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What's Up at the Market in August
Every week brings something new to the Sammamish Farmers Market. Here's what you can look forward to in August:
August 4 - Bike and Walk to the Market Day.
For entertainment, we'll have The Lost River String Band. Enjoy their Americana sounds of folk, country, blues and bluegrass.
August 11 - Senior Citizen Day at the Market.
The Essie Blue Band will entertain us with bluegrass, country, folk and old-time fiddle tunes at the Market again this season!
Our children's event will be the Bubble Blowing Contraption. Your children can create bubble blowing loops out of metal coat hangers and have fun with a tub of bubble solution at the Market!
For our special event, our Presenting Sponsor, Evergreen Healthcare, will bring Zucchini Races to the market again this season! Build and race your own zucchini race car!
Non-profit groups will include Heifer International, Western Zone, and Mary Queen of Peace Mothers of Preschoolers.
August 18 - A great day to listen to the Northwest Accordionaires who will entertain us with everything from polkas to classics.
August 25 - Artisan/ Craft Day at the Market.
For entertainment, we'll have Jazz in the Corner who will play a selection of jazz standards.
For the children's event, construct a colorful windmill!
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Meet the Vendors
Billy's Gardens
 Tomatoes are one of the most popular fruits at the Market. (Yes, botanically tomatoes are fruits.) It's not surprising that crowds congregate around the tomato bins because we have one of the premier, if not the premier, tomato grower in our state at our Market, Billy's Gardens.
Billy Allstot and his wife Stephanie and their son have a certified organic farm near Tonasket in Okanogan County. Tomatoes are their specialty, but they also grow eggplants, peppers, peaches, and berries on their 90-acre farm.
The Allstots raise both heirloom and non-heirloom tomatoes but they now focus on heirlooms because of their superior taste.
When you stop at Billy's Gardens stall, you'll see crates lined up, overflowing with orange-red jewels luminescent in the sun, all labeled so you can select a custom variety to suit your tastes. It's great fun! And don't forget to look under the tables. There you'll find boxes of #2 tomatoes at lower prices. They're delicious too.
The tomato harvest will increase over the next few weeks. Canners and freezers, just ask and Billy's will bring boxes for you.
Pappardelle Pasta
 This is Not Your Mother's Pasta!
Speaking of quick, healthy dinners, have you tried Pappardelle's Pasta? This week, I picked up some spinach-lemon-herb fettuccini and last week, I tried the sun-dried tomato. Pappardelle's provides dozens of free sauce recipes, but sauce is hardly needed. Just toss the noodles with olive oil, butter or cream, add in some fresh farmers' market vegetables, and you're set. The texture is dense, with just the right bite, the colors are a visual treat, and the flavors hold their own, even if you opt for a robust sauce.
Next, I want to try the basil tangerine fettuccini tossed with pesto. Then, perhaps the garden spinach tossed with wilted spinach, garlic and parmesan cheese. I even plan to give the dark chocolate linguine a try! With dozens of varieties to choose from, I'll be taste testing for the foreseeable future. I'm hooked! |
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Thank you to
our Sponsors!
Presenting Sponsor: 
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Kids' Event at the Market
Did you see the sensational mural behind the musicians at last week's Market?
 That's the brain child of Grace Wan and Amy Yang, who plan and supervise Kids' Events at the Market. Grace and Amy are the youngest members on the Market's steering committee-they're in high school!
For the mural, Grace and Amy worked with Marci Knutsen and Alicia Mizrahi of Museo Art Academy in Issaquah, who created the design and drew it on four interlocking pieces of 3' by 4' canvas. Museo is one of the Market's sponsors.
 Grace and Amy took the mural to Sammamish's July 4th celebration, where kids of all ages dipped their paintbrushes into vibrant colors, swirled the hues onto the canvases and turned a giant coloring book into a lively mural that captures the spirit of the Market.
Grace and Amy started volunteering at the market last year. While looking around for a community service project they could stick with through high school, they found the Market, volunteered at the Information Booth a few times, and then decided they would enjoy heading up Kids' Events at the Market for this season. Beginning in January of this year, they started planning an engagingly fun crafts program for kids.
As Grace explains, "The crafts that we chose had to be something that everyone, meaning two-year-olds to ten-year-olds, could do and have fun with.... I looked through boxes (not drawers, actually) of work both my brother and I had done when we were younger. Also, I looked through books and websites for inspiration. All in all, inspiration for the crafts came from our own lives, and what we thought were fun. I have a long list of crafts that Amy helped me brainstorm, and I hope that we'll be able to use them in the future for Kids' Events!" Amy adds, "Also, when we went shopping for Kids' Events supplies at Michaels and Joann, some of the materials we saw helped inspire ideas for future projects."
 Grace and Amy have crafts for the kids twice a month. The Market provides all the materials at no cost to kids or their parents. Just stop by at the Kids' Event booth.
August 11 - Bubble blowers. Transform hangers into bubble blowers and have fun with a tub of bubbles at the Market.
August 25 - Windmills. Construct a colorful windmill.
September 8 - Vegetable animals. Put together fruits and vegetables to make wacky animals.
September 22 - Bookmarks. Make a beautifully decorated bookmark-just in time for school reading.
We at the Market look forward to more seasons at the Market with Grace and Amy as they go through high school. |
Do Farmers Markets Improve Fitness?
When the American College of Sports Medicine compiles their annual list of America's fittest cities, they look at a number of community health indicators. One of those indicators is the number of farmers' markets per capita and I got to wondering why. Does eating fresh, locally grown food really translate to improved fitness?
 Some say, "Absolutely!" Market produce is fresh - typically picked that very day and sold when vitamin content is at its peak. At the Sammamish Farmers Market, the meat comes from cattle raised on all-natural grass feed. The salmon is wild, not farmed, and comes by its rosy-pink color naturally without the use of artificial dyes. All of that makes shopping at the market worthwhile. But here is what I believe to be the most important benefit when it comes to fitness: people who shop at farmers' markets prepare their own meals. They use fresh ingredients which are almost always lower in fat, calories and salt than restaurant food or prepared meals purchased from the grocery store. And controlling fat, calories and salt has become critical in America's battle against weight-related disease.
We've all seen the data: Americans consume far more calories than they did three decades ago and, as a result, we weigh far more. And Americans have stopped preparing meals at home: the number of calories we get from fast food meals has almost doubled since 1972.
 Does it really make that much difference? Well, a typical fast-food burger with fries and a vanilla milkshake clocks in at 1,600 calories.
(If you're a woman, forget your other two meals, because you've pretty much hit your calorie limit for the day!). For comparison purposes, let's drop the milkshake and assume we're having a diet soda instead. The fast food meal now comes in at 920 calories and is still very high in salt and fat. As a comparison, here's a meal prepared from fresh Sammamish Farmers Market ingredients:
Quarter pound of wild salmon from Two If By Seafoods:
- 250 calories Green salad made with market greens from Full Circle Farm or Tonnemaker Family Orchard, dressed with an olive oil/balsamic vinegar dressing:
- 300 calories A chewy hunk of bread from House Bread or George's Bakery:
- 130 calories
The market meal totals 680 calories, a savings of 240 calories when compared to the fast food/diet soda meal. If we eliminate these extra 240 calories just four times a week, it translates to 14 fewer pounds per year. And we're still getting that flavor punch we crave except it's not coming from salt and fat. It's coming instead from food that's locally grown and freshly harvested.
I know what you're thinking. You can't cook every night. It takes way to much time and you're really, really busy. But how much time does it take to pull into the fast-food line, wait your turn, place the order and pick up your bag of goodies? Twenty minutes? In comparison, how much time does it take to stop at the farmers' market, stride purposefully to your favorite stalls and support your local farmers? Probably 20 minutes as well.
 Now, let's add in the home preparation time. The salmon bakes in 20 minutes. While it's baking, the salad can be tossed and the bread sliced. You can put on the music, talk to the family and mellow out from a hectic day. In return for that extra 20 minutes, you get less salt, less fat and fewer calories. You get added nutrients. Plus, you're tasting natural food that bursts with natural flavor and you're even starting to enjoy the creative process in the kitchen!
Is it worth it yet?
I think it is. But let's not forget the collateral benefits that come when we opt for the farmers' market: Our cars aren't emitting carbon monoxide while we idle in the takeout line; our food doesn't use fossil fuel to travel hundreds, sometimes thousands, of miles from point of production to point of sale; and our environment isn't burdened with the disposal of fast-food packaging.
So, next time I'm tempted to stop for fast food, I'll think about the costs versus the benefits. I'll think about the fresh, locally-grown food waiting for me at the farmers' market. I'll do the math.
For more information on the American College of Sports Medicine fitness index, click here.
For more information on the link between obesity and take-out food, click here.
Other calorie counts are estimates based on information contained on several nutritional websites. |
The Market and Healthy Eating
 Superfoods at the Market
We all want to know just what produce is best for us. Lists of superfoods flit regularly across the Internet news and fill entire new books that discuss the health properties of the "best foods." Usually the leafy greens like kale top the list along with beans, berries, and nuts.
With so many competing lists, even though they look similar, you can't help but yearn for universal standards. There are a couple new standards that attempt to measure different food values.
ORAC scale
One is the ORAC scale, which measures antioxidant capacity. Developed by our National Institutes of Health, the ORAC scale measures antioxidants in foods. One theory is that antioxidants slow the aging process. Check here for lists of foods along with their ORAC scores.  ANDI scaleA new scale, the Aggregate Nutrient Density Index, or ANDI, is what you'll see if you shop at Whole Foods. This measure evaluates the nutrient content of food per calorie. Nutrients here include vitamins as well as phytochemicals. Kale, collard greens, mustard greens, chard, spinach-all those leafy greens are at or near the top of the list. This is the perfect list for Market shopping. Superfood: KaleThe standard kale recipe, besides the famous Tuscan Kale Soup, is a sauté in olive oil with currants or pine nuts. When you sauté, it's important to steam the kale lightly before sautéing. Since kale is so fibrous, steaming makes it eminently more chewable and enjoyable. - Strip the kale leaves from their stalk and put the stalks in the compost pile.
Tear the kale leaves into pieces.
Steam the kale lightly.
Finish by sautéing in olive oil with salt and pine nuts.
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Let's Talk About Market Food
What Do You Do with Beets Anyway?
 Beets are one of those old vegetables making a comeback in high-end restaurants. It's a welcome resurgence because beets are delicious - after all this is a vegetable with a remarkably high sugar content - and because beets pack a lot of nutrition. Like bananas, they are one of our best sources of potassium.
At the Market, you'll find lovely bunches of traditional dark red beets, pinkish-orange Chioggia beets with their surprising pink and white striated flesh, and golden beets. They can all be prepared the same way, and they all taste good.
 When you bring your beets home, trim off the greens, leaving about ½ inch on the beets. Don't cut off the scraggly tips of the beets. Store the greens in the refrigerator in a separate bag from the beets.
Don't peel before cooking
When you're ready to cook, wash the beets but don't peel them. If you remove the skin before cooking, the beets will turn a dull color and ruin part of the culinary fun with beets, which is the shiny, lustrous appearance they have on the plate.
Beets have virtues besides being delicious and nutritious. They're easy to cook and lend themselves to a variety of cooking methods. You can serve your beets hot with a little butter or olive oil and salt. Or you can refrigerate the cooked beets and use them in salads with some vinaigrette. Or you can marinate your cooked beets.
Steaming or boiling
Leave the beets whole and steam or boil for 20-40 minutes. It's best to use small to medium size beets. You'll know they're done when a sharp knife pierces them easily, but not too easily.
Remove from heat and as soon as possible trim off the stems, the scraggly tips and peel. The skin will slide right off with your fingertips. If you're an impatient type (I am just that with beets), protect your fingers from the hot beets with a paper towel.
Roasting
Toss the beats in olive oil and coarse salt, and wrap in parchment paper and then in aluminum foil. Put on the grill or in a 375 degree oven for around 40 to 60 minutes. Peel.
Or
Place the beets in a baking dish, add 1/2 inch water to the dish, cover and bake at 375 degrees for 30 to 40 minutes. Larger beets will take longer. Peel.
Marinades
Beets are particularly tasty when they soak up a marinade. I just tried this recipe from a Pacific Northwest blog. Loved the results.
An Exceptional Beet RecipeThat's my claim, but maybe you'll try this and come to the same judgment. This recipe, Roasted Beets in Orange-Ginger Sauce, comes from Marcus Samuellson, the Swedish chef at New York's Aquavit restaurant. Scroll down to the bottom of this site for the recipe. It's not surprising that Samuellson does a lot of deliriously delicious things with beets since Scandinavians eat lots of them. Those of you who are reading Stieg Larsson's trilogy beginning with The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo know that. Coming from a Scandinavian-American family, I can confirm that our pantry shelves were filled with jars of Mother's pickled beets, her garden always had neat rows of beet tops sticking out of the dirt, and no family get-together was complete without beets. With all those beets in my background, I recognize when someone does something extraordinary with beets, and that is just what Samuellson does.
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Loreen Leo and Judy Petersen, Editors
Photos by Loreen Leo and Larry Petersen
Desktop Publishing - Sue Johnston
(c) Sammamish Farmers Market 2010 |
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