I can cook, too

Tammy Wong would be proud of me.

Over the summer, Chef Wong of Minneapolis' Rainbow Chinese Restaurant did several cooking demonstrations at the Minneapolis Farmers Market. I helped; not as her sous chef. I just held the microphone and fielded questions, a good use of my skills.

Just as there are famous cooks, I am a famous non-cook. Which hasn't stopped me from the occasional experiment. Tonight I decided on a beef stir-fry using whatever was in the house. This left me with carrots, butternut squash and leftover peas. I did my best to julienne the carrots, then tried to get the peel off the squash. (Bill Roehl was wrong. Everyone does not know how to peel squash.)

It was messy, but bloodless. Into the pan went the veggies, the beef, and finally a soy and oyster sauce blend, thanks to a bottle Chef Wong sent home with me.

"Mom, where did this come from?" my astonished son asked, "It's good."


I don't know. Heaven?

Support your local farmer

It's not just a bumper sticker.

All you locavores who say you support your local farmers, they need you right now.

Minnesota's record-setting October cold dealt small farmers a double whammy; first, it knocked down some crops, then it knocked out customers. They simply did not come to market during the cold snap. So business for small farmers, who depend on direct-to-customer sales, went way down.

To add insult to injury, the cold snap led people to think the season was over.
It's not. Minneapolis Farmers Market growers are still bringing in beautiful squash, peppers, kale, cabbage, carrots, tomatoes, parsnips, ruatabagas, beets, apples, potatoes....... the list goes on and on.
But the season won't. So support your local farmer. Come to the Farmers Market now while the bounty is here. Your farmers have been here for you all season. So come to the market and be here for your farmers.

It's a family affair

I've been dragging my unwilling 13-year-old to the Minneapolis Farmers Market despite his adolescent lethargy and his personal aversion to crowds. And yesterday, for the first time, I saw him become part of the farmers market community. My game-plan was to shop and help with a demo. Michael's was to buy breakfast, shop and taste the demo results.

With a "Peace out," he set off with his appetite and $20. I picked up eggs, beets and apples; parked them in the car, and returned to the demo area to find Michael helping with set up. God bless him. Having been coming all season, he knew the players. They knew him, and integrated him seamlessly.

I'd seen this with children of the growers and now its happened with my child.

Last night, we joined neighbors 'round their firepit for a potluck, and I heard Michael offering his "just popped today" kettlecorn and "real hotdogs" from Tollefson's at the market.

It worked. I've made a little locavore.

You don't know unless you try

That's what we tell our kids.

So despite my fear of peppers - there was a traumatic pepper incident on my first trip to Texas - I tried a recipe for Salt and Peppers.
I worship Rainbow Chinese Chef Tammy Wong, who created it. Writer Katie Cannon, who tried it, said it was simple and ridiculously good.

At the Minneapolis Farmers Market, I shopped carefully for immature jalapenos. At home, I donned latex gloves gloves before touching those peppers. As instructed, I cut off the top inch to minimize heat and proceeded to stir fry, salt and plate.

Hesitant but forthright, I took a bit. A hooeee! Mouth on fire! Too hot for me.

I tried. And now I have a steaming pile for the compost bin.

Power to the People's Market

For Farmer's Market
in Minneapolis

We won! The Minneapolis Farmers Market is the 2009 Parents Pick for Best Farmers Market in Minneapolis St. Paul. We love our community and we are pleased as punch that they embrace us.

We're not an upscale boutique or a manufactured market. We are the real deal, since we began as a haymarket in 1876. We are owned and run by farmers, who bring the best of the country to the heart of the city. We believe in fresh food for all. We're crowded and noisy. The amenities are few. Nonexistent, in fact. But nowhere will you find more growers with more beautiful produce. And our community; the Minneapolis of all ages, sizes, colors and cultures who crowd the market each weekend; who share so generously with Second Harvest Heartland every Sunday; you are the heart of the market. You give it its real flavor.

And we thank you.

Great big yum

Image via Wikipedia

No snark today. Just amazing food from Tammy Wong, owner/chef of Rainbow Chinese.

It was love at first bite when a co-worker took me to Rainbow Chinese 20 years ago. The asparagus chicken and dry-sauteed string beans were out-of-this-world. Over the years, I'd return, periodically, but once marriage, motherhood and the suburbs took hold, my visits were few.

So meeting Tammy at the Minneapolis Farmers Market felt like meeting an old flame; and handling audience questions while she cooks is a privilege. I get to watch and learn. What is bitter melon. Hubbard squash. Gai lan. Who grows the most beautiful eggplant. What to do with Chinese broccoli.


And when the cooking is done...........the eating is heavenly. Today when I bit into Tammy's eggplant with tamarind sauce, I fell in love, all over again.

Am Profood

Image via Wikipedia

Went to the Market this morning in search of my new favorite vegetable, Gai lan.
Searched. And Searched. And searched.
In vain. It's gone. The season's over.

A sigh of sadness and I moved on to what's in season.
Raspberries. Sweet fruit rubies.
And since the season is short, I bought 4 pints.

Which should last a day or two.

Continuing education continues

Image by jesssloss via Flickr

To paraphrase Richard Nixon, I am not a cook.

It was just a few years ago that I first tasted the difference fresh herbs make.

So having absorbed the "most garlic comes from China" lesson, I picked up fresh garlic from Nao Tang at the Minneapolis Farmers Market.

Chopped it, threw it in the frying bang and BingBangBoom! Garlic explosion! I was enveloped in fruity fresh garlic. I felt like I was deep inside garlic itself.

And the taste? That same distance I'd traversed when I moved from garlic powder to dried bulbs? Same quantum leap using fresh, local garlic. Maybe greater.

Continuing Education

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

My on-the-job education at the Minneapolis Farmers Market continues.

Today Andrew Zimmern, host of the Travel Channel's Bizarre Foods, was our guest on a live broadcast of Fresh and Local. What makes a food bizarre? When it is unfamiliar and unexpected. It reflects our environment and our culture; as well as war and peace; love and loss; famine and prosperity.

The most interesting food tells stories, said Zimmern, who cruised the aisles of the Minneapolis Farmers Market and brought back these story-tellers:

- Gai Lan, Chinese broccoli. This, said, Zimmern, was the original broccoli. That the Minneapolis Farmers Market has growers who sell it and shoppers who buy it speaks volumes about how local culture has changed.

-Wild Rice. How rare; how exquisite is hand-harvested wild rice, Zimmern said. Yet in many parts of the world, it is unknown and bizarre. We Minnesotans take it for granted and walk right by.

-Fava beans and Pigeon peas. Zimmern was intrigued by an African farmer selling these lentils. Marinated fava beans are on every table in Italy, he explained. Pigeon peas are integral to African cuisine. And here they are in formerly-Nordic Minnesota.

I took home fava beans, pigeon peas, wild rice, kai lan; a healthy serving of humility and a new way of looking at the market.

An educated consumer is our best customer

Image by livewombat via Flickr

There's a discount clothing store in New York called Syms which advertises "An educated consumer is our best customer."

That's how I feel about the Minneapolis Farmers Market (MFM). I am fortunate to be working on a project for the Minneapolis Farmers Market. It's a project I love, and while I've come to enjoy the MFM, it wasn't until today that I fully appreciated it.

All it took was one trip to the neighborhood coop.

You see, in effort to be economical and "save on gas", I went to my neighborhood coop. It's 10 miles closer, so I thought it a sensible choice.

It turned out to be a foolish, expensive choice that left me feeling dumb, cheated and crappy.


Why? Because the Minneapolis Farmers Market has more variety. Less packaging. Better prices. More value. Not to mention fresh scapes, baby beets, sugar snap peas, all of it fresh picked today.

At the coop, I spent $2.99 for a plastic clamshell of "organic" strawberries shipped in from California. At the Market, the same three bucks would have bought me just-picked Minnesota berries. At the coop, I spent 7.49 for a giant plastic clamshell of "organic" baby greens shipped in from California. At the Market, that same 7.50 could have bought me twice as much, twice as fresh, totally local.

When these things are in season here, why does a local coop even ship them in?

I wasted 70 bucks at the coop. That would have bought me a fortune in good, fresh, local food at the Farmers Market. At the coop, it netted me two bags of overpackaged, overtransported, overmarketed mediocrity.

I'm done with the coop. I'm grateful for this one last trip, though, because it has made me an educated consumer. And Syms is right. An educated consumer is the best customer.

Once you've been to a real farmers market, there's no going back.