i'm hereby vowing to spend many a saturday morning produce shopping at the kcc farmer's market. i ventured there saturday with our awesome neighbor, wanee.
we pulled up, parked and headed into a mix of people and smells that made me feel right at home. the first booth on the right is a local coffee producer. sipping a cup of just brewed coffee and snacking on a carrot/pineapple/coconut oatcake we walked up and down the isles checking out local & organic produce. paradise in paradise! there were plenty of hawaiian specialties to take home too- candy sweet tropical fruits, fresh roasted kahuku corn, organic fresh tofu, nori rice cakes, local honey, locally made portuguese sausage and more. lots of amazing cut flowers and more mangoes than a girl can handle.
armed with $23, i filled my bags with: japanese eggplant (which i roasted with some a quick tomatoes/herbs and goat cheese and served with polenta for dinner last night), okra, vine ripened tomatoes (i made a salsa fresca tonight for our chicken fajitas), mangoes (i'm trying my hand at chutney making tomorrow), a bag of spinach/tatsoi greens, apple-bananas (shorter and fatter than the ecuadorian versions i'm used to eating, but just as tasty), sweet potatoes, and a yummy treat of thai red rice with coconut milk and sesame seeds. AND don't forget about breadfruit. without really thinking it through i asked the vendor, "what do you do with breadfruit?" to which he jokingly replied "you eat it". totally walked into that one! the goal is to cut an X at one end and roast it for about 45 minutes, then eat it - of course.
so, yeah. it's certainly not a one-stop-shop like berkeley bowl, but i know where i'll be getting the veggies and treating myself t0 some fresh cut ginger flowers :)
we pulled up, parked and headed into a mix of people and smells that made me feel right at home. the first booth on the right is a local coffee producer. sipping a cup of just brewed coffee and snacking on a carrot/pineapple/coconut oatcake we walked up and down the isles checking out local & organic produce. paradise in paradise! there were plenty of hawaiian specialties to take home too- candy sweet tropical fruits, fresh roasted kahuku corn, organic fresh tofu, nori rice cakes, local honey, locally made portuguese sausage and more. lots of amazing cut flowers and more mangoes than a girl can handle.
armed with $23, i filled my bags with: japanese eggplant (which i roasted with some a quick tomatoes/herbs and goat cheese and served with polenta for dinner last night), okra, vine ripened tomatoes (i made a salsa fresca tonight for our chicken fajitas), mangoes (i'm trying my hand at chutney making tomorrow), a bag of spinach/tatsoi greens, apple-bananas (shorter and fatter than the ecuadorian versions i'm used to eating, but just as tasty), sweet potatoes, and a yummy treat of thai red rice with coconut milk and sesame seeds. AND don't forget about breadfruit. without really thinking it through i asked the vendor, "what do you do with breadfruit?" to which he jokingly replied "you eat it". totally walked into that one! the goal is to cut an X at one end and roast it for about 45 minutes, then eat it - of course.
so, yeah. it's certainly not a one-stop-shop like berkeley bowl, but i know where i'll be getting the veggies and treating myself t0 some fresh cut ginger flowers :)
Comments
I just love reading about what you guys are eating! The eggplant & polenta sounds really good. As, of course, does all that tropical fruit. And local coffee! Actually, the coffee stand at the Berkeley Farmer's market has become my favorite thing ever. They have this cold-brewed New Orleans style iced coffee that is amazing. I'd go just for that, but there's always other tasty things too. Although no mangos, no pineapple, and definitely no breadfruit.
Can't wait to hear more!