Eating local in the summer is easy. In the winter, it might be a different story. If you have stocked up on local meats and preserved some fruits or vegetables, it’s as easy as reaching into your pantry or freezer. But even for those of us who don’t live quite like the family in Barbara Kingsolver’s Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, her wonderful book about spending a year eating food grown at home, eating local in winter is quite do-able if you know where and how to shop. Seattle Neighborhood Farmer’s Markets can help.
Even in these dark days of February, wild spot prawns, pasture raised pork and grass fed beef are well stocked. Rainbow hued root vegetables, winter mushrooms, Brussels sprouts, ruby red chard and sweet winter apples fill the stalls.
Here’s a not-quite-A to Z list of local vegetables available this week at farmer’s markets around Seattle.
Even if you didn’t get around to drying your own fruits, you can find: Apples, Wild Huckleberries, Peaches, Apricots, Prunes, Asian Pears, Bosc Pears, Tomatoes, Celery Leaf, Hot Chilies, and Garlic.
And of course there are artisan breads, butters, cheese, eggs, pasta, yogurt, honey, cider, seafood and meats galore.
We’ve put together a menu that will help you savor the flavors of winter and make you glad that spring is still a few weeks away. Farmer’s Market Carrot Soup The aromatic properties of well-grown carrots can be easily overlooked. Honing in on their natural sweetness, we tend to look right past their delicate herbal notes. But a fresh carrot from your own garden or from the farmer’s market will emit bright notes of caraway, lovage or fennel, it’s cousins in the herb garden. Nutmeg is a spice that contains some of the same aromatic compounds that carrots do. Try using a microplane grater to get the best flavor from whole nutmeg pods.
Pork Roast with Prunes What makes a dish a classic? It could be tradition, or a natural affinity between the basic ingredients; maybe it’s a combination of those things. When a pork loin is filled with dried fruit and roasted in the oven, it just feels right, especially when winter has gone on a little too long. In this version, a “gastrique” or sweet-sour sauce built on the pan drippings, enhances the seasonal goodness of the dish. For the best results, look for pastured pork from local farms at Seattle Neighborhood Farmer’s Markets.
Apple Cider Custard Tart Instead of apples baked in a crust, this unusual apple tart relies on poached apples tucked into a tart that’s baked “blind” or empty. Most fruit tarts like this one use a milk custard, but we think the poaching liquid, in this case a cup of apple cider spiked with a cinnamon stick and a little lemon juice or cider vinegar to cut the sweetness, makes a brighter and more appropriate filling. So making the tart involves three steps: making the crust, poaching the apples, then transforming the poaching liquid into a custard. Assembly of the three elements should take place just before the tart is served.
