Beet the blues and PLEASE NOTE SPECIAL hours this week!
I know Valentine’s Day is tomorrow, but a golden beet salad stole my heart last Sunday. Love follows its own rules.
We were in Chicago for the weekend to visit our eldest daughter and she brought us to Lula’s Cafe in Logan Square where the farm-to-table menu was so inventive and delicious, all I could think was: we should have a place like this in Hastings. Consider my golden beet salad, with goat butter, candied kumquat, toasted hazelnuts and chamomile.
Who new beets could make my heart skip a beat? Long considered lowly roots and nothing more than a “useful” food during winter, beets, especially golden beets started popping up on the most elegant tables cozying up with foie gras and truffles.
Golden beets have a milder, sweeter flavor than red beets, and less of an earthy taste. And their vibrant yellow color makes them so fetching on a plate. Added bonus: they stain less than red beets! Golden beets are especially exquisite in salads like this one or this salad partnering golden beets with cucumbers and feta.
Try this recipe for golden beet soup. Or, pick up some red beets to make this “pink” risotto. The perfect dish to beat those winter blahs. The folks at Obercreek Farm say the upside of this sustained cold is in the benefits that our soil will see, as well as the hope of reduced pressure from some pest populations come spring.
So, there’s that.
If you don’t subscribe to the Obercreek Farm newsletter, you should. The weekly blog offers a glimpse into the vagaries and joys of farming, but also highlights what's available each week and provides corresponding recipes, usually written freestyle à la Mark Bittman.
Consider this week’s recipe:
Winter dinner doesn’t have to be complicated to be delicious. Chop and roast some carrots—toss with paprika, a touch of cayenne, a healthy spoonful of honey, and just enough olive oil to spread the spices around - cover, and put in the oven at 375 for about an hour. Clean and trim some beets, drizzle with olive oil and wrap in foil (and again, I know most recipes say only one beet per foil wrap, but I’ve never seen any difference) pop on a sheet (so if they leak it’s not all over your oven) and cook for about the same amount of time. While those are going, par-boil a pot of potatoes. Once they're fork-tender, drain, roughly chop as many or as few as you’d like and pop in a hot skillet so they get a bit crispy. Once those veggies are all done and chopped how you’d like, serve with arugula and dressings of your choice — we also love a bit of feta on this dish. The honeyed carrots with just a pinch of heat bring pizazz, the beets bring color, the potatoes bring a hearty base, the arugula brings a satisfying crunch. Does it have a name? Not really, no, but it’s absolutely packed with nutrients, is filling and delicious, and doesn't feel at all like you're trying to cram veggies into your life; it lets the veggies take the wheel without feeling like you’re just crunching on leaves every day.
If this sort of cooking feels like “Is that really a meal?” or seems foreign to you, I'd love to share with you the much more eloquent thoughts of fabulous chef, writer, sometimes farmer Julia Turshen, who wrote this great piece a few weeks back on eating — and cooking — intuitively. "
A couple of other things to pay attention to this week: Shhh-our-dough is making a special batch of Dutch chocolate sourdough loaves in honor of Valentine’s Day (hopefully your celebrations of love are not tied to a specific day on the calendar).
Raw Chocolate Love will be stirring up a big pot of frothy hot chocolate with almond milk to keep you warm while you shop. Or, if you prefer an espresso drink, Austin, at the Boxing Day Cafe tent has you covered.
Ready Set Sharp will be here Saturday so bring thoses kitchen knives for sharpening and those pruning shears. Spring will be here sooner than you think. In fact, Thousand Leaf Gardens will have their first tulips of the season. Hooray!
Due to the impending snow storm on Saturday we are opening the market at 9 and closing at noon so that our vendors can get home safely before the roads get too treacherous. Thanks for understanding!