When the early start to the season means little more in the fresh produce realm than the occasional sighting of green onions, spinach, chives and rhubarb, what's a farmer to do to encourage buyer interest? If you're the Kue family, you line one end of your market stand with trays of slender, wrinkled Thai chiles ($2), grown last year and dried over the winter. The family's modest crop, planted alongside a flurry of other vegetables at their Hampton, Minn., farm, tends to stay in the family (dried, ground and used as a condiment "so nothing goes to waste," said Jerry Kue), but a small and valuable reserve is held over for fortunate farmers market customers.
The delicate skins boast a frisky red-orange color -- they just look fiery -- and their packs-a-wallop flavor is best described as intense. On these chilly spring days, they're an ideal way to warm up from the inside out.
RICK NELSON
Kue family farm at the St. Paul Farmers Market, 290 E. 5th St., 651-227-8101, www.stpaulfarmersmarket.com. Open 6 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturdays and 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. Sundays. For Thai chile recipes, go to www.startribune.com/tabletalk.
