May 19: Farmers Market Fresh Sheet

May 18, 2012  

A little food for thought from Rebecca, the market manager:  

I got dressed up this week for a trip to Seattle, and as I sat in the ferry line I was momentarily horrified to see half an acre of dirt under my fingernails. I’d been working in my garden earlier, and too lazy to find my gloves. So there I sat, sporting a brown accessory that clashed with my black dress. But the people I was seeing in the city know this dirt-under-the-fingernails part of my life, so I wasn’t concerned about harsh judgments. The grubby fingernails boarded the boat and went to the party.

I have always secretly loved the look of dirty fingernails. I think they signify a healthy relationship with Mother Earth. Growing up on the farm, we gave cursory scrubs to hands freshly black from the garden. We ate carrots right out of the ground without a moment’s thought to washing them. I watched my dad wrap his filthy mitts around his harvest sandwich in the summer fields, and I now believe his longevity (91 and going strong) proves there were as many benefits in the dirt as there were in the sandwich.

The blacker the dirt, the better the crop. That’s the refrain I grew up with. The memory of manure being spread around the hay pasture to this day brings a smile to my face. Beautiful rich soil made even wealthier by deposits of nature’s fertilizers.

Food retailing in modern times has taken a lot of the fun out of dirt. In fact, people who’ve never raised their own carrots – or anything else – harbor an aversion to the idea of dirt. To the majority of eaters, dirt is a dirty word. Worms are disgusting. Poop is nasty. They have no understanding of the nurturing universe down below their feet. I think we need to turn that around. Let’s spend a moment appreciating dirt, and passing that appreciation along to the next generation of food consumers. If people understand the role dirt plays in the arrival of their next meal, they’ll connect more viscerally to the kind of food they should be eating. Not food that has been processed to death, but food that is whole – a single degree of separation from its native soil.

Come to the Farmers Market this week and find food that isn’t a distant, overprocessed memory of its original self. Find whole nutritious food, separated from its native soil just hours before its arrival at the Village Green. And as you prepare your feast that night, think about the beautiful black dirt that helped make it all so delicious. And as you give thanks, save a shout out for the worms.

Here’s what’s on offer this week at YOUR Farmers Market.

• Fieldstone Flowers returns this week with his beautiful viola starts and dahlia tubers, along with other plant and flower starts for your garden and landscape.
• Colleen James rejoins the market with her usual bag of tricks: plants the deer don’t eat!   Also, lots of Salvias and unusual garden delights, along with a fresh batch of Colleen’s Healing Hand Salve for those rough and sore gardening hands!
• Sun Island Farm will bring a bounty of butter head lettuce, sweet turnips, salad greens, raab Broccoli, colorful crisp radishes, tender green onions and “gassy sunchokes” for an extra thrill.
• Judd Creek Nursery will be there with a wide assortment of native plant starts and elegant handmade crafts and jewelry.
• Island Meadow Farm arrives with Leeks, Radishes, Wild and Fancy Salad Mix, Salad Turnips, Spinach, Rhubarb, Arugula, Sorrel and Vegetable Starts.
• Pacific Crest Farm will have lots of greens: Salad mix, Kale, Chard, Spinach, Sorrel and Head Lettuces, along with fresh radishes, rhubarb and an aromatic assortment of fresh herbs.  
• Calypso Garden comes bearing sugar snap peas, broccoli raab, tangy sorrel, kale, collards and chard, fresh mixed sprouts and salad mix with over 25 greens. Holding court over all that are Zilla’s beautiful mini and large spring bouquets and her exquisite Pine needle baskets.
• Langley Fine Gardens will have starts starts and more starts! Your garden isn’t full yet, is it? Yoshi doesn’t think so…
• Hilltop Garden will bring gourmet salad greens, spinach, and some plant starts for your garden.
• Greenman Farm will bring mixed salad greens, spinach, arugula, mizuna, rainbow chard, radishes, farm fresh eggs, and plenty of recipes to go with them all. For farm crafts, they will have upcycled “feed” tote bags, adorable organic cotton produce bags, and beautiful veggie watercolour greeting cards. For those who want to enliven their walls with gorgeous art, Will’s beautiful veggie watercolour portraits will be available in the booth this week. 

• Pacific Potager is bringing “hardened off” and ready to plant squashes – 48 varieties of summer,