Cooking from the market

I managed not to eat them all straight from the pasteboard box, and as promised, here are some nifty things to do with really good strawberries. You know the ones I mean: Red and tender all the way to the heart, so fragrant they smell up your whole refrigerator, and sweet as a May...

Look what I found at the Albany Farmers' Market today: The first strawberries of the season, courtesy of Rick Steffens Farm in Silverton - who also brought asparagus, cauliflower and onions to the market this weekend. A good sign that despite the cool weather, foodcrops are coming along, and we should see more and more delicious...

I live alone, which means I mostly cook for one. Sometimes that means making big batches of something-or-other, parceling it out into meal-sized containers and freezing it for later. Other times - say, when I succumb to an eyes-bigger-than-stomach moment at the farmers' market - that means coming up with several ways to use...

I managed to gobble up nearly half the big bag of lettuce I brought home from the market yesterday, dressed with nothing more than a splash of vinegar and a little salt - a clear sign that I haven't been getting enough springtime in my diet. Then my friend Kathy Walton, having noticed my other market...

... nor thunder (all of which we've had today) could deter the Albany Farmers' Market from opening for the season. It was cold, it was wet, it was windy - and despite all that, a fair number of shoppers turned out to greet the typically small number of first-weekend vendors like long-lost friends. Not a...

Countdown: Eight days till the local market opens! Talk about good timing: While browsing the Flickr photo group I started last year for the Albany-Corvallis Farmers' Markets, I noticed that group member Katherine Rivera had posted a note about her new local foodblog: the Mid-Willamette Valley Eat Local Challenge. Based on the national Eat Local movement,...

Countdown: 35 days till my local farmers' market opens for the season! I expected this would be a seasonal blog when I started writing it; sure enough, I haven't posted an entry since December. Because, really, who wants to read "I took the (whatever) from last harvest season out of the freezer tonight..." Winter cooking, at least...