Issue # 58

The South Anchorage Farmers’ Market will have different hours this Saturday, June 26, due to a sporting event that was planned.  It turns out that the event has been postponed, but we will start the market at 8:00 a.m. for this week only.  Some vendors may stay until 2:00, some may skedaddle at 12:30.

Many people have been asking when the Wednesday market will start.  The Wednesday Market at the Dimond Center will start July 7th.  Hours are 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.

My latest food discovery is not really a discovery, but a visit with an old friend.  This past weekend we had a party and wanted to serve a different appetizer.  Both my husband and I love to cook (I know, I’m very lucky) and we started digging through some of our favorite cookbooks.  We are both originally from Wisconsin, so yes, we are cheeseheads.  We were immediately drawn to a retro recipe popular in the 1950’s.  And since it incorporated one of our favorite food groups, cheese, we gave it a test run before company arrived. 

I love to be in the kitchen and sometimes I love to try complex recipes.  But it was sunny out and I didn’t want to spend all day baking.  This recipe was easy and I had everything on hand.  Check out our web site for Baked Cheddar Olives; you really need to try these.  Yes…need.  They are perfect, bite-sized orbs with a crispy outside and a briny surprise inside.  Use regular small green olives with those red pimento centers. Don’t use those gargantuan green olives because these are really meant to be enjoyed in one bite.  I used Matanuska Creamery cheddar and it had just the right golden color and bold cheddar flavor infused into the crust.  I put the link in with the Matanuska Creamery information below.  I hope you enjoy them as much as our guests and we did!

UPCOMING EVENTS

Be sure to stop at the Matanuska Creamery and sign up for a farm tour!  There is also a Mat-Su Farm Bureau Tour on July 31 that is a great event.  It connects you with the farm and the farmer and you get to see where your food is coming from.  Kids of all ages will enjoy it. More information in the upcoming weeks…so stay tuned.

PRODUCE

VANDERWEELE FARM has many varieties of tender lettuce including Red Oak, Bibb, Lollo Rosso, green and red leaf and Romaine.  Bags of Russets are also available.  They hope to have radishes this week as well.

GLACIER VALLEY FARM will have more cucumbers and some cherry tomatoes at the market this weekend. Arthur has 11,000 strawberry plants planted this year that are in full bloom and about 25 percent of the plants have fruit on them already! Maybe two to three weeks until we are eating them!  Check out Glacier Valley’s Facebook page to see what is going on at the farm.  Glacier Valley Farm Facebook page

REMPEL FAMILY FARM’S stand will have those delicious snow apple turnips!  They will also have an abundance of greens, some lettuces, and maybe even a few bok choi and zucchini.

NORTHERN LIGHTS MUSHROOMS will be there with their beautiful alabaster oyster mushrooms. 

FUTURE FARMERS OF AMERICA will have spruce tips, rose hips, local duck eggs, and nettle tea.  Nettle tea is incredibly good for you and they have mixed it with peppermint so it tastes nice and refreshing.

PLANTS

COUNTRY GARDEN FARMS will be here with their high quality sod at great prices.  Buy direct from a local farm in Palmer and know you are getting the best sod available.

JANET AT BEARSDEN GARDENS will be featuring lemon basil as their fourth variety of basil.  It’s so delicious it’s hard not to eat it like candy!  They have pineapple sage, cilantro, rosemary, thyme, oregano, and eight other varieties of herbs.  Scotch moss is ready for brightening up your garden beds, and some of the hostas are ready to bloom.  She’ll have large pots of forget-me-nots again, and several blooming ground covers.  They are on our last flat of maltese cross, so be sure to take one home while they’re available.  We’ll also be bringing in the showy double blooming English petunias in purple, pink, and red.  Their rhubarb muffins are made with butter, raw sugar, and organically grown rhubarb.  They were very popular last week, so they will be bringing more this week.  The perfect size to munch on while you shop the market!

GRAY OWL FARM will have a nice variety of perennials this week including 4 colors of hardy Pixie Lilies, Ligularia, Johnson’s Blue Geranium, Dark Towers Penstemon, Creeping Phlox, and Karl Forester Calamagrostis grass (about as close to Pampas Grass as we can grow here in Alaska).  We have some of our unusual annuals still available for those of you building containers or filling spots in your gardens.  As usual, we have our selection of exotic tropical plants to enjoy outside for the summer and extend that enjoyment as you bring them into your home for wintering.  We also have some of our New Zealand Flax Phormiums and grasses available.  They are just the perfect size to make a statement in your garden plans.  See you at the market!

THE BLUE POPPY is obviously known for their gorgeous Himalyan Blue poppies, but they also have other great plants and plant starts. 

MILE 5.2 GREENHOUSE will have their great selection of plants, plant starts and tropicals as well.

BAKERY & FOOD

ARCTIC CHOICE has a great selection of fresh Alaskan seafood.  Fresh King Salmon (red or white) or Sockeye Salmon, Sablefish (Black Cod) and Halibut fillets for the BBQ. Also fresh SideStripe Shrimp, Cod & Rockfish fillets will be there along with large Spot Shrimp, Razor Clam meats, Halibut Cheeks, Scallops and always a favorite King Crab, along with other seafood treats.

RISE & SHINE BAKERY will be baking two large whole-grain sourdough pan loaves this week: their ever-popular SPENT GRAIN, packed with flavorful cooked barley that keep the loaves moist and delicious, and GOLDEN MAIZE, brightened with freshly-ground cornmeal and a hint of honey. Dan & Alison are also making the small RAISIN & TOASTED PECAN loaves, which are perfect for breakfast, tea and snacks. Savory hearth loaves this week will be KALAMATA OLIVE and ALASKAN POTATO & CHIVE, perfect for dinner bread with salads and soups, and also fun for making sandwiches of all kinds.

pan loaves: golden maize, spent grain, raisin & toasted pecan
hearth loaves: kalamata olive, Alaskan potato & chive

MARY JANE has whole wheat cinnamon rolls that make people look forward to the market every week; tender whole wheat swirls with fragrant cinnamon.  Your mouth waters just looking at them! A wide variety of breads, local fresh eggs and tender greens also available.

MATANUSKA CREAMERY will be there with their cherry chocolate chunk ice cream which is turning into a favorite with everyone who tries it.  So much so that they ran out so they promise to bring more this week!  They are constantly inventing new flavors and they just made candy bar crunch and it will make its debut this week as well. 

Their Alaska honey ice cream is incredible and I used it in a bit of an unorthodox way. It is wonderful if you let it thaw and use it as a finishing sauce for desserts.  No one will know that you didn’t work all day on this great dessert sauce.

Of course they have cheese and cheese curds!  They will be bringing aged white and yellow cheddar.  All of their products are made from hormone free, grass fed cows.  They are all such happy cows!  I have to say I’m a little smitten with their Brown Swiss-what a beauty! 

You must take advantage of the farm tours the Havemeisters give!  See the cows and an actual colonist farm first hand.  Jean’s husband has been here 70 years and Jean has been here 50 years. Their farm has been a working farm for 75 years. They started with horses Payday and Prince, and then acquired a Ford 8N tractor.  Now they have great big cases.

Check out the recipe on our website for Baked Cheddar Olives using Matanuska Creamery cheddar!  http://tinyurl.com/28982ad

RED BEET BISTRO will have lots of tasty treats using seasonal ingredients.  Their vinaigrettes, FRESH YOGURT and slow roasted meat and veggie sandwiches showing off Alaskan beef, pork & cheese.  Their ever popular All Alaskan Market Pies, both savory and sweet.  Fresh cakes this week include rhubarb, & buttermilk almond.  In the bread this week they will be featuring a new mini-loaf size for instant eating or taking on a hike.  New for our gluten free folks this week they will have english muffins with fresh wild herbs, rhubarb english muffins, and more delicious sandwiches and breads.  Also it’s good to remember that all dressings, vinaigrettes and salads are gluten free!

NORTHFORK JAMS & JELLIES will have their Blueberry Rhubarb, Jalapeno Peach and other great flavor combinations.  She will also have heirloom tomato plants that are perfect for your deck. 

For more information about the market, contact Nancy Lampman, South Anchorage Farmers’ Market, at 907-529.7630, .

Please respond to this email if you’d like to be removed from the newsletter list.

Cheers! And see you at the market!
Nancy Lampman
South Anchorage Farmers’ Market Reporter
http://www.southanchoragefarmersmarket.com

Would you like to see some videos about the vendors and farmers who sell their produce at the South Anchorage Farmers’ Market? Check us out!
Chef Delicious Dave at the South Anchorage Farmer’s Market Anchorage chef Dave Thorne describes what to look for when shopping for local produce.



VanderWeele Carrot HarvestRoger VanderWeele of VanderWeele Farm talks about carrot production.

Rise & Shine Bakery: Owners Alison Arians & Dan Schwartz bake their whole-grain sourdough bread in the small commercial kitchen attached to their house on Anchorage’s lower Hillside.



Transplanting Lettuce at Vanderweele Farms: Vanderweele Farms employee Teresa Reel talks about getting plants in the ground during the spring planting near Palmer, Alaska in May 2009.



Strawberries: Arthur Keyes of Glacier Valley Farm talks about his experiment growing California strawberry varieties on his Palmer, Alaska farm.



Harvesting Corn at Glacier Valley Farm: Alaska farmer Arthur Keyes talks about growing and harvesting, corn in Alaska.



Onions from Stockwell Farm: Vern Stockwell perfected the art of growing onions in Alaska.

related recipes

Baked Cheddar Olives