The Ferry Plaza farmers market

This was the first time that I had been to the farmers market in San Francisco and it was well worth the effort.  It is situated at the end of Market street in and around the historic ferry building. I expected this market to be quite big, as California is a large producer of fresh produce, and I was not disappointed.

The fresh fruits and vegetables were plentiful and of a good quality including some of the most beautiful radicchio I have every seen.

Radicchio disguised as roses

Pearl Farmers Market San Antonio

Two of the places that I really enjoy visiting when I travel is supermarkets and farmers markets.  The product that you can get is different where ever you go and a supermarket will show what the residents are eating at home.  If this holds true San Antonians are not eating very well, as we could only find dollar stores and corner stores that sold frito lay chips, beer and pre-made food.  I know that outside of the downtown this is not true but as we did not have a car  and so we did not experience a real Texas supermarket.

We did however find a farmers market which we were able to get to by walking out of our hotel right on to the river walk and heading north for about 20 minutes. The  Pearl Farmers Market had received mixed reviews on the net so I was a little apprehensive that it would be lame as some had suggested.  I was pleasantly surprised however it was a very nice location on the River walk in the Shadows of the Pearl Brewery which was closed and in the process of being renovated.

We found many of the same things that you would find in the Northwest if a little later in the year than up here.

There were some spectacular radishes that my husband had to buy a bunch of to eat as we strolled around the market.  There was however somethings that we never see up here such as black eyed peas.

Black eyed peas in the shell

These came both in their shells as well as shelled.

Sunchokes or Jerusalem artichokes

A good friend from work who shares my passion for food came for dinner on Saturday. She hunted and gathered the  vegetables to go with roast pork that I was cooking At the winter market in Vancouver.  She came with the largest and most amazing sunchokes that I had ever seen.

I have cooked these before but not too often and have usually made soup with them.  I did a little research and found that these are indigenous to North America and were cultivated by the Native North Americans long before the Europeans arrived.  It is the root of a particular specious of sunflower.

We washed them and then cut up in to equal size pieces and boiled until they were tender. Then I mashed like a potato with a little butter and salt.

They have a distinct artichoke flavour, but we decided to serve them with 2/3 mashed sunchoke and 1/3 mashed German butter potatoes.

These were served along with roasted Brussels sprouts which had also been picked up at the winter market still attached to their stalk.

Granville Island

Every big city has a great market, Seattle has Pike Place Market London has Borough Market and Vancouver has Granville Island.  It truly is a world class market, and I am lucky enough to work with in walking distance to it.  But going at lunch time is bitter sweet as their really is not enough time to wander around and really enjoy it, and so it was a treat this Saturday to share hunting and gathering for dinner with my good friend Nancy.

The fruits and vegetables are beautifully displayed by all the vendors and really I do not have a favourite one for fresh produce, I just wander around and find which one has the best of what I want that day.  There is one who sells produce directly from the Okanagan, so the selection available varies by the time of year.  Right now there is an abundance of fresh crisp apples and on their stall this week they had these wonderful gourds which look for all the world like a pair of swans in love.

There are a couple of permanent stores that are my favourites, that I nearly always go to, one of those is Oyama Sausage

Coquitlam Farmers market dinner

The very last day of July and the farmers markets around town are in full swing, full of local produce and what better way to go shopping than to buy directly from the farmer when the food is at its freshest and most flavourful.

Farmers market dinner

There were many stalls selling raspberries and blueberries which abound in the Fraser Valley and are at there peak right now.

There were also many very beautiful looking beets, zucchini, lettuce, radishes and so much more.

It was hard to resist any of it, but this is what I finally came home with.

Yellow zucchini (courtesy of my friends daughter who commissioned me to cook it for her) fresh garlic, beets, potatoes, rainbow chard, rainbow radishes, red oakleaf lettuce and a local cheese.

Pickled red cabbage

Pickled red cabbage is something that I remember from my childhood in England.  This was something we had mostly at Christmas as it goes very well with cold meat, left over turkey or ham perhaps. Any way My husband bought this beautiful big red cabbage at the farmers Market in Penticton.

 The only thing to do was make pickled red cabbage.

I had never made this before but it fit in to my eating local and in season as advocated by Barbara Kingsolver's book "Animal Vegetable Miracle". In order to eat seasonally all year round, you have to preserve some things to be consumed in the long cold days of winter when there is very little grown locally.  So armed with my computer and google I searched the Internet for recipes for pickled red cabbage.  I found quite a few and the one I liked the sound of the most was on BBC.co.uk this seemed simple and I followed the instructions. There were very few measurements, I guess it really depends on the size of your cabbage.