Lessons in Food

There was a farmers' market in Boston - it was an hour's T ride away, and many of the vendors expected bulk purchases.  One girl does not need 5 lbs. of potatoes.  And oh, the number of potatoes, carrots, onions, and apples.

In my last year in DC a farmers' market opened in my neighborhood - it started at 9:30am, which in DC during August means you're already facing 80 degrees or more.  I did, however, discover garlic scapes:

They grow above the garlic bulb, can be used like tangy green onions, and then there are the blossoms:

If they're dried they last for ages, and you can use the seeds in your cooking, too.  I was very impressed with these discoveries - and after the Garlic Festival here in Gilroy, I have plans for growing my own garlic plant, complete with scapes and blooms!

In California, the farmers' market is a year-round affair.  Annie and I meet each Sunday in the wee hours, bribe her young son into the car, and head over to grab breakfast at a cafe on the same street as the market.  We take turns chasing the 2-year-old around as we make our way down the street.  And each week there's something new to try:

Lemon cucumbers!

Watermelon radishes!

English peas!

Squash blossoms!

The squash blossoms were my experiment in recreation - a favorite restaurant in DC had these on the menu, stuffed with goat cheese, battered and fried.  Annie dared me to recreate it, so I took a deep breath, picked out three promising blossoms, and returned to the Cowgirl Creamery booth for a creamy cheese to stuff inside those orange blooms.

I got home, and did a quick sweep online for suggestions, and that's where I learned that the blossoms I bought were male plants - the female plants are fertilized in order to grow the squash, which, ironically, leaves them with the appearance of male genitalia:

Female squash blossom

I have to say, I think I bested the DC restaurant.  I used a milder cheese that didn't over-power the squash blossoms, and made a beer batter with an English cider from Yorkshire's oldest brewery.

Cheesy Squash Blossoms

1 Tbsp. flour
1/2 Tbsp. corn starch
salt
black pepper w/ lavender (I keep these together in a second pepper mill)

Mix the above together well.  Whisk in cider until batter is both smooth and of the consistency you want (I made mine a little runnier than I probably would next time - it's a learning process).

Gently cram some Cowgirl Creamery Inverness cheese into the squash blossoms, roll them in the batter, and drop them in a hot pan with olive oil.  Cook until batter is golden.  Enjoy with the rest of the cider you didn't need to make the batter.  It's was wonderful.

Served with quinoa, rainbow greens tossed in a mustard vinaigrette, and spaghetti squash.

That's how I roll.