It felt great being back at the Bryn Mawr Farmers’ Market – like going to a family picnic. I made my way through the market, visiting vendors, stall by stall, sharing lots of hugs, smiles and food goodies…what a great feeling!
The first stop was Davidson’s Exotic Mushrooms, where they had beautiful Portobello mushrooms so big you could use them as parasols. Those beautiful mushrooms made me wish I had brought my Hibachi grill. Right next to them were their baby versions, Cremini, small and firm. I eyed those babies immediately and thought on a hot and humid day like today a nice refreshing mushroom salad with lemon vinaigrette would be perfect.
Next my friends at Frecon Farms had so many varieties of cherries I could not make up my mind, so they gave me all of them; sweet, sour, dark red, and yellow juicy cherries.
Mr. Livingood always has a smile on his face for me; he also showed me that he had garlic scapes…hold the phone…garlic scapes? Here was something unfamiliar to me. I asked and he was very eager to tell a chef about something she had never seen, the glint in his eye was adorable. Garlic scapes are the top part of the garlic, they sort of look like a big chive with a bulb on top. I inquired how to prepare these, and he told me you could eat it raw in salads. I immediately thought potatoes, bacon, and garlic scape hash…shame I don’t have my stove here. You could also snip them on top of baked potatoes. I love discovering something I have never seen or eaten! Shellbark Hollow Farm provided some of their tangy chevre goat cheese; perfect topper for salad.
I performed three demonstrations on Saturday:
1) Mushroom salad with lemon vinaigrette – I sliced the mushrooms paper thin, added fresh lemon juice, olive oil, salt nd pepper – easy!
2) Panzanella Salad – think bruschetta salad with cubed bread and instead of chopped onions, I snipped fresh garlic scapes…something new is born!
3) Bibb lettuce with cherries, chevre and champagne cherry vinaigrette, simple yet elegant!
It was great to see the regulars shopping and stopping by to say hello. It was also endearing to me that someone took the time to clip one of my articles and came to meet me, learn about picking veggies, and taste my food.
A special thanks to all the vendors for sharing your produce and foodstuffs with me. A special thank you to Pat, the manager, for always having a spot for me at the Bryn Mawr Farmers’ Market and a really big hug to Molly Rouse-Terlevich, who makes me feel like the best innovator since the dawn of sliced bread!
Hope to see you next time I make an appearance at the Bryn Mawr Farmers’ Market on Saturday, August 31st (Labor Day weekend). I might just bring my grill with me.
As I was leaving, my friends from Market Day gave me a great present, a tube of canella and my friends from Cantor Hill Farm gave me a beautiful yellow/orange squash; it was so bright it looked artificial.
Sunday was a great day, sinful Canella for breakfast and a heavenly tomato and squash gratin for dinner. And, this little piggy went wee, wee, wee, all the way home!
