Dawn Troutner

Market Report for May 29, 2015

With a chance of rain a few customers and vendors stayed away from market. But those that did attend had their tables full and the customers had choices to make. Kristi had her table full of kolaces, rolicky, twisty, cookies, rolls, cakes, and bars. Caryn came with her assorted snack mixes, jams, and assorted caramel corn. Darold had green onions, radishes, lettuce, turnips, eggs, and two kinds of kale, Russian and curled. Chuck and Ginger had pies, cookies, breads, cakes, popcorn, kolaches, spinach, asparagus, green onions rhubarb, and kohlrabi. Dawn brought green onions, rhubarb, spinach, radishes, asparagus, turnips, fresh thyme, lemon thyme, sage, dill, and cilantro. She also had rosettes. Cheryl had a table full of ceramics, hand made towels, scrubbies, potholders, microwave bowl holders, and a smiling face. Cheryl is always such a happy person. Joe and Barb had their tables displayed with kohlrabi, asparagus, spinach, kale, Bok Choy, Chinese cabbage, green onions, breads, cakes, granola, jams, and Watkins products. Karen brought all her soy candles and soy candle products. A new scent I especially liked was pipe tobacco. Kathy was back with her delicious salted nut rolls, nut coils, Danish, rolls, and bars. And pulling in around 6 p.m. was Keller Berry Farm. They had a few flats of fresh picked strawberries. Next week I am expecting them earlier. Be sure to come to market and check out the wide variety that all the vendors bring.

With the ending of radishes in my garden, turnip season has begun. Turnips are delicious raw or cooked. You can eat just the root of the turnip or the whole thing from the greens to the root. Turnips are a very low calorie root vegetable. They are a very good source of anti-oxidants, minerals, vitamins, and dietary fiber. Turnip greens are the storehouse of many vital nutrients. The green tops have several times more minerals and vitamins than that of the roots. Not only do the greens give you a good source of antioxidants such as vitamin A, vitamin C, carotenoid, xanthin, and lutein. The leafy tops are an excellent source of vitamin K. Young turnips are great in salads or raw because of their sweet flavor. You can mix the cubes of turnips with kohlrabi, potato, carrots when making a variety of stews. Dice up some turnips and add to poultry, lamb, or pork. Saut the turnips greens in a pan with olive oil, garlic, shallots and a pinch of red pepper flakes. Don’t cook them long, just long enough to wilt and get a bright green color. You can also braise those turnips greens. This will soften the leaves and the longer cooking time gets out the bitterness. Try some chips out of turnip greens. When making your turnip purchase at the Toledo Farmers Market, store them in the refrigerator in a plastic bag for only a few days. Turnips tend to get bitter with prolonged storage.

Making Turnip Green Chips

Tear off pieces of leaves and discard the stems. A little over 3 cups of well packed greens will fill up your salad spinner. Spin the greens and then dry thoroughly. On a large cookie sheet, mix with 1 teaspoon of olive oil and one fourth teaspoon salt. Bake them in a 350 oven for 17 minutes. Ovens are all different. So 17 minutes might not be enough time. Try the 15-20 minute range for your chips.

Hope to see you at market. And please like our facebook page.