Hello!
Here you are on the website already, so I don’t have to announce to you--the South Anchorage Farmers’ Market website is up and running!!  Now that you’re here, do a little exploring!!  It’s got all the recipes—searchable in an online index! It’s got the weekly newsletter—and all the back issues from this summer. It’ll tell you at a glance what’s fresh at the market! It’s got photos of the produce, plants, seafood, and other products at the market, and photos of dishes prepared from the cookbook and the newsletters! It’s got two different RSS feeds (Really Simple Syndication); one for the farmers’ market newsletter, and one for the recipes. It slices! It dices! (Well, actually, you have to do the slicing and dicing. But you get the picture.)

We’re still working on the website, and there are definitely still some kinks to be resolved! If you find something that doesn’t work, chances are we’re in the process of fixing it! Every week we’ll have more recipes and more features to add—like videos on YouTube and photos of the cookbook recipes! So stay tuned, and keep checking on the site!

more vendors all the time!!
As the vegetables ripen, we have new vendors every week! On Wednesdays and Saturdays, look for Stockwell Farms and their beautiful produce of all kinds—I’m particularly partial to Mr. Stockwell’s Napa cabbage and kale varieties. On Wednesdays, at the Dimond Center Farmers’ Market, we’re thrilled to introduce Kenley’s Alaskan Vegetables & Flowers. Carol and her daughter Rachel have an incredible array of fresh vegetables, herbs, and lovely flower arrangements. And on Saturday, visit the Three Bears Farm’s stand, selling all kinds of wonderful jams, jellies, and fruit butters. Get a load of this variety: strawberry rhubarb jam, cranberry walnut jam, apple butter, pumpkin butter, and more!

vegetables
What’s at the market?  Come early to get the best selection, but here’s a list of some of the produce that is showing up!

arugula; beet greens; broccoli; carrots; cauliflower; cilantro; collard greens; cucumbers; cress; dill; eggplants; kale – lacinato; kale – red russian; kohlrabi, lettuce—romaine, butter, red leaf, and salad greens; mustard – mizuna, red, and tatsoi; napa cabbage; italian parsley; radishes; rhubarb; scallions; shingku; spinach; squash blossoms; tomatoes; turnips (snow apples); turnip greens; zucchini - green; zucchini blossoms.

Of course there’s so many beautiful greens for salads, and I’ve included my old tried-and true garlicky mustard red wine vinaigrette for salad in this newsletter to go with the spicy grilled halibut recipe. You don’t need a lot going on with the accompaniments to this halibut, so this is a nice simple salad to serve with it.

I’ve also included an eggplant recipe! It’s a grilled eggplant bruschetta (toast) with this fabulous Romesco spread--you just have to check it out. Even if you don’t use the eggplants with it, you can use sliced tomatoes or another vegetable on top… See what you think!

seafood
And speaking of halibut, Arctic Choice Seafoods will have all kinds of fresh, delicious, Alaskan fish! Here’s a list of what they are likely to have. I’ve included a great grilled halibut recipe this week to inspire you to check out their wares!
• fresh king salmon
• fresh sablefish
• fresh rockfish
• fresh halibut
• fresh clams
• fresh oysters
• halibut cheeks
• king crab
• snow crab
• spot shrimp
• side stripe shrimp
• Dungeness crab
• scallops
• smoked salmon bellies

local cheese
A.D. Farms has probably been waiting for Cranberry Ridge Farm’s cheese like Rise & Shine Bakery has! The bakery needs the cheese for the Alaskan cheese & roasted garlic bread (coming next week, not this week) and now A.D. Farms can sell the Cranberry Ridge cheese at the farmers’ market!  Look for the blue cooler at his stand, and check out all kinds of interesting local cheeses.

bread
This week Rise & Shine Bakery is back to our alaskan barley bread! These golden-brown loaves with their sprinkling of rolled barley flakes are awfully fun to make, and make a nice contrast to the regular 100% whole wheat sourdough levain. With just a touch of honey for sweetener, they are a bit milder than the levain, but still have a nice grassy complexity from the sourdough and the barley. The barley was grown in Delta Junction, and is a hull-less variety, necessary for us because we don’t have a mill in Alaska that can remove the hulls from the grain. We grind the barley in our bakery in our grain grinder.

Our specialty loaves this week will be the alaskan potato and chive, made with Russet potatoes grown in Palmer, and the toasted walnut bread. We’ll also be making the dark chocolate & cherry bread this week! So if you’re looking for a nice dessert treat, or a fun gift for a friend, this is your lucky week!

farmers’ market cookbook
Are you looking for even more ideas about what to do with the gorgeous fresh produce at the market? The South Anchorage Farmers’ Market Cookbook is filled with 100 pages of delicious, healthy recipes that showcase our flavorful, fresh local Alaskan produce. Recipes provide inspiration for ways to use Alaskan vegetables, fish, fruits, bread, and other products that can be found at our farmers’ markets. The cookbook focuses on vegetable recipes that have fantastic flavor and top-notch nutritional value. And if you’re wondering about how to process our Alaskan produce to freeze for the winter, the book has instructions! At the market, the cookbooks are $15, which includes a really cool folding wire cookbook holder while supplies last. (Holders sold separately for $6.)

Saturday South Anchorage Farmers’ Market
Dates: May 10-October 4
Hours: 9am-2pm
Location: Subway/Cellular One Sports Centre at the corner of Old Seward and O’Malley

Wednesday South Anchorage Farmers’ Market
Dates: July 2- October 1
Hours: 10am-4pm
Location: behind the Dimond Center, in front of the Dimond Center Hotel

If you’d like to receive this blog as a newsletter, sign up in the yellow box, above!

For more information about the market, contact Arthur Keyes, South Anchorage Farmers’ Market Manager, at 907-354-5833, or at .
Please respond to this email if you’d like to be removed from the newsletter list.

Cheers! And see you at the market!
Alison Arians
Farmers’ Market Reporter

 
RISE & SHINE BAKERY
Long Term Baking Schedule, July - August 2008

19 July
• pan loaves: 100% whole wheat sourdough levain, Alaskan barley
• hearth loaves: toasted walnut, Alaskan potato & chive, dark chocolate & cherry

26 July
• pan loaves—100% whole wheat sourdough levain, Alaskan baked potato
• hearth loaves: toasted seed, Alaskan cheese & garlic, fruited almond

2 August: OFF

9 August
• pan loaves: 100% whole wheat sourdough levain, Alaskan barley, raisin & pecan
• hearth loaves: fresh rosemary, Alaskan onion rye

16 August
• pan loaves: 100% whole wheat sourdough levain, Alaskan baked potato
• hearth loaves: toasted walnut, Alaskan cheese & roasted garlic, Alaskan carrot & raisin

related recipes

grilled eggplant bruschetta with romesco spread
grilled eggplant
romesco spread
roasted red peppers
grilled halibut, marinated in spicy harissa
garlicky, mustardy red wine vinaigrette
brown basmati rice