Local produce available, snow or no

Have no fear. You have at least two good options for quality local produce this winter. Sadly, neither of them will bring the summer sunshine back.

Option No. 1: Glacier Valley CSA

Glacier Valley Farms was busy during the summer at the South Anchorage Farmers markets, but it keeps busy during the cool season handling CSA subscriptions. CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture.

CSA subscribers receive a box of produce for $35. The boxes can be ordered weekly or more sporadically, depending on needs. The boxes must be ordered online at glaciervalleycsa.com two weeks in advance.

The boxes are not available one week per month, allowing the farmers a short break and the customers a chance to use up any leftover produce. Customers can pick up their boxes at one of several locations in Anchorage, Eagle River or the Valley.

While summertime subscribers get all-Alaska boxes. In the winter, Glacier Valley supplements Alaska produce with some organic items from Outside.

“In the winter, each box will contain as much Alaskan produce as possible, grown by a variety of farmers in the Matanuska-Susitna Valley,” says Nancy Lampman, spokesperson for the CSA. “Our local produce will include storage vegetables like cabbages, carrots, potatoes, onions, beets, turnips, Brussels sprouts, winter squash, parsnips, garlic, celery root.

“To add variety to these nourishing and savory staples, our goal is to also include vegetables and fruits from certified organic farms in the Lower 48. Each box also contains a newsletter loaded with delicious, healthy recipes tailored to the week’s vegetables. … We chose to include Outside fruits and vegetables after polling our customers to find out what they wanted in a year-round Alaskan CSA.”

Items in boxes to be picked up this week include beets, Brussels sprouts, onions, parsnips and carrots from Alaska. Outside items include Red Canal pears, cameo apples, cremini mushrooms, red kale, Honeyboat delicate squash and parsley.

“We are the only year-round CSA program featuring Alaskan vegetables,” Lampman says. “During our peak months here in Alaska we only had Alaskan grown produce in our boxes. The response was fantastic and people really enjoyed supporting their local farmers.

“Glacier Valley CSA started as a local response to an out of state CSA. The out-of-state CSA was negatively impacting our local farmers markets and our livelihood. What is so fantastic is that as Glacier Valley CSA continues to grow, the local farmers increase what they plant and this in turns provides more local produce for our customers. It’s a win-win situation for all Alaskans!”

Option No. 2: Indoor farmers market at Northway Mall

What Alex Davis of A.D. Farm started as a way to keep the season going is growing. There should be a half-dozen vendors at the Northway Mall from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. today selling a variety of Alaska produce and items.

Davis says he’ll have organic carrots in three colors; cabbage; a variety of potatoes; beets; parsnips; several varieties of jam, including raspberry, wild rose petal and red current; raw honey; and fresh eggs.

Also at the market is the Rempel Family Farm, the Red Beet, Rob Wells and other vendors selling mushrooms and spices.

Mark Rempel says he’ll have red, golden, Chioggia and cylinder beets; sweet daikon; parsnips; sugar pumpkins; six varieties of potatoes; carrots; cabbage; and free-range eggs.

Wells will have tomatoes from L&R Greenhouses and cheddar cheese, fresh cheese curds and ice cream from the Matanuska Creamery, where he is an owner/worker.

Things from the sea

For those looking for fresh halibut, it’s time to act. The season is coming to a close this weekend.

Dannon Southall at 10th & M Seafoods says they will have halibut in the stores through the week, available both headed and gutted and as fillets. He says rockfish and sole are coming in fresh all week, along with fresh shellfish. Live mussels come in on Wednesdays and Fridays. Exotic fish are available upon request.

FishEx has Alaska Dungeness crab on sale. Dungeness crab clusters are $10.95 per pound, while broken Dungeness crab legs and claws are just $7 per pound. The crab is simply broken during the handling process, so it may not look quite as pretty, but the company’s Web site says “you are going to break it anyway,” so why not save a few bucks?

As the sun dips a little lower each day and fresh snow covers the ground, it seems the perfect recipe for the week is one that is simple and a little decadent. So enjoy this chocolate chip cookie recipe from “Golden Door Cooks at Home: Favorite Recipes From the Celebrated Spa.”

Chocolate chip cookies

These cookies exude classic chocolate chip cookie flavor but contain no animal products or refined sugars.

Vegetable oil cooking spray

½-cup old-fashioned rolled oats

1 cup whole wheat flour

1/3-cup chocolate chips

1 tablespoon ground flaxseed

½-teaspoon baking soda

uE034 ¼-teaspoon kosher salt

¾-cup maple syrup

½-cup applesauce

3 tablespoons grapeseed oil

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

½ teaspoon fresh lemon juice

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and coat with cooking spray.

Put the oats in the work bowl of a food processor. Process until ground into a fine meal, about 10 seconds. Transfer to a large bowl. And the flour, chocolate chips, ground flaxseed, baking soda and salt. Whisk together the dry ingredients until well combined.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the maple syrup, applesauce, grapeseed oil, vanilla and lemon juice. Pour into the dry ingredients and use a rubber spatula to fold the ingredients together until just incorporated. The batter will be very moist, like muffin batter.

Using a 3/4–ounce scoop or rounded tablespoonfuls, spoon the batter 1 1/2-inches apart on the prepared cookie sheet. Use the back of a wet spoon to slightly flatten each cookie.

Bake one sheet at a time until light golden brown, about 20 minutes turning the pan halfway through baking. Use a spatula to transfer the cookies to racks to cool completely. These are best eaten within one day of baking; store them at room temperature in a tightly sealed container.

Makes about 2 dozen cookies.

Source: “Golden Door Cooks at Home: Favorite Recipes From the Celebrated Spa” by Dean Rucker (Clarkson Potter/Publishers)

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Steve Edwards lives and writes in Anchorage. If you have a suggestion for a future Market Fresh column, please contact him at sedwards@adn.com.