Months removed the most recent harvest season, Alex Davis is getting a little nostalgic.
"I take my vegetables much more seriously than I do myself," Davis says. "You may also notice that I take extreme pride of my orange carrots, purple carrots, yellow carrots and white carrots. And why wouldn't I? Because when you see a carrot grown by me, A.D. Farm, you are also seeing an extension of the famous Wolverine Farm carrot, just as good as you remember them being."
Davis will have those carrots, along with cabbage, beets and four varieties of potatoes, with him at the Center Market and the Top Shelf Artisan Market this week.
Davis started farming more than 10 years ago on "a little piece of family ground that my brother-in-law had been raising vegetables on. … Over the years the other parts of the farm were put into hay production and pasture for cattle, and the vegetable end from the rest of the family ended, leaving me the last remaining vegetable farmer on the family ground."
Also this week, he will have new Alaska barley products -- cinnamon chip pancake mix and cracked barley -- along with whole barley, barley cereal, roasted barley, barley flour and barley couscous. Davis also has his pork products, including suckling pigs, chops, roast, sausage, hocks, soup bones and fat.
Other vendors lined up for the Center Market include:
Earthworks Farm: "People who find the cold weather a little hard on the lips and hands will benefit from our lip balms and moisturizing cream," owner Dee Barker says. Earthworks will have a large selection of natural beeswax and honey skin care products at the market.
Alaska Vegan and Gluten Free: On Wednesday, the menu includes Moroccan tagine, glazed lentil walnut apple meatless loaf, red lentil dahl, carrot ginger soup, red beans and wild brown rice, pico de gallo, hemp seed lemon garlic salad dressing and other items.
Sweet Caribou: Satisfy your sweet tooth on Wednesday or Saturday with a variety of Parisian macarons, cupcakes and brownies. Macaron flavors include chocolate lovers (Dutch cocoa shell with cacao nibs and Belgian dark chocolate ganache), eggnog latte (espresso shell and eggnog buttercream), lavender milk chocolate (lavender scented shell and Belgian milk chocolate ganache), matcha peach tea (Summit matcha tea shell and peach green tea ganache), nerdy grape (Kool-Aid shell with a grape and nerd white chocolate ganache) and strawberry lemonade (sugar shell, sweet strawberry buttercream and tart lemon curd).
Rempel Family Farm: On Saturday, the Rempels will have a large selection of vegetables, including carrots, three varieties of beets, cabbage, daikon radishes, turnips, rutabagas, sugar pumpkins, several kinds of winter squash, parsnips and 12 kinds of potatoes. They will also have locally grown yak meat.
La Grassa: Look for loads of fresh pasta options. The lineup includes spinach and original hand-cut pasta; vegan strozzapreti; mushroom and ricotta ravioli; Alaska potato gnocchi; and organic kohlrabi, broccoli and cheddar ravioli. "We are using local kohlrabi from Rempel Family Farm for this one, and it is pretty tasty," Rebecca Martin says.
Drool Central: Stop by the Drool Central booth for treats and meals for dogs and cats. "I'm introducing a new dog treat I call 'Lot O'Fiske' made from wild Alaska cod trimmings with no preservatives, seasonings or treatments," owner Daisy Nicolas says. "This is better than the Scandinavian lutefisk without the lye."
Farm 779: They will have the "awesome sauce," four varieties of coconut kefir, kefir water soda in ginger carrot and root beer, coconut bacon and rosemary magnesium body butter.
Top Shelf Artisan Market
A wide variety of vendors is lined up for the Friday market in Palmer.
"We'll have Deborah with Wolverine Road grown veggies; Duane with grass fed beef, yak, lamb and seafood; Jonsers with handmade teas and nectars; Turkey Red has freshly baked treats from the hearth; La Grassa with artisan pasta cut right before your eyes; and Farm 779 with root beer and ginger carrot kefir water sodas, four kinds of coconut based kefir, coconut bacon, awesome sauce and that amazing rosemary magnesium body butter," says Julie Meer of Farm 779.
From the sea
John Jackson of New Sagaya Markets says the fishing has been a little slow but that fresh cod is still coming in regularly. New Sagaya has cod for $5.99 per pound this week.
There is good news and bad news to report from Southeast.
"One of my suppliers in Southeast told me the herring have moved offshore and the kings have followed, leaving the inside waters pretty quiet," Jackson says. "We are seeing some fresh sidestripes coming in from down in Southeast, and this is a treat as fresh shrimp are pretty hard to come by this time of the year."
The sidestripe shrimp are $10.99 per pound.
Steve Edwards lives and writes in Anchorage. Contact him at akmarketfresh@gmail.com.
Local farmers markets
Monday: Depot Farm Market, noon-6 p.m., Palmer Depot
Wednesday: Center Market, 10 a.m.-6 p.m., The Mall at Sears, Benson Boulevard and Denali Street
Friday: Top Shelf Artisan Market, 11 a.m.-6 p.m., 550 S. Alaska St., Palmer
Saturday: Center Market, 10 a.m.-4 p.m., The Mall at Sears, Benson Boulevard and Denali Street