Dearest Supporters of Far-Out Farmers and Funky-Fresh Food -
The end of summer is upon us.....(and judging by these scorching temperatures, she's going out with a bang!!). Before long we will be pleasantly absorbed by cooling Autumn breezes, turning leaves, and the fabulous fantasia of Fall.
The Fall table is a hearty one filled with creamy winter squash, freshly dug sweet potatoes, flavorful leeks, righteous root veggies, and luscious greens. Eaters rejoice with heart-warming dishes like butternut squash ravioli, honey-roasted sweet potatoes, slow-cooked "harvest" soups, and the quintessential pumpkin pie. Farmers rejoice as well, not only with good food but with a "sigh of relief" as another long & difficult season comes to a close. For farmers, Winter is the light at the end of the tunnel and Fall is our precious prelude to a much needed (bitterly cold) break.
As I sit here typing with my 3 month old son at my breast, I am reminded of last Fall.
 |
| WILL FIGHT FOR FOOD!! |
I was alone in my field (or so I thought) digging sweet potatoes when a sensation of pure exhaustion swept over me...an exhaustion I had never felt before. I could barely hold up the fork let alone dig taters with it. Immediately I realized that the biggest "potato" I would ever grow was actually inside me and not in the ground at all. In other words, I knew I was pregnant. I was shocked, terrified, and moved. In my mental frenzy I somehow finished digging and spent my evening staring at a "plus" sign on a little plastic strip. This Fall's sweet potato harvest will be a little different. Instead of being on the inside, lil' Percy James will be on the outside, strapped to my back.
The timing will be perfect because by then he should be able to hold his precious head up, allowing mom the use of both hands!! If the harvest is lacking, I guess I'll just put Percy on the market table instead. Surely he'll be worth more than our sweet potato price which is $2.69/lb....
Anyway, enough dreaming of Fall!! The fact is SUMMER AINT OVER YET. That's why this Friday at the BADSEED Farmers' Market we will be celebrating the end of summer with SIZZLING SUMMER TREATS straight from the dirt. Get your teeth on all those sexy summer veggies that will soon go out of style. Farmer Dan and I will be harvesting our last major flush of Sensational Summer Squash & Cool Cucumbers, as well as offering up the very LAST of our Sweet Italian Red Onions. Bigg Blue will be quenching your summer thirst with Crimson Sweet Watermelons and Juicy Red-Slicing Tomatoes. And Farmer Lew will be hot-handed with his famous Smoked Anaheim Peppers that will make your head spin with spicy delight. Other fleeting summer veggies will include orgasmic eggplant, bangin' bell peppers, and red velvet okra. Get it while it's hot.....and BYOB!!! It's Farmer Lew's 71st B-Day!! Celebrate the end of summer and celebrate LEW with an ice cold brew. That old curmudgeon is one hell of a guy!
*********************************************************************
End Of Summer RECIPE ROUND-UP
**Brought to you by our "sampling goddess" and nutrition coach, Rachel Meyer, of Food With Rachel. Catch her at the market most Fridays with tasty morsels to try....
For those of you who like to sweat, get those ovens fired-up and turn those burners on full blast. These sizzling summer recipes champion an array of seasonal summer veggies that can be found this Friday at the BADSEED:
Potato, Squash, and Goat Cheese Gratin
serves six
2 medium yellow squash
4 small to medium red potatoes
3 tablespoons olive oil
4 ounces goat cheese (or Fresh Sheep's Milk Cheese from Green Dirt Farm)
salt and pepper
1/4 cup whole milk
1/3 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
1 tablespoon thinly sliced basil, optional
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Slice the squash and potatoes into very, very thin slices. Toss the sliced vegetables with the olive oil in a large bowl.
Pour a small drizzle of olive oil in a casserole dish and spread it around the bottom and sides. Place 1/3 of the squash and potato slices in the bottom of the dish then season with salt and pepper. Top with half of the goat cheese, scattered evenly in large chunks. Repeat with another 1/3 of the vegetables, seasoning again with salt and pepper and topping with the other 1/2 of the goat cheese. Finish by layering on the final 1/3 of the vegetables and seasoning with salt and pepper.
Pour the milk over the entire dish. Top with the Parmesan cheese. Bake, covered, for 30 minutes, then uncover and bake 15 more minutes, until the top browns. Scatter on the fresh basil, if using.
***************************************************
Sexy Veggie of the Week
This week's Runner-Up is an African delight and an Asian staple. She's cultured, creamy, delicious, and oooh sooo good for you. Give it up for Sweet Potato Greens!!
That's right! You can eat the leaves!!! In America, the sweet potato plant is highly misunderstood. We grow it solely for the tubers under the ground and ignore the green stuff altogether. However, the plentiful vining greens are a downright delicacy in many cultures and taste divine when cooked. The deep green, heart-shaped leaves have a faintly sweet and pine-y flavor coupled with a smooth texture that simply exudes creaminess. They are delicious when simply sauteed with a little garlic, onion, and chili pepper. We will feature these leafy ladies this week and possibly this week only! The deer have been grazing on these tasty greens considerably and over-harvesting will effect the root! Get em' while you can...
This week's Grand Prize Winner is the
remarkably radiant Red Velvet Okra.
**Always prepare okra on high heat, otherwise it gets slimy. However, frying okra isn't the only way to eat it. Okra truly shines in a good ole' Cajun Gumbo. Check out this recipe for GREEN GUMBO from the lovely Emily Akins. Emily is a die-hard "local foodie", my best customer, the "voice" of the BADSEED Facebook page, and a dear friend. Enjoy!
Pictures are attached. You know the drill - print them out, blow them up, and plaster them all over the men's room!!
**************************************************************
THIS WEEK'S ORGANIC OFFERINGS -
URBAVORE Urban Farm
A project of BADSEED - Brooke Salvaggio & Daniel Heryer
5500 Bennington Ave., Kansas City, MO 64129
Welcome to URBAVORE - an off-grid, diversified, urban farmstead in the heart of KCMO. Born in 2011, URBAVORE is working towards the creation of an “edible oasis” that brings organic growth, sustainable life, and creative solutions to a city neighborhood. We grow an extensive variety of heirloom vegetables noted for their unique appearance and extraordinary flavor, as well as an array of culinary/medicinal herbs and edible flowers. URBAVORE is a non-certified, beyond organic operation dedicated to respecting both the health of the individual and the environment. It is our aim to build community and collective consciousness through the universal pleasure that comes from eating good food.
*Gourmet Fingerling POTATOES in Purple Peruvian, French Fingerling, and Austrian Crescent
*GARLIC!!! (in assorted gourmet varieties)
*Sweet Red Italian ONIONS!!! (last of the bounty)
*ORGASMIC EGGPLANT (in Black Beauty, Rosa Bianca, Thai Purple, Swallow, & Ping Tung)
*Cool CUCUMBERS!! (picklers, Persians, & slicers)
*SEXY SUMMER SQUASH!! (in yellow crookneck, eight ball, raven zucchini, & french scallop)
*BODACIOUS BEETS (in Cylindra, Chioggia, Detroit Dark Red, & Three Root Grex)
* THAI BASIL
* SWEET ITALIAN BASIL
* LEMON BASIL
*Purple Ruffles Basil
*HEIRLOOM Cherry TOMATOES (just a few that we snatched away from the deer!!)
17th and Belleview, Kansas City, MO 64108
For the “meanest greens” in town, check out Lew's gourmet selection of urban-grown goodies. He grows a mouthwatering array of lettuces, spicy mustards, arugula, and gourmet salad mixes on KC’s west side. Other tasty morsels include heirloom tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, okra, and filet beans. New For 2011 -RUSTIC BREAD straight from Lew’s hand-built wood-fired oven. YUM!
"the great composter let me have another BIRTHDAY this year - and it's this Friday !!! i'll be over there in my booth space celebrating number seventy-one and bringing you guys whatever stuff i can pull up and put on the table. mixed in with whatever the hell it is will be some budweisers you can help me with. so, come on by and say howdy."
8531 E. 81st Terrace, Raytown, MO 64138
John has been growing organically since 1984!! He plants, weeds, and harvests all his own crops on urban land that has been chemical free for over 20 years. Produce includes a wide array of vegetable offerings as well as apples, peaches, and pears in season. John is originally from the far off lands of Hawaii where he comes from a long line of pearl divers!! Now he spends his days out of the ocean and in the dirt, growing righteous foods for the Kansas City community. Lucky us!
*John and Micki will be absent this week and maybe for the next few Fridays. Summer crops pooped out in the excess heat and Fall crops are on the way. Stay tuned for their AWESOME offerings. (John grows one hell of an autumn cabbage!!!)
19801 NE U.S. Highway 69, Liberty, MO 64068
Despite full-time jobs, Stan and Carmen Biggs still find time to organically grow an impressive array of colorful vegetables, greens, and storage crops on 7 fertile acres in Mosby, MO. Stan started out growing nutritious foods for his family as a 4-H project as a small boy. Stan’s passion for gardening was renewed when he met his wife Carmen, who grew up on her family’s 1,500-hectare farmstead in Romania that had passed through many generations. Today they cultivate the earth together, bringing well-fed customers delicious homegrown foods every Friday night at the BADSEED Farmers Market and through their Community Supported Agriculture program.
OFFERINGS:
* Crimson Sweet WATERMELON!!
*Red Slicing Tomatoes
WINTER SQUASH in Butternut, Buttercup, Spaghetti, and Acorn
Bell Peppers
Candy onions
Cucumbers
Zucchini
Yellow squash
Black Beauty Eggplant
*FREE-RANGE BROWN EGGS from Barham Cattle Ranch in Kearney, MO
Parker Farms All-Natural Meats
Tom & Paula Parker
Richmond, MO
"We produce all-natural gourmet beef, lamb, pork, poultry, and eggs. All of our beef and lamb is 100% grassfed. They are never fed any grain, animal by products, antibiotics, or injected with growth hormones. We have been practicing Management Intensive Grazing since 1997. It is our goal to care for all of the livestock that we have been blessed with, in as natural and humane a manner as we can. Our chickens for meat and eggs are also raised on pasture with green grass under their feet as much as the weather in this part of the world allows. Our hogs are fed grain, but do live outdoors with dirt under their feet. We do not use any petroleum based pesticides or fertilizers on our pastures. We believe that healthy people, and healthy animals start with healthy plants and a healthy, biologically active, soil community. Our meats are available at the BADSEED Market or through our Community Supported Agriculture shares."
*Ground Beef & Patties
*Pork Products: Chops, Brats, Breakfast Sausage, Italian Sausage, & Spare Ribs
*Lamb Cuts: Ground Lamb, Shoulder Steaks, Rib Chop (butterfly cut, loin chops), Leg (bone in whole, shanks, lamb liver)
**Pastured Chickens !!!!
*Tea Towels, Hand-made Teas, Candles, and Gourd Bird Houses from the lovely Parker Girls!!
* HOT PEPPER JELLY !!!
Jacqueline Smith & Sarah Hoffman
Weston, MO
"Life is too short to eat grocery store cheeses! Green Dirt Farm, LLC invites you to try our HANDCRAFTED ARTISANAL SHEEP CHEESES created with milk from our very own PASTURED ewes. You can be assured of a richness and depth of flavor unique to the rolling bluffs of Weston, MO. Also on the menu is 100% GRASS-FED LAMB which is of unsurpassed quality, tenderness, and flavor."
OFFERINGS:
*Grass-Fed Lamb
*Artisan Sheep's Milk Cheese in aged and fresh varieties
New Traditionalist - Artisan Bread
Chris Glenn
Kansas City, MO
Chris produces old-world, rustic loaves from the finest locally-grown and milled flour on the market. His breads are made from a sour-dough "starter", lovingly kneaded, and baked to perfection in a wood-fired oven. Flour and water never tasted so good!
Les MIller
Independence, MO
Les Miller only produces the best damn RAW HONEY on the market. No joke!! He is an encyclopedia of knowledge when it comes to sustainable bee keeping and uses 100% natural and holistic methods for managing his hives which range from 60 to 100 at any given time. His honey is sold in various quantities, and 1 gallon jugs are available on request! Bees wax candles and other by-products are also available for purchase.
Get Real Food Co.
Sean Henry
Kansas City
"At GetReal Food Company, we’re committed to creating incredible beverages made with real foods that are naturally brewed. Hand-crafted by real people who truly care about the details, from what they make to how they make it, from what they put in their bodies to what you put in yours. The result is a series of beverages that create a new expression of soft drinks and mixers."
*Kombucha
*Micro-Brewed, All-Natural SODA!!
THIS IS THE BEST STUFF ON EARTH!!!!
The new shipment has arrived and we have a full assortment of artisan flours locally grown and milled. A bakers dream....
Remember:
LIVE NUDE VEGETABLES!! and other organic delights...
EVERY FRIDAY AT BADSEED
Yours Truly,
Brooke
-farmer and MILK mistress of the BADSEED
* REGULAR HOURS thru November 18
on Facebook! -- CLICK HERE^^click
