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Post by Deleted on Mar 10, 2009 15:55:25 GMT
Just went to the Tuesday Farmer's Market,all products sold have to be produced,procured,prepared within a 100 mile radius. Currently in season here:Greens(mustard,collard,)beets,carrots,turnips,kohlrabi,spinach,all manner of lettuces,brussel sprouts,strawberries(new today!),citrus(on their way out),persimmons crawfish,flounder,drum
What's in season where you are?
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Post by bazfaz on Mar 10, 2009 17:42:58 GMT
Alas, it is the same old stuff we have been having for months. There are cheap strawberries from Spain but they don't have much taste.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 10, 2009 17:48:01 GMT
I bought a small container of French hothouse strawberries for my mother the other day -- they were twice as expensive as the Spanish ones but they looked twice as good. However, I would never spend 4€ for a dozen or so strawberries for myself.
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Post by bixaorellana on Mar 10, 2009 19:03:56 GMT
You make an important point about trying to eat food in season, Jazz.
The whole supermarket experience is about avoiding food that has no business being eaten in ones area at certain times of the year. Even here, in a country with a 365 day growing season, chain stores feature wizened mangos and over-flowered broccoli that would never be offered in the markets.
I only buy fruit that has aroma, although that's not a foolproof test. But an apple that doesn't smell like anything is unlikely to taste like anything either. Because supermarkets have been so common for so long, I suspect there are people who are unaware that produce has seasons.
The only answer is probably to keep track of what's in season in order to select the best stuff in your megamarket's produce section, but also to find farmer's markets in the area. Buying in farmer's markets means that sometimes you may have the same few selections for two or three weeks on end, but at least those selections will have all the taste and nutrients they're meant to have.
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Post by bazfaz on Mar 10, 2009 21:08:23 GMT
Bixa, the best apples we can buy here (and they are from the supermarket) are Braeburns. They have no smell. Pineapples, even if they are good, have no smell.
But strawberries - no smell, no buy.
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Post by bixaorellana on Mar 10, 2009 21:50:01 GMT
Pineapples have a smell! I've had braeburns & liked them, but don't remember about the smell.
I like it when some pieces of cut watermelon are offered in the store -- the ones that smell like cucumber instead of watermelon definitely are not going to be sweet.
If the store is very cold, you have to hold an apple or pear in your hand for a couple of moments sometimes in order to be able to smell it.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 10, 2009 21:53:45 GMT
Ah, just the other day I went to my Chinese supermarket and knew immediately that durian season had begun.
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Post by bazfaz on Mar 10, 2009 21:54:34 GMT
You have different pineapples. The ones imported from Africa, even when ripe and sweet, have no smell.
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Post by bixaorellana on Mar 10, 2009 22:13:22 GMT
Ah -- here you don't even have to get close to them to smell them. One smell that will fill a room & which I love is guava.
Didn't mean to not answer the OP -- probably I was too devastated by the mention of crawfish *sob* to proceed rationally.
Here chard, lettuce, cilantro are in full season. The apples & tangerines are pretty much gone, but the mangos are starting to come in. I've missed the weekly market two weeks in a row, so can report better after Thursday.
When I was last there, chico sapotes were available but expensive. I don't want to miss their season, as I love them. These are the fruits of the Achras zapota, the tree which gives the latex for chewing gum!
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Post by hwinpp on Mar 11, 2009 7:36:55 GMT
Vegetables as usual. The same stuff grows basically year round here. As K2 mentioned, durians have appeared and the price is slowly coming down. Also mangosteens, lichees, longans, guavas. Sweet mangos are on their way out, the sour ones are really sour.
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Post by bazfaz on Mar 11, 2009 9:10:17 GMT
Mangosteens - lucky you.
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Post by Don Cuevas on Mar 11, 2009 11:04:26 GMT
Two guys with a truck full of pineapples were selling them on the roadside on the way to our house. One was offering samples at the end of a knife to motorists pausing to pass over one of the ubiquitous topes. (Speed bumps.)
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Post by bazfaz on Mar 11, 2009 11:11:28 GMT
Does tope = French taupe (mole)?
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Post by hwinpp on Mar 12, 2009 7:23:53 GMT
Yes, I'm happy they're available again.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 12, 2009 10:51:38 GMT
Right now there are trees bulging with loquats (japanese plums). The trees are mainly planted as ornamentals and their fruit hardly ever eaten or harvested by humans (except young children who seem to delight in picking them). Birds also love them. They do have a sweet taste. Do you know them? It seems such a waste,surely something exciting can be done with them. I believe I made a salsa with them once.
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Post by mockchoc on Mar 13, 2009 4:00:44 GMT
I absolutely love loquats and would just eat them as is but I have only ever once seen them for sale.
I wish I had a loquat tree badly.
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Post by bixaorellana on Mar 13, 2009 4:08:46 GMT
Mockchoc, they are pretty fast-growing trees. Have you checked in the local nurseries, or maybe you could mail-order one. They are kind of messy in the way that magnolias are messy.
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Post by bazfaz on Mar 13, 2009 8:30:57 GMT
Our loquat tree finally produced fruit last year. They are delicious but with that large seed and the skin there is not much actual fruit to eat.
I did use loquats in a nice (Kerouac would disagree) Thai starter. I forget what meat I used. That was good.
The loquat has a ridiculour way of trying to propagate itself. It flowers in November when there are not that many bees round to pollinate it; small fruits have to last right through the winter; then they swell and ripen in May. So we had a crop in 2008. But this has been a long cold winter and all the little fruitlets look blackened. I doubt we'll have anything this year.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 13, 2009 10:22:54 GMT
The trees here are burgeoning. Would love any recipes you might know. Thanks
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Post by Don Cuevas on Mar 13, 2009 11:50:42 GMT
A truck came by yesterday evening selling peaches, the typically small ones grown here, but atypically ripe, for $10 pesos Mexicanos the 3 kilo bag (I think.) We didn't buy any as we are already loaded up with fruit.
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Post by auntieannie on Mar 13, 2009 21:20:47 GMT
In the vegetables box last night were things such as leek, various leaves good for either stir-fry or salad, very very small cauliflowers, etc... still pretty wintry!
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Post by Deleted on Mar 13, 2009 21:46:00 GMT
I harvested the last of my winter vegetables today,even found a few hidden citrus. Will dine on all this w/e.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 14, 2009 10:46:33 GMT
The birds sure are enjoying the loquats...
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Post by mockchoc on Mar 14, 2009 12:29:29 GMT
Oh no. They are mine! Hmm...
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Post by Deleted on Mar 17, 2009 14:40:47 GMT
At the market today,fresh fava beans. What to do with. Have to confess i don't think I've ever had them.
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Post by bazfaz on Mar 17, 2009 15:43:45 GMT
If they are small and fresh, take them out of the pods and eat them with salami and a goat's cheese. If they are bigger, take them out of the pod and boil them about 4 minutes. Serve with butter. If they are really big and old then you should remove the skin as well before you boil them.
Alternatively you can puree them in the processor with cream or butter.
They also are good in an omelette.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 17, 2009 15:47:17 GMT
I always find the idea of eating them better than the actual taste.
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Post by Don Cuevas on Mar 17, 2009 16:10:31 GMT
Does tope = French taupe (mole)? You know, you could be right! I wouldn't have known about that, partly because I don't speak French, and I haven't smoked Moleburrows in years. ;D I checked my computer's Spanish-English dictionary, and it says: "mole2 (m7l) s. zoología (animal) topo (skin) piel de topo f. figurado (spy) espía m. f."
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Post by bazfaz on Mar 17, 2009 17:06:37 GMT
I guess topo is a mole. I see that Le Carre often wrote about topos.
Kerouac, you mustn't buy feves because they are hopelessly old. Broad beans and sweetcorn are the only vegetables we really grow (except for these free packets of seeds we keep being given).
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Post by bazfaz on Mar 18, 2009 9:40:42 GMT
I have just seen the first local asparagus in the market.
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