August 2011 Archives

Igor and his Virginia Crabs truck comes to most of our markets with a menu that includes crab cakes made with crab, minced onion, celery and green pepper and seasonings — no bread crumbs or other filler. He also brings 16–20-count shrimp steamed in Old Bay and at some markets will make crab-cake sandwiches and shrimp-salad sandwiches to order on site.

He appreciates preorders for steamed crabs in order to guarantee that he has what you want on a particular day. He steams the crabs in Old Bay and sells them chilled. If you want them warm, you need to let him know and arrange for him to steam them on the truck before you arrive to pick them up.

Prices for the month of September are $45 a dozen for medium crabs, $55 for large ones, $65 for jumbos and $75 for super jumbos (monsters).

To place an advance order, email us at jean@smartmarkets.org.

If you’re a shopper at our markets, we think you might be interested in this chance to see Farmageddon, a documentary about how government regulations are hurting small farmers and limiting your freedom to eat what you want. The movie will be screened at 11:30 a.m. at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Arlington, Saturday, Sept. 24.

Tickets are $10 in advance, $15 at the door. For more information, see this flyer (PDF) created by the Northern Virginia Whole Food Nutrition Meetup Group, which is sponsoring the event.

from Annie Sidley, Smart Markets Chef

Salad Ingredients:

• 2 cups washed and cut green beans, blanched for five minutes and cooled
• 3 cups chopped fresh tomatoes, any kind, any color
• 1 small red onion, diced
• 4 ounces goat cheese, crumbled
• Optional: 1/4 cup toasted pine nuts and/or 1 cup fresh corn kernels

Mix all ingredients together and toss with dressing. Sprinkle with goat cheese and serve.

Salad Dressing:

• ¾ cup extra-virgin olive oil
• 2 Tablespoons pumpkin seed oil
• ¼ cup seasoned sushi vinegar
• ¼ cup balsamic vinegar
• 1 Tablespoon honey
• 1 Tablespoon crushed garlic
• 1 Tablespoon fresh basil, minced
• Salt and pepper to taste

Mix all ingredients well with a whisk or in a mini-food processor and pour over salad at the last minute.

From Annie Sidley’s Smart Markets Kitchen

• 8 cups coarsely chopped market tomatoes
• 1 medium onion, diced
• 5 chopped garlic cloves
• 1 cup red or white wine
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil
• 1 teaspoon dry oregano
• 1 teaspoon dry dill
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1 cup cream or half-and-half

Saute onion in pan with olive oil until softened, add wine and let reduce at a slow boil for 5 minutes.

Add remaining ingredients except cream.

Cook another 15–20 minutes until tomatoes are soft.

Let cool ten minutes and then carefully, in small batches, puree until very smooth.

Add cream and salt and pepper and blend another minute.

Serve hot or cold. Mmm, good!

For 4–6 servings.

Photo by stu_spivack

From Annie Sidley’s Smart Markets Kitchen

Wise shopper tip: Buy very ripe peaches at a discount now, cut them up and freeze them for a refreshing treat during the winter months. You can do the same with those great local berries too.

• 4 cups very ripe peaches, cut into 1-inch pieces and frozen
• 2 cups strawberries, raspberries or blueberries or a mixture of all three — also can be frozen for maximum flavor, reducing the amount of ice that you need
• 1 cup apple cider
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 cup sugar or ½ cup honey
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 cup vanilla or fruit-flavored yogurt
• 2 cups ice cubes

Blend all ingredients until very smooth in a blender or food processor and serve.

Photo by stebulus

• 6 small plums (pitted)
• 4 peaches (pitted)
• 2 cups apple cider
• cinnamon sticks
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1 T vanilla
• 1 cup heavy cream

1) Cook at a simmer the plums, peaches, cinnamon sticks, brown sugar and vanilla in apple cider for about 10 minutes, set aside and let cool to room temperature.

2) Remove cinnamon sticks and then puree in blender and cool (put in refrigerator or in an ice bath).

3) Once cold, mix in chilled heavy cream and top with vanilla yogurt. Sprinkle cinnamon or nutmeg on top.

Photo by ahisgett

From Annie’s Smart Markets Kitchen

• 3 cups shredded zucchini, squeezed dry in a towel
• Kernels from 2 ears of sweet corn
• 1 cup diced onion
• 2 T chopped fresh basil
• 1 T Italian seasoning (dry)
• 3 eggs lightly beaten
• 3/4–1cup flour
• canola oil
• 1 t salt
• 1/8 t pepper

1) Heat pan w/ 1 T canola oil and add onions. Cook until slightly tender and add zucchini, corn, basil, Italian seasoning, salt and pepper to pan and cook until liquid renders from the vegetables and they are slightly tender.

2) While the vegetables are cooking, mix flour and eggs together, add vegetables and mix well.

3) Heat 2” of oil in large frying pan and drop in fritter batter in small rounds (about 3”x3”).

4) Cook until golden brown and crispy on both sides. Serve immediately.

Optional: You can serve with pesto, salsa, tomato sauce, or peach or mango chutney — get creative.

Photo by svadilfari

Dear Shoppers,

A few weeks ago, when I was on my way to the mountains on the far side of the Shenandoah Valley for our family 4th of July celebration, I mentioned that Rawley Springs was once the site of a fabulous old hotel that had burned to the ground early in the 1900s. I promised then to come back with more of the story and now I have that — and more. Talk about truth being stranger than fiction!

First of all, a little more on Rawley Springs. At one time, Virginia was home to more than a dozen fine old hotels that were operated as resorts, and one was in Rawley Springs. On the 4th of July when we were in Rawley at our cousin Bev Appleton’s cabin, I asked everyone what they knew about the old hotel that had once stood just below the cabin at the spring house. Bev then handed me a framed copy of an advertisement that we figure was circulated after the first of two fires that ravaged the hotel during its existence.

“THE RAWLEY SPRINGS HOTELS Will be Open for the Reception of Guests June 10th [1886],” the ad reads. “A Brass and String Band of six pieces for the Lawn and Ball Room has been engaged for the season of 1886. The table will be good in every respect, supplied from the rich valley of Virginia. The air pure, bracing, and very dry. Riding, Diving, Bathing, Fishing, Billiards, Ten Pins, Lawn Tennis, Archery, Polo, etc., are among the amusements. As a remedy in Anaema, Scrofula, Neuralgia, Dyspepsia, Liver disease, Maladies peculiar to females, and in general for all diseases caused by poverty of the blood or debility of the nervous system, the Rawley water is unrivaled.”

After the second fire, Rawley Springs was not rebuilt. This website offers more information about the history of the area. The website was created by a developer who is building new homes on the side of the mountain — much to the consternation of the folks who have owned cabins in Rawley Springs for many generations.

But now for the rest of the story: My cousin Bev had a story of his own to tell. In preparation for our reunion on the 4th, he had taken it upon himself to clean up the spring house that stands near the bottom of the mountain where the narrow and treacherous road forks to climb the mountain. As he was cleaning the wooden framework around the top, he uncovered the carved letter J and then an O, and knew then that he had found something of great meaning to our aunt JoAnn, who was always called Jo. The rest of the carving was not so clear, but Bev kept cleaning and uncovered a “+ BILL.” “JO + BILL” had once and forever been carved there — and that same Jo and BIll were on their way to the reunion unaware that the carving still lived in the old cedar wood of the spring house.

JoAnn is my aunt — my father’s sister — and Bill is her husband of nearly 60 years. The carving was done when they were dating — and this is just one example of Bill’s persistence in wooing her. What is the chance that this carving would ever have been uncovered at all, and by the nephew of the people who carved it? And that the next day, Bill and Jo were there to see it again in person? As fiction it would be considered contrived; as reality it’s just a plain old miracle — and a great memory.

I’ll be back to rant next week. See you at the market!