Harvest to Table

Blueberries on cereal. Blueberries with cream and sugar. Blueberries on vanilla ice cream. A handful of blueberries. Try this: Place fresh, chilled blueberries in a merinque shell and top with whipped cream. Blueberry season in the north stretches from early summer through late summer. (The season in the south is much shorter—late spring through early [...]

Why is August called the lush harvest month? The answer is at the farmers’ market this week. Here is a list of the fresh fruits and vegetables I found at the farm market this past Tuesday at the farmers’ market in the Sonoma plaza. The bounty is likely to very similar where you live. First-of-season: [...]

Ripe tomatoes and corn! Eating fresh is habit forming. The very best corn, cucumbers, eggplant and tomatoes of the year are at the farm market this week. Here’s a list of just some of the crops you will find at your growers’ stands as the month comes to a close: First-of-season: Asian pears, chilies, gobos, [...]

The “summer squash” is a soft-skinned squash. The “winter squash” is hard-shelled squash. Summer squash might be more aptly named a “tender squash.” It has moist flesh and a tender skin. Tender, summer squash is harvested steadily from early to late summer. Summer squash is best eaten fresh, either raw, steamed, or sauteed. It will [...]

Late summer is the time to find fresh arugula at the farm market. You might find it under a few of its other names: garden rocket, rocket salad, rucchetta, rughetta, rucola (the Italian name), and roquette (the French name). The taste of arugula has been described as tangy, peppery, nutty and mustard sharp. You get [...]

The eggplant is a fruit not a vegetable. Botanically speaking a fruit is the ripened ovary–including the seeds–of a flowering plant. That means that many foods called vegetables when cooking are actually fruits. That list would include squash, pumpkin, cucumber, sweet pepper, tomato and eggplant. Does that make ratatouille technically a kind of fruit sald? [...]

Eggplant? Did you say ratatouille? All of the key ingredients for ratatouille are available fresh and local in mid summer tomatoes, onions, zucchini, bell peppers and, of course, eggplant. When you think of eggplant, you think first of the oval, black-skinned cultivar known as ‘Black Beauty.’ That is the classic eggplant with its rich, complex [...]

Quick! Name an edible flower! Ok, which once did you name: nasturtium, pansy, viola, marigold or lavender, day lily, carnation or sage? The petals of each of those can be added to a salad for both taste and show. There are dozens of flowers that are edible. But did you name the most commonly eaten [...]

If you are headed out to the farm market this weekend, here’s this week’s update on the fresh vegetables and fruits your growers are likely to have on hand: First-of-season: Apricots, cucumbers, snow peas, shelling peas, yellow waxed beans, green beans, melons, squash, red onions, sweet yellow onions, garlic, radishes summer squash and zucchini. Peak-of-season: [...]