Thought that might get your attention. VanderWeele Farm is offering free lettuce at Saturday's South Anchorage Farmers Market.
The lettuce is available to those who first stop by the Alaska Farmland Trust booth and sign up for the trust's newsletter. After signing up, customers will get a coupon for the free lettuce.
On the food side, the Bistro Red Beet will have hot bacon-wrapped red salmon and chicken kabobs this week. Also new this week are crepes with savory or sweet fillings. This week's all-Alaska soup is Alaska Seafood Stew, featuring fresh Alaska cod.
Rise & Shine Bakery is back at the market this week with its popular fruited almond sourdough hearth loaf for the second consecutive week. The bread was so popular Saturday, that it's back on the menu this week, along with fresh rosemary, toasted seed, levain sourdough and spent grain sourdough. Rise & Shine will not be at the Aug. 6 market, so stock up this week.
Other vendors/items at the market include: Glacier Valley Farm with zucchini, English cucumbers, strawberries and possibly green beans; Rempel Family Farm will have carrots, zucchini, herbs, turnips, broccoli, beets, greens and lettuces; Vern Stockwell will have lettuces, greens and local pork products; Gray Owl Farm will feature perennial plants, houseplants and a variety of produce including pickling cucumbers; Arctic Choice will add coho salmon, oysters, halibut, salmon and ikura to its regular lineup; Southfork Jams will have zucchini relish along with fresh heirloom tomatoes and seasonal jams; and Lavish Me Soap will have a new Japanese cherry blossom scent.
The Rempels will also be at today's Northway Mall Wednesday Market. Mark Rempel says it's time to enjoy Alaska's broccoli: "For those of you who don't know, Alaskan broccoli has very sweet stems. They are my favorite part," he says. "We also have kohlrabi, which are like a great big broccoli stem squeezed into a softball."
Dinkel's Veggies will also be at today's Northway Mall Market with tomatoes, onions, potatoes, yellow and green zucchini, beans, lettuce, cauliflower and crook-neck squash. Today they are also at the Wasilla Farmers Market and in the Wasilla Lake parking lot and on Friday they will be at Palmer's Friday Fling.
Dinkel's Veggies are available almost daily at one market or another, including Saturday's Spenard Farmers Market, where they will set up for the first time.
Other vendors at the market this week include: Grass Roots with lettuces, Romanesco cauliflower, fennel, cucumbers, beet greens and herbs; Ba-Lesca Brothers will have fresh baked Mexican bread along with chicken eggs, arugula, squash blossoms, onions and new potatoes; Northern Lights Oysters Co. will have fresh oysters from Jakolof Bay outside Homer; Rose's Natural Harvest will have honey and fireweed pesto; and Fresh International Gardens will have kale, beets, collard greens, herbs and mixed salad greens.
Sarah Bean of Arctic Organics and the Anchorage Farmers Market praises summer's weather, saying it's "more perfect growing weather. The broccoli, cabbages and cauliflower have been a week or two earlier this year than last year."
New this week from Arctic Organics is cauliflower, daikon, mustard greens, beet greens, Catalogna dandelion and hon tsai tai. Other produce includes cabbage, zucchini, broccoli, kohlrabi, two varieties of arugula, kale and herbs. They also have apple trees and fertilizer blends.
Franco Magrini will have a new watercress pesto this week, along with arugula pesto, rhubarb barbecue sauce and Swiss Chard filled ravioli. Magrini will have cooking demonstrations at the market. Also at the market will be the Seldovitsch Family Farm with eggs, cucumber, carrots, celery, jalapeno peppers, garlic, onions and lettuce.
At this week's Center Market (both today and Saturday) A.D. Farm will have strawberries, cucumbers, lettuces (at least five varieties), beets, rhubarb, spinach, fresh eggs, jams and pasture-raised pork products, which includes side pork, roasts, chops, ground pork and sausage.
Farm tour
The Mat Valley Farm Tour is Aug. 4.
Tickets are $55, which includes coffee and cinnamon rolls in the morning, an all-Alaska grown lunch, tour of Little Pitchfork Buffalo Ranch and visits to four other farms.
Information is available from Kristi Krueger at 1-907-761-3858 or Kristi.Krueger@alaska.gov.
Beet and goat cheese crostini spread
5 medium-sized beets
1 (5 ounce) package of goat cheese
Salt and pepper to taste
French bread baguette, toasted and cut in diagonal slices about 1/2-inch-thick
To prepare beets, leave root and 1 inch of stem on beets; scrub with a brush. Put beet greens aside, to be used as a garnish. Place beets in an 11-by-7-inch baking dish; add 1 cup water to dish. Cover and bake at 375 F for 45 minutes or until tender.
Drain and cool. Trim off beet roots; rub off skins.
Cut the bagette in 1/2-inch diagonal slices, and toast in oven on 400 degrees until golden.
Put beets in food processor with the goat cheese and puree.
Spread on toasted bagette slices.
Garnish with thin strips of beet greens
Source: Shannon Kuhn, Spenard Farmers Market
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.
TODAY: Center Market, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., Mall at Sears, Benson Boulevard and Denali Street; Northway Mall Wednesday Market, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., Northway Mall parking lot; South Anchorage Farmers Market, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., behind the Dimond Center; Wasilla Farmers Market, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., behind the Wasilla Library
FRIDAY: Palmer Friday Fling, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. at the Pavilion across from Visitor's Center; Willow Farmers Market, 2-7 p.m., Mile 69 Parks Highway
SATURDAY: Anchorage Farmers Market, 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at 15th and Cordova in the Central Lutheran Church parking lot; Anchorage Market and Festival, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Third Avenue between C and E streets; Center Market, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Mall at Sears, Benson Boulevard and Denali Street; Eagle River Farmers Market, in front of Mike's Meats, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.; South Anchorage Farmers Market, 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., Subway/Cellular One Sports Center at the corner of Old Seward Highway and O'Malley Road; Spenard Farmers Market, 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., Spenard Road and 26th Avenue
SUNDAY: Anchorage Market and Festival, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Third Avenue between C and E streets
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