Santa Cruz Farmers Market
The hours are from 3 to 6 p.m. As usual the market brims with garden fresh produce such as green beans, melons, chilies, tat soi, mustard greens, winter squash, (I’m getting hungry), spinach, bok choy, beets, pomegranates, apples, locally roasted coffee, honey, red and sweet potatoes, hot peppers, and more. Fresh eggs are available for $3/dozen. Mark your calendars because next week – November 19, Desert Harvesters will be here grinding dried mesquite pods into flour.

What’s Tat Soi?
Tat soi or tatsoi is an Asian green that is also called flat cabbage, rosette bok choy, and spoon cabbage. It’s a member of the brassica family which includes broccoli, brussels sprouts, collards, and kale. Tatsoi can be used in salads or sautéed, steamed or braised and mixed with sauces, chicken, tofu, and pasta. Tatsoi is low in calories and high in minerals, vitamins, and antioxidants.

Mesquite Pancakes
Last week I reported about Desert Harvesters mesquite pancake breakfast on November 7. This was their most successful breakfast ever selling over 2,000 pancakes, and milling over 960 pounds of mesquite pods with three mills on the pancake fiesta day and two mills the next day.

Sprouts Goes Green
Sprouts Farmers Market has joined the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s GreenChill Advanced Refrigeration Partnership and voluntarily committed to decreasing refrigerant emissions through innovative HVAC, refrigeration design and leak-tight practices. Sprouts wants to be your  environmentally conscious neighbor and grocer. Sprouts is located at 7665 N. Oracle Road.

Please send your Tucson farmers market and grocery news to eat.tucson@yahoo.com

United Nations buffet

Bicycle Tune Up at SCR Farmers Market

 

 

New fall hours are 3 to 6 p.m. Tucson’s new temps lends itself to perfect bicycle weather. Today at the Santa Cruz River Farmers Market, the El Grupo Youth Cycling Club will offer free bike tune ups, changing a tire demos, and bicycle maps from 4 to 6 p.m. 

 Music at Broadway Village Farmers Market

The nationally touring, songwriting duo of Coco and Lafe will perform live at Broadway Village this Friday, October 9, between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. The Vermont-rooted folksingers, Coco Kallis and Lafe Dutton, are making the stop in the Old Pueblo on their nationwide tour of farmers markets. The duo has appeared twice on Conan O’Brien. The performance is free and open to the public.

Friday’s Farmers Market at Broadway Village is Tucson’s only indoor/outdoor air-conditioned farmer’s market, where more than 40 independent Arizona vendors showcase their products, from locally-grown organic produce and grass-fed beef, to baked goods and indigenous plants. Imported certified organic fruits and vegetables, and fresh seafood are also offered.

New fall hours are 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. every Friday. Broadway Village is located at the southwest corner of Broadway Boulevard and Country Club. Become a fan on Facebook .

 Tucson Eat Yourself

The event is really Tucson Meet Yourself but ‘fess up, you all go for the food. Sure, there is plenty of ethnic culture in the form of music, dance, crafts, native costumes, but the magnet is the food presentation and aromas wafting through the air. Eat foods from around the world – Jamaica, Korea, Lao, Hungary, Filipino, Costa Rico, Poland, Persia, and dozens more. It all happens October 9-11 in and around the main library plaza in downtown Tucson.

Please send your food and farmers market news to eat.tucson@yahoo.com

(photo from Tucson Citzen photo archives)

farmers market at Broadway Village

I am so enjoying my Tucson CSA share. Those Asian pears had triple the taste of the Asian pears from the regular grocery store and when smeared with some fresh goat cheese — oh, my!

The Broadway Village Friday farmers market is trying develop a CSA for its shoppers. Stewart Loew of Agua Linda Farms will make a presentation about the CSA, its cost, and benefits on Monday, September 28 at 6 p.m. at Elle Restaurant in Broadway Village (3048 E. Broadway Blvd @ Country Club) Appetizers will be served. To RSVP, send mailto: junehussey@msn.com

According to Local Harvest, Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) has become a popular way for consumers to buy local, seasonal food directly from a farmer. Here are the basics: a farmer offers a certain number of “shares” to the public. Typically the share consists of a box of vegetables, but other farm products may be included. Interested consumers pre-purchase a share or membership and in return receive a box (bag or basket) of seasonal produce each week throughout the designated season.

Broadway Village is currently measuring interest in starting a CSA with Southern Arizona farmer, Stewart Loew of Agua Linda Farms in Amado. For a small investment, members would pick up regular deliveries of Loew’s farm-fresh produce at  the Friday farmers market at Broadway Village. Become a fan of  BV farmers market on Facebook to get regular updates.

To learn more about Agua Linda Farms, please read an article that I wrote last year.