the peas are here!
Have you been wondering when that big truck of fresh peas from the Valley will show up? Well, they are here now! And we’re starting to get other peas, too—snow peas, sugar snap peas, and I even spotted some fava beans at A.D. Farms’ stand! What a treat to crunch into those sweet sugar-snap pods. I brought home a 10-pound bag of peas from the market on Saturday and processed them for the freezer—it’s the quickest and easiest vegetable to freeze, since the peas have already been shelled. I’ve included the method in the “related recipes” at the end of the newsletter.

bargain veggies!
VanderWeele Farms is now at the market! Did you see the mountains of broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage and lettuce at their stand last week? They are selling their produce for fantastic prices that will knock your socks off! If you’re thinking about putting up vegetables for the winter, you might want to swing by and check them out!

recipes
I’m including several other recipes, beyond the pea-freezing recipe, as the related recipes at the end of the newsletter. One is my super easy stir-fried snow pea recipe from last summer, and the other is a fantastic white bean and greens soup. All the beautiful kale and collards and chard coming to the market are inspiring me to make lots of greens!

And I’m still playing with eggplant! I’ve included a recipe for a salad that I’ve just developed, with capers and red onions and a little red wine vinegar. I think you’ll really like it! Check out the photos on the website of all these recipes!

website
Newly added to the website: Printer-friendly recipes! So you can search for any vegetable at the market, bring up your recipe, and then click “download the print-friendly version of this recipe” and you’ll be able to print out whatever you need! Cool, eh?

Also, Taughnee Stone (EndeavorCreative), my web designer, has just added a “tag cloud” to find the recipes, as well! Look at the list of foods on the Recipes page, and click on a vegetable that you have in your refrigerator. The size of the text indicates how many recipes containing that item are in the website recipe trove… When you click the word, it’ll pop up a list of all the recipes containing broccoli, for example, or cauliflower, or zucchini. Play around with it! I think it’ll be really useful and fun!

flowers
This is Gray Owl Farms’ last week at the market! They have just started bringing the most incredibly beautiful peonies to the market—big double pom-pom like blooms that you can hardly believe are grown in Alaska—but they are! Mile 5.2 Greenhouses has loads of beautiful lilies and all kinds of other plants for your garden, as well. 

vegetables
Here’s a list of the vegetables I’ve seen at the market—but there are new things arriving all the time! 

arugula | basil | beet greens | beets, red | beets, chiogghia | broccoli | cabbage, green | cabbage, napa | cabbage, red | carrots | cauliflower | cauliflower, Romanesco | chard | cilantro | collards | cress | cucumbers, pickles | cucumbers, slicers | daikon | dill | eggplant | fennel | kale, lacinato | kale, red russian | kohlrabi | lettuce, buttercrunch | lettuce, iceberg | lettuce, red | lettuce, romaine | mustard, mizuna | mustard, red | mustard, tatsoi | onions, green | onions, slicing | parsley, italian | peas, green | peas, sugar snap | potatoes, butterball | potatoes, new | radishes | rhubarb | salad green mixture | shingiku | sorrel | spinach | squash, blossoms | strawberries | sugar snap peas | tomatoes, cherry | tomatoes, red | tomatoes, yellow | turnip greens | turnips (white, snow apple) | turnips (purple-topped) | zucchini blossoms | zucchini, green | zucchini, yellow

tasty technology tidbit
• Why does the farmers’ market website offer you an opportunity to “Follow us on Twitter”?
• What is Twitter?
• Why would you want to follow us, anyway?

Have you checked out the little rooster at the bottom of the home page here on our website? He’s right at the bottom of this newsletter. He will usually be “talking” about what I’ve made for dinner, or lunch, and will give you a web address that directs you to the recipe page with the photo and recipe.  That little message from the rooster is what’s called a “micro-blog,” a very short little note to let people know what you’re up to. In my case, I’m usually trying to tempt you with a recipe idea, and then direct you to another page for more information. Neat! 

But not only does my little micro-blogging effort show up as the rooster’s message, but since I compose the micro-blog on the free social networking website called Twitter, it lets me connect to a whole other group of people who send micro-blogs (known as “tweets” on Twitter) about their stuff—work, play, food, music… whatever. That means that I can reach lots more people and tell them about our market than just the people who happen to visit our farmers’ market website!

If you’d like to receive my “tweets,” or if you just want to check it out, visit twitter.com. And if you want a more complete description, AK Tech Girl’s May 17th blog is a great resource (it’s on the ADN blog site): http://community.adn.com/adn/blog/78601.

bread
Rise & Shine Bakery will have our Alaskan baked potato bread this week! Lightened and moistened with Alaskan potatoes from Palmer—this is my favorite pan loaf! Of course we’ll also have our 100% whole wheat sourdough levain.

For hearth loaves, we’ll bake the toasted walnut bread, which is great with cheese, or as toast with soups and salads. For you fans of the Alaskan cheese & roasted garlic—we’ll make as many as we can! And the other cult favorite, the dark chocolate & cherry, will be there in abundance, as well. Have you tried slices of this bread, lightly toasted to melt the chocolate chunks, for a snack or dessert? Who needs cake?

Mary Jane will also be at the market with all kinds of breads, croissants, palmiers, and macaroons from the French Oven Bakery.

farmers’ market cookbook
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 includes instructions!

subway/AT&T open house
The Sports Center will be having an open house from 1 – 5pm, and many vendors will start setting up around noon towards the entrances of the buildings. An Army Guards Blackhawk helicopter will be on display.

seafood
Arctic Choice Seafoods will have all kinds of fresh, delicious, Alaskan fish! Here’s a list of what they are likely to have.

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

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

Please pass this email along to anyone you think might be interested in receiving the weekly market news—they can email me, Alison Arians, at if they’d like to be added to our newsletter list.

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, Summer 2008
16 August
• pan loaves: 100% whole wheat sourdough levain, Alaskan baked potato
• hearth loaves: toasted walnut, Alaskan cheese & roasted garlic, dark chocolate & cherry
23 August
• pan loaves: 100% whole wheat sourdough levain, golden maize
• hearth loaves: kalamata olive, Alaskan onion rye, Alaskan carrot & raisin
30 August
• pan loaves: 100% whole wheat sourdough levain, Alaskan barley
• hearth loaves: toasted seed, Alaskan potato & chive, fruited almond
6 September
OFF
13 September
• pan loaves: 100% whole wheat sourdough levain, Alaskan baked potato, raisin & toasted pecan
• hearth loaves: fresh rosemary, Alaskan onion rye

related recipes

processing peas to freeze
stir-fried snow peas
tuscan white bean stew with greens
roasted eggplant salad with pine nuts & capers