Fresh from the Farmers' Market: Year-Round Recipes for the Pick of the Crop

208 Pages·24.909 MB·English

by  Janet Fletcher, Alice Waters, Victoria Pearson

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YEAR-ROUND RECIPES FOR THE PICK OF THE CROP
P H O T O G R A P H S B Y V I C T O R I A P E A R S O N
I N T R O D U C T I O N B Y A L I C E WAT E R S
C H R O N I C L E B O O K S (cid:13)
San Francisco
Text copyright © 1997 by Janet Fletcher.
Photographs © 1997 by Victoria Pearson.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced
in any formwithout written permission from the publisher.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:
Fletcher,Janet Kessel
Fresh from the farmers’ market: year-round recipes for the pick
of the crop / by Janet Fletcher; introduction by Alice Waters;
photographs by Victoria Pearson.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-4521-0461-4
Book Design: Ph.D
Food Styling: Janet Miller
Chronicle Books
680 Second Street
San Francisco, California 94105
Web Site: www.chronbooks.com
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(cid:0)
FOR DOUG, sous-chef nonpareil
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C O N T E N T S
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8 INTRODUCTION 10 OFF TO THE MARKET
apricots, artichokes, asparagus, avocados,
beets, carrots, cauliflower, cherries, fava
18 TbHEe MAaRKnET sIN ,S PgRINrgeen garlic, peas, radishes, rhubarb,
salad greens, spinach, strawberries, turnips.
berries, corn, cucumbers, eggplants, figs,
garlic, green beans, herbs, melons, nectarines,
62 ToHEk MArRaKET, INo SUnMMioERns, peaches, plums potatoes,
summer squashes, tomatoes.
apples, arugula, asian pears, beans for
shelling, broccoli, brussels sprouts, fennel,
116 TgHE rMeAReKETn IN AtUoTUmMN atoes, hard-shelled squashes,
pears, persimmons, pomegranates, radicchio,
sweet peppers, sweet potatoes.
broccoli, rabe, cabbage, celery root, citrus,
164 TgHEr MeAReKEnT INs w INfToERr cooking, leeks, parsnips, rutabagas.
198 RESOURCES 199 bIblIOgRAPHY 200 INDEx 204 TAblE OF EqUIvAlENTS 206 ACKNOwlEDgMENTS
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introduction
Twenty-five years ago, in an old house in Berkeley, California, some of my friends and I
founded a restaurant we named Chez Panisse. We were driven by a vision of ideal meals
prepared from the very best ingredients obtainable, a vision shaped by my experience as a
young student in France, where, for the first time in my life, I had seen ordinary people
shopping, cooking, and eating as if these activities mattered a great deal more than they
seemed to in the suburban America where I had grown up. For my French friends, decisions
about food were enormously important; and all around us there were exciting decisions to
be made: small, artisanal bakeries and serious butchers and charcuteries could still be
found in almost every neighborhood; restaurants maintained a quality of service and
cooking that was deeply rooted in a tradition of fresh, seasonal food; and, most of all, in
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cities and towns throughout France people shopped at marketplaces where local produce
could be bought directly from its producers.
Back in the supermarkets of California, I despaired of ever finding the same immediacy
and aliveness in the food. But we were persistent and gradually expanded our horizons,
successfully locating more and more small-scale, local organic farmers and ranchers
whose products, at their best, are entirely the equal of the fresh fruits and vegetables I
remember from France. Although we were not alone in gravitating toward such purveyors,
I like to think that we helped contribute to the creation of a critical mass of consumers
hungry for pure and fresh food straight from the source, because there is now a thriving
farmers’ market in Berkeley, where many of the same farms we buy from have stands.
To my way of thinking, the proliferation of farmers’ markets is the single most important
and heartening development in this country in my lifetime. Janet Fletcher explains why in
this book: farmers’ markets bring us the greatest variety of the freshest, tastiest, and most
beautiful food there is, food that is neither wastefully packaged, cosmetically waxed, nor
irradiated; they bring us the greatest variety and let us taste before we buy; they protect
the local environment by sustaining and restoring greenbelts around our cities; and, above
all, they build real community by fostering economic and social ties between producers
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and consumers and by reacquainting us with the agrarian virtues that were once at the
heart of our democracy.
In his recent impassioned defense of farming, Fields without Dreams, the farmer and
classicist Victor Davis Hanson dismisses farmers’ markets as “the agricultural equivalents
of petting zoos and theme parks” (although he does concede that “genuine agrarians”
may be found there). It is true that shopping at farmers’ markets cannot alone reverse the
decline of family farming, but surely the more we insist on patronizing such markets and
the more our diet consists of the food we buy there, the more we will increase the demand
for the fruits of a healthier, more humane agriculture.
This book is a straightforward, commonsense, and reliable introduction to the market,
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and it will guide you in the kitchen, too. Janet cooked at Chez Panisse in the 1980s. Based
on the evidence of these pages, her thoroughness, efficiency, and exuberance in the kitchen
(cid:1)are all intact. Like me, Janet believes that the most important stylistic element of cooking
is always the quality of the ingredients. With her, I hope this book will send you immedi-
ately to your farmers’ market, willing and eager to let the farmers’ market determine what
you are going to cook.
AlICE wATERS
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off to the market
Every
Saturday morning in summer, several thousand people do their food shopping
at a lively farmers’ market on the San Francisco waterfront. They sample juicy local peaches,
sniff plump blackberries, compare the merits of vendors’ vine-ripe tomatoes and watch in
delight as a farmer peels back the husk on an ear of white corn to show its perfection.
Eventually they head back to their home kitchens, canvas bags and willow baskets bulging
with peak-season produce.
Around the country, similar scenes play out each week at the nation’s nearly two
thousand farmers’ markets. Tired of mass-produced food and sterile supermarket settings,
more people are discovering the pleasure of buying direct from the grower. Farmers’ mar-
kets have grown exponentially in the last decade, a reflection of the public’s desire for food
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that is fresher, tastier and possibly safer. City dwellers have seen markets revitalize down-
towns and build an old-fashioned sense of community in urban areas. For customers of
Manhattan’s Greenmarkets or the Marin County, California, twice-weekly market, shopping
is a weekend highlight.
In some parts of the nation, the markets stay open year-round, changing aspect with the
changing seasons. The vivid yellows, reds and greens of summer give way to burgundy, forest
green and burnt orange in autumn as the market fills with butternut and acorn squashes, per-
simmons and apples. In winter’s white light, farmers with mitten-covered hands sell
rutabagas and parsnips, wild mushrooms, broccoli rabe and thick, sturdy bouquets of kale
and collards. Spring paints the market green, the farmers’ booths filling with asparagus,
artichokes, leeks, peas, fava beans and herbs.
The advantages of shopping at a farmers’ market are clear to anyone who visits one
regularly. Other shoppers’ motivations may differ, but I can tell you why I prefer to spend
my food dollars at a farmers’ market.
In my experience, you can’t find fresher food unless you grow it yourself. Many growers
harvest for a farmers’ market the day before, even hours before. In contrast, produce
intended for the supermarket often goes to a packing shed first; then it’s trucked to a broker