local

I have lots of opinions about food. Things I love, things I wouldn’t touch, and things I want everyone to go out and enjoy, right now.

One of my very favorite things is the Mill City Farmer’s Market in downtown Minneapolis. Tucked behind the Mill Ruins along the Mississippi River, Mill City Farmer’s Market is what I’ve come to consider the jewel in the crown of metro area farmer’s markets. Of course I know that everyone has their favorites, but this happens to be mine. Here’s why:

1. I love the quality of food I can find there: the Market has chosen vendors who meet the highest standards of local and sustainably grown, pesticide-free and/or organic foods, plus quality goods.

2. I adore Brenda Langton. With her rich history in the metro food scene serving some of the most honest and responsibly-sourced food from early St. Paul days to Cafe Brenda and now Spoonriver, she has created an amazing food zone at the Market with passion, vision, and a whole lot of work. Mill City Market has become the new standard for organic, quality and innovative local market vendors in large part to her energy and commitment.

3. I love the variety: greens, cheeses, breads and pastries, handmade chocolates and crackers, herbs, wild-caught salmon, and perfect ice cream. I can shop here on Saturdays and stock my fridge for days.

Here are some of my very favorites:

Spinach, kale, arugula and anything else I can get my hands on from Burning River Farm. Based in Frederic, Wisconsin, Mike Noreen runs a modestly-sized CSA with patient, attentive care, which shows in the ultra-fresh, super sweet greens he brings to market every Saturday.

But go, find more gems for yourself, and make sure to buy lots of fresh veggies so you can go home and put together a super-local and delicious summer meal that doesn’t take more than a little tossing in a salad bowl.

(P.S. I would be a big liar if I didn't mention that I get a bag of organic, cardamom-spiced mini donuts from the Chef Shack at least once a summer for utter donut perfection. Just make sure to eat extra salad later to make up for it.)

Super Simple Spinach Greek Salad for Two

two large handfuls fresh spinach (about 4 loose cups)
1/2 cup chopped tomatoes
10 Kalamata olives
1/4 red onion, extremely thinly sliced
2 ounces Singing Hills Goat Dairy feta
2 tablespoons best-quality extra-virgin olive oil
juice from 1/2 fresh lemon
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
large pinch sea salt
freshly ground black pepper

Wash and spin dry the spinach. Tear into bite-sized pieces into a medium bowl. Top with tomatoes, olives, onion, and feta. Drizzle with the olive oil, lemon and sprinkle on the oregano, salt and black pepper. Toss well to combine and serve immediately.

Our first CSA share showed up yesterday, delivered from Burning River Farm by farmer/owner Mike Noreen.  What a bounty: bok choy, broccoli rabe, crispy-fresh head lettuces, baby kale, spinach, and a basket of herbs for planting so that we’ll have herbs later on this summer.  Oh, those greens - they looked so good that I felt better just opening the box, even before I had eaten them.

Then, my mom arrived at my door with bags of freshly snipped leaf lettuces and just-picked asparagus.  By now I’m feeling like a queen, with all of these riches of the new summer garden season arriving in my kitchen.

Shortly after the whirlwind of first-day CSA share pick-ups last night, my doorbell rang – it was my friend and neighbor Mary Jo holding in her hand a bunch of greens, wondering what they were and what she should do with them.  This marks the other start to the summer garden and market season - shifting our way of eating away from the typical shopping list and grocery store options, to choosing what’s here, right now.   Excitement can easily give way to feeling stymied or overwhelmed, though, when good intentions for opening the CSA box, buying arms full of veggies at the farmer’s market, or watching rows of Swisschard come up in the garden turn into vegetable panic.

But it’s not that hard.  Eating fresh using the best vegetables of the moment actually takes less time – fresher food takes less work to make it taste good and vegetables cook more quickly because they are still plump and full of water from growing in the soil and not being shipped cross-country.

My advice to Mary Jo was to gently sauté the broccoli rabe with some olive oil and garlic and then throw in an egg or two to scramble, tossed with the greens.  She reported back this morning that it was delicious.

So that’s the new bottom line, when we’re heading into this season of bounty and “of the moment” fresh foods.  Quick is good.  To use fresh greens after work but save time, rinse the greens, roll them gently in a kitchen towel and store them in a plastic bag – they’ll stay nice and crispy fresh, and won’t lose their moisture or nutrition to the dehydrating environment in the fridge.  Take some out for lunches or dinner all week, and make a green smoothie with some of them in the morning.

Dinner can be quick as well.  All greens taste good lightly steamed and served with a drizzle of olive oil, a sprinkling of balsamic vinegar or freshly-squeezed lemon juice, and some good salt and fresh pepper.  Or sauté them with some garlic or maybe even some Texas sweet onions (also in season right now - delicious), add a little crumbled Wisconsin or Minnesota feta cheese and toss the whole thing with some whole wheat pasta for a more substantial weeknight dinner (see recipe below).   Or, put steamed greens over some cooked sweet brown rice or wild rice and top with a Thai peanut sauce – coconut is slightly sweet and it makes a great pairing with the flavors of the greens.  With all of these options, using a little fat from the eggs, olive oil, cheese, or coconut milk is key - dark leafy greens and fresh head lettuces are Vitamin A-rich, and we need a little good, healthy fat to help us unlock and absorb the available nutrients.

Try eating more salads, too.  Salads should become more of the main story, at least a few times a week in the summer.  A big pile of fresh greens can be topped with your favorite grilled mushrooms, fish, chicken or meat, as well as thinly sliced raw vegetables of every variety for extra crunch, flavor and nutrition.  Keep the dressing light to let the flavors really sing in your mouth – drizzle with fresh olive oil and lemon or whip together a quick salad dressing. (Homemade is so much better than bottled, in every way – tastes better, doesn’t have all of those thickeners, stabilizers, modifiers, preservatives, and colorings, and it costs much, much less.)

The key is that if you want to eat well, then yes, it will take a little more time than dialing for take-out.  But the rewards are literally life-giving.  Instead of your poor little old body fighting inflammation and fatigue, you will be giving yourself energy and fuel from the original source.  Real food.  From the earth.  Grown not by accident, but with purpose and a reason – and, incidently, chock full of things that we really, really need.   Eat!

Fresh Greens and Feta with Whole Wheat Pasta

A painless way to eat your greens! 

6 T olive oil

4 cups chopped Vidalia onions (or red or yellow onions)

7-8 cups mixed greens - kale, chard, collards, arugula, spinach, bok choy - washed, dried, cut off the stem and coarsely chopped

sea salt

3/4 lb whole wheat bowtie pasta (I prefer the Bionaturae brand)

1/2 lb. good local feta (try Shepherds Way), crumbled

freshly ground pepper

crushed red pepper flakes

Set the pasta water on to boil.

Heat olive oil in a deep skillet dutch oven. Add onions and cook for 10 minutes over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally until golden and sweet.

Add the chopped greens to the skillet, salt lightly, and stir until the greens begin to wilt. Cover and cook 5 minutes over medium-low heat.

Meanwhile, cook pasta until al dente in salted water. When the pasta is just about done, remove the cover from the greens, turn it down to low and add the crumbled feta.  Drain the pasta and add it to the greens mixture immediately, tossing to mix thoroughly.

Season with fresh pepper, red pepper flakes and salt if needed. Serve immediately.

I’m a big fan of knowing where my food comes from, as much as possible.  There’s no better time to start planning on where to source food closest to home - either from a garden that is grown in your own backyard or a community garden, a pot of herbs on a patio or windowsill, or from a local CSA that delivers fresh vegetables weekly throughout the growing season.

There are so many ways to create a little patch of urban garden that will reward your family with green growing treats throughout the season.  A section of turf can be turned into a bountiful kitchen garden; a wood box made from untreated lumber can be transformed into a raised bed garden; a big pot can grow a bumper crop of the most delicious cherry tomatoes right on your deck; and even a little trough of soil can sprout a nice variety of herbs to snip and use in salads or cooking throughout the season.

If a garden in your yard isn’t possible, then there may still be time to join a community garden. Your best bet is to find a community garden near you that is a little on the young side to find available space to grow. Gardening Matters is a website that runs a listserv with lots of information and all kinds of community gardening talk.

No time to garden? A Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) share is a wonderful way to become directly involved in a small farm by directly investing in the farm operations in return for a weekly share of vegetables throughout the season.  A CSA might be one step removed from a backyard garden, but it still provides the share members with a close connection to the growing season.  With weekly updates along with a box of vegetables, members are naturally partners and risk takers as the changing whims of weather and nature positively or negatively impact the produce grown on the farm. The reward is incredible – fresh off the farm vegetables, with a deeper understanding of what truly seasonal food means and how hard it is to be a farmer.

Even if there is only time to make a weekly trip to the farmers’ market, the benefits of eating vegetables grown as close to your back door as possible are huge. Less time spent out of the ground means fresher, more nutrient-packed and better tasting vegetables, which need nothing more than a little washing and light preparation to make their flavors sing.

I saw a reproduction of an old sign when I was shopping at the Traditional Foods Warehouse yesterday. It read:

Food  1918

1. Buy it with thought.

2. Cook it with care.

3. Serve just enough.

4. Save what will keep.

5. Eat what would spoil

6. Home grown is best.

Just about says it all, doesn’t it?  

Spring-Summer Garden Salad with Herbs in a Bowl

1 clove garlic or 2 teaspoons minced garlic scapes

juice of 1/4 lemon, squeezed

1/2 teaspoon Dijon mustard

big pinch sea salt

2 - 4 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

freshly ground pepper

2 big handfuls fresh salad greens, rinsed and spun dry - use any combination of arugula, baby greens, leaf lettuce

1 big handful fresh herbs - use any combination of basil, oregano, mint, tarragon and nasturtiums

In a big salad bowl, combine garlic, onion, lemon juice, mustard and salt. Whisk with a fork to combine. Let sit while you wash and spin-dry the lettuce and remove the herbs from their stems.  Whisk the olive oil into the salad bowl ingredients until well-combined. Add pepper and salt to taste. Tear lettuce into the bowl and add the handful of fresh herbs. Using two forks or two big serving spoons, toss the salad greens with the dressing in the bowl until all the leaves are coated and glossy with oil.  Taste a leaf and add more fresh pepper as desired. Garnish with a big handful of pansies or nasturtiums and serve.