Market Stuff for August 29.

This week, a friend dug my beautiful Meadowbrook cart out of the shipping container where it’s been stored behind a bunch of junk for 5 years. My Maggie that used to pull it had passed away and I’ve been wanting to get it out and select one of these EIGHT horses that I have here doing nothing and figure out how to teach him to ride me around in this cart.

How ’bout THAT one:

Mind you, I can barely get one in a harness. I literally use a book. SO many straps!! Like THOUSANDS of straps! Only by the generous heart and experience of my sweet girl was I even able to go anywhere in it. Maggie was an Amish work horse before she was mine and she taught me the little I know. Should make for some hilarious “training” sessions.

Sweet Maggie May

I’ll be at the Charlotte Regional Farmers’ Market on Saturday ’til noonish- here’s what I’ll have:

Baby ginger, of the Yellow Hawaiian variety grown from organic seed. Also have Khing Yai ginger growing, but it’s not doing as well as the yellow.

Carola, German Butterball & Rose Finn Apple fingerling potatoes; sweet & red onions; garlic; sweet  bullhorn peppers & sweet orange snacking peppers (delicious stuffed with goat cheese), jalepenos and lots of eggplant; 3 kinds of basil; parsley & sage. Wheat berries.

And our Animal Welfare Approved, Certified Grassfed Angus beef – Beef Andouille sausage, sliced pastrami, hot dogs, corned beef and bologna all made from our Angus beef with no added nitrates or nitrites.  Ground beef, stew meat,   cube steak, oso bucco, liver, soup bones, bone-in chuck, sirloin tip roast, eye of round, sirloin steaks, NY Strips, ribeyes.

Those are the snacking peppers!

Sooo, wheat berries. Cause for much bewilderment and confusion last Saturday at the market. One extra notable guy tossed a handful in his mouth and started crunching only to exclaim, ” THEY’RE HARD AS ROCKS!!” and gave me the  stink-eye. Dude! I JUST SAID they’re dried grains, similar to rice or beans.

They’re simple to prepare, same as dried beans. Rinse in a strainer;  put them in a pot. Sometimes you might see a small pebble or a seed, obviously you will want to take that out. Cover with water, skim off any chaff or shriveled grains that rise to the top. Cover and soak overnight; then to cook, bring to a boil and simmer 35-55 minutes until they are as firm/chewy/soft as you like. Then they can be used in salads, soups, veggie burgers, etc. They can also be frozen after cooking. Soaking neutralized the phytic acid that grains and beans have. You don’t have to soak them but it’s healthier.

Here’s a link to 10 wheat berry salads, like Cherry, Chicken and Pecan Wheat Berry Salad, or Tuna and Olive Wheat Berry Salad. I will be trying some of those soon! I just put whatever in mine, whatever is leftover from the market usually. A customer told me about one that has peaches, lime juice, parsley and pistachios which sounded amazing so I had that this week.

Or there are these:

Wheat berries + milk in the blender = whole wheat blender pancakes! So cool!  These turned out perfect. Shane wasn’t here to cook them so they aren’t as pretty as I hoped, for the photo and all. But you can see they’re fluffy and I ate them without any syrup because I love the flavor of the whole wheat.

You can just tell that man can cook some super fine pancakes.

Here’s a link to the whole wheat berry blender pancakes recipe. Note the instructions say to add all the ingredients except the baking powder. HEED THAT. Last year I did blender cornbread and added the baking powder to the blender. It exploded massively all over the walls, cabinets, counters, floors, me, and I was really sad to have to clean it all up and have no cornbread. I mean by the time you clean all that up, you’re over it. Just go eat some raisins.

And an eggplant recipe because I’m trying to move all this eggplant!!My very favorite: Szechwan Eggplant (Tyler Florence). Sweet, spicy, garlicky ( I add extra garlic).  You can use your fresh ginger in this! I replace the cornstarch with arrowroot powder because cornstarch is GMO and I use Bragg’s Aminos instead of soy sauce. And I double the sauce.  AND I add a Thai basil garnish because once you’ve had that it’s impossible to do without.

See you tomorrow!