Audio By Carbonatix
After a few weeks away, I returned to the Boulder Farmers’ Market this past Saturday. It looked like a template for any respectable supermarket’s produce section: loads of kale, turnips, radishes, lettuces, garlic, green garlic, garlic scapes, assorted onions, tomatoes, peppers, bok choy and, oh yeah, peaches.
And that’s just what I remember.
But the peaches were the true celebrity of the market, with a line
at least ten people deep at all times. I managed to buy some, but devoured them before I took the picture above.
On the left is an oversized bunch of
Tuscan kale, a great braising green for the summer. This came from the Red
Wagon Organic Farm’s booth, which deserves a standing ovation for the quality of its produce right now. Especially the greens. Red Wagon will give you three times the amount you’d get for the same money at another booth, and these greens taste better, too. Keep it up, Red Wagon and
you’ll win the heart of a hopelessly romantic food blogger.
Next
to the kale are some green beans, which taste very different when you buy
them locally rather than at a store. They’re fresher and more fragrant when
cooked correctly. But you don’t even have to cook them; they’re pretty
good eaten out of the bag as you walk home from the market.
Still, I
went ahead and bought some thyme in which to roast the green beens. Add some salt and olive oil, and you’ve got a seriously
delicious four-ingredient side dish. Any extra thyme can be used to dress the
turnips, if need be. And yes, that’s the curveball for the week: Those red things aren’t beets. They’re red turnips!
I’m still trying to come up with a worthy way to prepare these beauties, something that isn’t roasting or sauteeing. Any ideas?
