside has exotically colored passionfruit. 
Those colors mesmerize the eyes, but we suggest that you do more than gaze at the colors! Take a bunch of big bites because those colors, scientists and clinical nutritionists agree,contain essential health components that can help you stay healthy.   We found these recipes that  serve up a big slice of the rainbow and are delicious:   A Tomato, Watermelon and Nicolau Farms Feta Salad  or a  watermelon, peach, tomato and avocado salad .  After trying them you'll be clicking your heels and repeating that familiar phrase "there's no place like the North Park Farmers market!"

PICK A PECK OF PEPPERS

A plethora of peppers have hit the North Park Farmers Market!  With so many shapes and colors to choose from, we thought that a quick primer on peppers was in order.  First, differently colored peppers are not different peppers at all! Typically, they signify various stages of growth and maturity. A green pepper is just a red pepper that hasn’t fully ripened.  Next, what gives the pepper it's heat is a chemical called capsicum.  Peppers that do not contain capsicum such as bell peppers, are considered sweet.
Now that you're schooled on peppers, here are some of the infinite ways you can cook with them.  One of our favorite dishes is Nicolau Farms chevre stuffed roasted peppers finished with Thyme of Essence dried thyme . Another dish that shouldn't be missed is chile rellanos!  Roast any of the multitude of peppers, now available at Suzie's or Paradise Valley, remove the charred skins, fill with Springhill Garlic Jack Cheese, coat with flour and fry! Finally,  we think that the combination of sweet peppers and JR Organics heirloom tomatoes in a sweet pepper and heirloom gazpacho  goes together just like salt and pepper!

Did you notice those cucumbers that resembled tiny watermelons at Suzie’s Farm’s booth?  Mexican sour gherkin cucumbers, also known as the “mouse melon” is a newly re-discovered heirloom varietal that has a surprisingly sour taste.  Their sourness got us thinking about pickling and the Pacific Beach Tuesday Farmer’s Market has a plethora of picks for pickling.

According to Chinese medicine, one should consume pickles during the hottest summer months as a tonic for cooling the stomach and strengthening the kidneys.  But don’t stop at cucumbers, almost any vegetable or fruit can be pickled.  Why not consider pickling chard from JR Organics, squash from Kawano Farms, beets and let’s not forget the pickled peppers from Maciel Family Farm!

Here is a basic pickling recipe that will get you started: Start with approximately 4 pounds of any vegetables.  Combine 3 cup vinegar, preferably apple cider, but rice, white or red wine are fine too with 3 cup water, 1/4 cup non iodized sea salt!  Check out Salt Farm for more adventurous infused and flavored salts. Cover the vegetables with the vinegar, water and salt mixture, fill sterilized mason jars and refrigerate.  Some vegetables, such as chard and leeks will need to be boiled for 5-10 minutes, before jarring.

Not so much into the whole do-it-yourself thing, then stop by the Happy Pantry booth, where they have an amazing selection of pickled veggies and salads.  However you choose to get your pickling fix, we think pickling is a great way to save your summer vegetables for consumption when you long for the taste of summer!

Did you notice those cucumbers that resembled tiny watermelons at Suzie’s Farm’s booth? Mexican sour gherkin cucumbers, also known as the “mouse melon” is a newly re-discovered heirloom varietal that has a surprisingly sour taste. Their sourness got us thinking about pickling and the North Park Farmer’s Market has a plethora of picks for pickling. According to Chinese medicine, one should consume pickles during the hottest summer months as a tonic for cooling the stomach and strengthening the kidneys. But don’t stop at cucumbers, almost any vegetable or fruit can be pickled. Why not consider pickling chard from JR Organics, green beans or squash from Kawano Farms, and let’s not forget the pickled peppers from Valdivia Farms!

Here is a basic pickling recipe that will get you started: Start with approximately 4 pounds of any vegetables. Combine 3 cup vinegar, preferably apple cider, but rice, white or red wine are fine too with 3 cup water, 1/4 cup non iodized sea salt! Check out Salt Farm or She Sells Sea Salts for more adventurous infused and flavored salts. Cover the vegetables with the vinegar, water and salt mixture, fill sterilized mason jars and refrigerate. Some vegetables, such as chard and leeks will need to be boiled for 5-10 minutes, before jarring.

Not so much into the whole do-it-yourself thing, then stop by the Happy Pantry booth, where they have an amazing selection of pickled veggies and salads. However you choose to get your pickling fix, we think pickling is a great way to save your summer vegetables for consumption when you long for the taste of summer!