From Chef Lesley Stiles:
Rondele Stuffed w/ Corn, Tomatoes and
Mint
6 Rondele Squash, top cut off
1 ear of fresh corn, kernels sliced off of cob
2 medium sized tomatoes, seeded and chopped
20 leaves mint, chopped
1/2 red onion, diced
3 cloves of garlic, peeled and chopped
2 tablespoons of olive oil
3 tablespoons of grated aged cheese such as parmesan,
Manchego or a dry jack cheese
Heat oven to 375°. Butter a large baking dish.
Scoop out inside of squash leaving a 1/4 inch
of meat all around inside. Chop what you pull
out and set aside.
Heat olive oil in a skillet and add onion, garlic
and reserved squash and sauté for a few
minutes. Add corn, tomato and mint. Sauté for
a couple more minute. Remove from heat and add
the cheese. Season with kosher salt and ground
pepper.
Stuff the mixture into the hollowed out squash
and place in the baking dish. Place in oven and
bake covered for about 35 minutes until a pick
can pierce the squash easily.
Serves six.
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From the Director, Jessie
Neu:
As the summer drifts away... schools open and the football season comes into play... remember to tap into your evolutionary roots and go with what you know... continue to shop at the farmers' markets for the freshest food.
Speaking of tap... we are programmed to buy expensive, shipped bottled drinking water... which is less regulated than the water we can get from our tap! It turns out that this bottle water we are buying is coming from their tap... In addition, we increase our carbon foot print from all the plastic being generated and filling our landfills. Folks let's save money by refilling our own water bottles!
Our friend, Gail sent us some good information about a Delta-Diablo
Slow Food event this weekend and a nice quote to live by...
Delta-Diablo Slow Food is hosting a screening of films on August 25. Filmmakers from Ripe for Change and Harvest Young will be in attendance as will Bill Fujimoto from Eat at Bill's. The films will be screened in the new library at Los Medanos College.
"The soil is the great connector of lives, the source and destination of all. It is the healer and restorer and resurrector, by which disease passes into health, age into youth, death into life. Without proper care for it we can have no community, because without proper care for it we can have no life."
Wendell Berry
Okay... Joey has let the cat out of the bag... so, I wanted to let people know what a talented fellow he is... in case you hadn't noticed... This new bookmark he mentions is a good testament to his artistic abilities. The free bookmark will be available for you to pick up soon.
P.S.
I would love hear from you.
Perhaps you have you heard...
The planning for the relocation of the the Walnut Creek
Market has begun. Partnerships are being formed to carefully develop proposals to move the market successfully and make the transition to the new location as smooth and flawless as possible. We only want to do this once! So it has to be right!
Keeping YOU in the loop will be a an important component... YOU are a critical link to a successful move.
Stay tuned and look for our Mooooving Campaign!
Support small family farms year round!
Buy local... Buy California Grown.
Sign
a friend up for the e-newsletter.
Jessie Neu can be reached at gm@cccfm.org |
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In this Issue: |
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Next issue of The Lettuce Leaf Newsletter will be on September 7.
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Martinez:
Music 8/26: Bill Lombardo
Music 9/2: Liedstrand Family Band
Manager: Joey McNaughton.
E-mail: mmarket@cccfm.org
Have you been using your Frequent Shopper Card? If you have - you could be
next month's Grand Prize winner! We've started a raffle here at the market
and our first winner was Sharon Brooks. She received a green bag of assorted
goodies from some of our amazing vendors for simply coming and being a
dedicated shopper. All you have to do is shop at the market, get me to sign
your card every time and when your card is full you get three free market
bucks and I put your card in the raffle. It's a win-win situation! If you
haven't gotten your Frequent Shopper Card make sure and stop by my booth and
ask me for one.
The last couple of market days I've talked with some folks about the market
extending into a full year market. This is a great request to hear, but we
need to hear more of it from more people. If you know that you would still
be shopping for the fall and winter crops, rain or shine, please let us
know! Send me or the Executive Director, Jessie Neu, an e-mail and tell your
dedicated friends to start putting pressure on us for a full year market.
The only way it will happen is if we know there are enough people to
regularly shop to make it worth the farmers' effort.
For
more info |
Orinda:
Music 8/25: Prairie Rose
Music 9/1: Diablo Dust - blue grass
Manager: Janice Faust.
E-mail: omarket@cccfm.org
From Jan Faust, Manager:
Hello Orinda Shoppers,
 This has been such a great season. Not only has the produce been some of the
best and most abundant in years, but the Market itself is growing and flourishing
in our new location. Customers often ask me why we have no pop-corn, orchids,
tamales, etc at the Market. The answer is that we are always actively seeking
new vendors and growers to add to our line-up. You can help by continuing to
shop and encouraging all of your friends, family, and neighbors to do the same.
The busier and more well attended we are, the easier it is to draw quality vendors
to the Market. We can't do it without our customers so thank you for your continued
support. While you're at the market stop by the Manager's booth and pick up
a green bag or two. These popular bags are a nice size and shape with a flat
bottom that holds your peaches steady as you shop. Buying our food from local
growers and using green bags are two easy and yummy ways we can help reduce our
carbon footprint. See you at the Market, and don't forget to bring a friend.
For
more info |
Pleasant
Hill:
Music 8/25: Liedstrand Family Band
Music 9/1: Prairie Rose
Manager: Karen Stiles.
E-mail: pmarket@cccfm.org
Cooking demo: Lesley Stiles will be cooking
in Pleasant Hill Saturday this week, featuring summer
squash.
From Karen Stiles, Manager:
Hi! Hope everyone is enjoying our great market season! Lots of good, fresh produce to choose from. Feel free to thank our excellent farmers. The third annual Pleasant
Hill Community Service Day is September 15 this year. You can become part of something really special. Devote a few hours to giving back to your community. All participants enjoy a free kick-off breakfast by the PH Lions. (7:45am at PH Park, Gregory Ln.), receive a FREE
T-shirt (first 350). Find a project that will improve the community and register it on the city website or call 671-5202.
Mt.
Diablo Adult Education Center at 1 Santa Barbara Rd. is putting in a drought tolerant, native plant garden with no pesticides and is looking for volunteers to help with planning and design, building benches and structures, soil preparation, irrigation, weather monitoring station and installing the garden. If you would like to help you can e-mail at: phecgarden@prodigy.net or call 937-1530. Donations are being accepted-nonprofit 501c.
Hope you have been able to come to Sunset
by the Lake at the City Hall. The next concert is Saturday September 2 and features Key Lime Pie, classic rock with soul, R&B and modern pop. Bring a picnic and enjoy the show 6-8pm. See you Saturday.
For more info |
Walnut Creek:
Music 8/26: Growiser
Music 9/2: Fred McCarty
Manager: Keith Farley.
E-mail: wmarket@cccfm.org
From Keith Farley, Manager:
Whoa, August is almost gone and the blueberries are gone.
**Sigh** so it begins, the long slow slide into fall. Do
not get me wrong, I love fall for the different produce
and the different tastes of fall. I'll just miss all the
fruits and melons. It is not fall yet and there is still
plenty of everything (except blueberries) to go around
so make sure you get your fill before fall knocks on the
door. Strawberries are having a good run and as long as
the weather holds, they should be around for a while.
With the end of summer comes the start of school for most folks and that means butterflies at the market. Many of you have already started asking when they will arrive and I told you September. I e-mailed Ms. Jacobs (aka the
butterfly lady) and she informed me that she might not be able to participate in the farmers' markets this year due to her partner's recent surgery. Therefore, in the event she cannot come to market, here is her e-mail address so you can order the caterpillar
kits directly from the farm. info@ButterflySkyFarm.com
Stop by and say hi this Sunday!
For
more info.
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FROM
OUR MARKETS by
Chef Leslie Stiles |
Varieties of summer squash and eggplants found at the
farmers' markets right now are mind blowing in their flavor,
intensity and beauty. I really like the way mint and squash taste
together. Good thing because they are both abundantly out of control
and begging to be savored. Summer squashes are found in all shapes,
sizes and colors while possessing their own character so get out
of your rut and try them all. Eggplant varieties are gorgeous and
tasty. Big, fat, shiny Globes have a bit of a tough skin and want
to be peeled before preparing but the longer, skinny ones actually
offer a sweet skin that melts as you enjoy it. Sliced and lubed
up with olive oil and salt these bad boys are ready for the grill
as is. After cooking, then you can slice to eating size and drizzle
with balsamic or lemon oil.
I am down to freezing some peaches, plums, pluots, nectarines,
strawberries and grapes for the winter. Snagged a bunch of the blueberries
the last week in the market and ate as many as I could while freezing
the rest. All this frozen loot can be used in smoothies, muffins,
jams, pies, crisps, sauces and just sucking on in crazy hot weather,
like now. Peaches just want to be peeled, pitted and sliced. The
other stoners I simply pit and slice. Strawberries want to be hulled
and washed. Layer on a sheet pan and place in the freezer. When
frozen, bag em up and enjoy. Tomatoes can also be thrown into a
bag whole with the stem off, chopped or pureed for future nuances
of summer past. You want to be sure and use all this stuff before
it comes into season again.
The Troy Spencer Memorial Garden at Pleasant Hill Middle School
is going crazy. We are picking enough tomatoes to keep our fingers
green. Our PTSA is going to get the garden certified so that we
can sell at the Pleasant Hill Farmers' market next year, vegetables
as well as the plants that are the science projects! On September
15 for the Pleasant Hill Community Service Day, Shea Goonan and
his dad Jim are going to get his Eagle Scout project started at
the garden consisting of a split rail fence and the beginning of
the outdoor classroom. If you feel like it, come on down and lend
a hand. If high school is more your bag then join the crowd the
same day in our College Park High School organic garden. This one
is off the rails too. We are really excited to get school started
so the kids can consume this amazing, local, organic produce and
we can back off the green hands a little bit.
Get out early, drink lots of water, eat the whole fruit, whatever
it takes, but get out there and enjoy this amazing place we are
privileged to call home.
Lesley Stiles can be reached at chef@cccfm.org or
on the market hotline 925 431-8361 |
WHAT'S BEEN, WHAT'S IN, WHAT'S OUT by
Barbara Kobsar |
Pluots arrived on the farmer's market scene more than a decade ago, but I still find shoppers marveling at this "new" fruit. In 1989 California fruit breeder Floyd Zaiger introduced the pluot to the nursery trade, and by the mid 1990's the first pluots arrived at our farmers' markets. This was an effort to improve on the plumcot (50 per cent plum and 50 per cent apricot) developed by Luther Burbank a century ago.
Pluots are about 70 per cent plum and 30 per cent apricot. They're sweet and juicy with an intense flavor. Flavor King, Flavor Rich and Flavor Prince are some of the favorite varieties.
I expect to see pluots at the markets until late September. With school days just around the corner pluots make tasty cereal toppings and are full of Vitamin C to start the day. For the after-school-crowd pluots make delicious smoothies or snacks.
 There are still plenty of bunches of fresh basil waiting for the pesto pot. Pesto means "pounded" and refers to how it's traditionally made with a mortar and pestle - I have no problem making it in my food processor though. Toss a few handfuls of fresh basil leaves, a clove of garlic, a good pinch of salt, a couple tablespoons of toasted walnuts and Parmesan and 1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil in the food processor. Blend, but don't over blend, until the pesto looks grainy. Spoon mixture into a sealable container, add another 1/3 cup olive oil and blend until all the oil is absorbed.
Pesto pasta gets an extra hit with thick slices of roasted peppers. Peppers are popping up all over the markets - just find the one that tempts your tastebuds. Both types - sweet and hot - are currently available at several growers' stands. Bell peppers are the most renowned of the sweet peppers - red, yellow, orange and purple.
Hot peppers are most often called chili peppers and can range from the relatively mild Paprika or Anaheim to the sizzling hot Habanero. I'm also happy to report I've seen some heirloom peppers like the Corno di toro - great for roasting or sautéing - along with Figaros and Cubanelles. It's the perfect time to discover and enjoy peppers!
Corn season is winding down. If you haven't had a chance to make my Cottage Kitchen Corn Salad stop by and see me for the recipe.
Enjoy and see you at the market!
Barbara Kobsar can be reached at cotkitchen@aol.com or
call (925) 933-2552. |
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