Last Week at the Market - Fennel
Sorry for the late and brief run down this week but I didn’t spend as much time at the markets last week as I usually do.
Maybe it’s a tough call, but I personally think the highlight was fennel. Probably a lot more people will pick the increase in fruit with all the berries and sweet cherries arriving, but I’m more of a vegetable man and fennel is right up there with the Brussels Sprouts and cauliflower.
At Maplewood the fennel came by way of Claverach. It was as pristine as everything else they do. A lot of the local fennel I’ve bought has been incredibly tiny and somewhat stringy and this was by far the best I’ve had in the last two years. Claverach also continued the upswing of new potatoes having bintjes. Farrar Out Farm also had kennebec and Norland Red.
Centennial Farms picked the first of their black raspberries and blueberries and it sounds like there should be a lot more this week.
At Clayton the fennel came from Silent Oaks Farm and Biver. I spotted the first sun gold tomatoes of the season at the Silent Oaks stand as well, but with incredibly long lines throughout the market, the pints went quick and we missed them by one customer.
Other things I spotted were the bigger onions (above) that are starting to arrive, along with some green beans at the Biver stand. Several farms also had a few varieties of heirloom tomatoes and I imagine we should start seeing some good ones soon.
At Tower Grove Farmers’ Market the fennel once again came from Biver. Other than that, I finally scored some salcissa from Salume Beddu. They were also selling a cannellini bean puree and mostarda. I’ll try to find time to comment on those as all three were excellent but I’ll quickly say I put the salcissa on some pizza and it had a really surprising depth of flavor along with a definite chili kick.
The sweet cherries from Eilerman Brothers also arrived but they’re not quite as sweet as they’ll be getting soon. Their sign said peaches, blackberries, raspberries, tomatoes, and sweet corn are on the way as well though I imagine it will be a while before we see the corn.
Also at Tower Grove there was a new stand for Le Monde selling Falafel and Taboulah and Kimker Hill Farms ran away with the most interesting thing I saw all week: guinea eggs.
6 Responses to “Last Week at the Market - Fennel”
Cannelloni bean, eh?
By Orrin on Jul 2, 2008
Obviously I meant to write cannellini bean, but that’s funny.
By Bill Burge on Jul 3, 2008
I don’t want to turn this into “What Bill misspelled”, but your knife post refers to “tamponade”, which I found hilarious.
By Dan D. on Jul 3, 2008
Prove it.
By Bill Burge on Jul 3, 2008
I bet that fennel would have been great on a pizza this past weekend!
By Mydarndest on Jul 3, 2008
Not to pile on (and I can’t prove that it was there), but I have to admit that I had a giggle over tamponade, too. Thanks for the market updates each week!
By Katie on Jul 3, 2008