Anchorage Daily News

Farming’s inherently a gamble, but Sarah and River Bean are tossing the dice when they say they’re holding out for a little rain to help their fall crops get the growth they didn’t get earlier in the season. “River was over trying to dig this morning,” Sarah wrote in an e-mail Tuesday morning. All he found, she said, were “scanty, miniature potatoes. The same goes for other fall crops like brussels sprouts, winter cabbage, leeks and rutabagas. It’s a bit of a gamble wanting to get the most growth out of the crops before freeze-up.”

Crops being harvested now by the Beans, who farm near the Butte, are red onions and mizuna. Other standards include beets with greens, bulk carrots, carrot bunches, fennel, celery; daikon, Easter egg, French breakfast and red radishes; cauliflower; zucchini; green, savoy and red cabbage; broccoli heads and sideshoots, Snow Apple turnips with greens; and kohlrabi.

Their greens include collards, mustard, red giant mustard, four kinds of kale, watercress, beet greens, rainbow chard, spinach, arugula, greens mix, tat soi, dandelion greens, escarole, radicchio, sorrel and nasturtium blossoms.

The list of herbs includes three kinds of basil, dill, Italian and curly parsley, thyme, oregano, sage, lovage, marjoram, chervil and epazote.

They’ll be at the Anchorage Farmers Market — 15th Avenue and Cordova Street — 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturdays. Their farm stand is open every Friday from 5 to 7 p.m. at 1305 N. Smith Road, just south of the Mt. View RV Park in Palmer. For more information, call 1-907-746-1087.

Carrots and more

Lesley Dinkel sent in a bread recipe that can help use the abundance of carrots available at markets these days. (It’s at the end of the column.)

“Since carrots are in season and nice and sweet now, I thought I would share this simple recipe,” she wrote in an e-mail.

“It’s a great bread to eat warm with a cup of tea or a glass of milk.”

The Dinkels will be at the two markets today: Wasilla Wednesday Market and Northway Mall Wednesday Market.

They’ll have zucchini, broccoli, vine-ripened tomatoes, peanut, Yukon Gold and white potatoes, strawberries, cabbage, head lettuce and pickling cucumbers.

This week, Rempel Family Farm will be at Northway Mall today as well as the South Anchorage Market on Saturday.

Mark Rempel plans to have carrots, lettuces and greens, daikon radishes, Snow Apple turnips, winter squashes, three kinds of beets, seven kinds of potatoes, fennel bulbs and a lot more veggies.

On ice

The halibut and silver salmon continue to come in at 10th & M Seafoods, according to Dannon Southall. The fresh silver fillets are $8.95 per pound, and whole fish are $5.95. The fresh halibut run $13.95 for fillets and $8.95 per pound for the headed-and-gutted fish. Fresh rockfish fillets are $8.95, and Dover sole fillets are $7.95 per pound. They also have frozen red king crab for $16.95 per pound.

Quick carrot nut bread

4 1½ cups of flour

4 1½ teaspoon baking soda

4 ¼ teaspoon cinnamon

Add:

4 ¾ cup sugar

4 2 beaten eggs

4 ½ cup vegetable oil

4 1 teaspoon vanilla

4 ½ teaspoon salt

Blend in with a few swift strokes:

4 1½ cups grated carrots

4 1½ cups chopped pecans or walnuts (We usually don’t add nuts.)

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.

Bake in greased pan about 1 hour. Cool in the pan for 10 minutes and then turn onto a rack for further cooling.

Find T.C. Mitchell online at adn.com/contact/tcmitchell or call 1-907-352-6716.

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