Green Zebra Tomatos

This weekend marked the first ever Summer Tomato Farmers Market Boot Camp! A small group of people met up with me at the farmers market for a tour and lessons on how to tackle shopping when overwhelmed with awesomeness.

First Farmers Market Boot Camp

I had such a good time with the class that I scheduled another one in two weeks, and I expect to be doing more throughout the summer. If you’re in San Francisco for one of them I’d love to meet you.

Dirty Girl Strawberries

We went a little nuts today, I’ll admit. I got so excited explaining to the group how good everything is I bought way more stuff than I normally do. I don’t regret a bit of it, and I’ll certainly eat well this week, but if you compare today’s shopping list (below) with previous weeks you’ll see what I mean. It was amazing.

Tokyo Turnips

SF has officially migrated to summer. The stone fruits (those with pits like cherries, plums, peaches, etc.) are out of control delicious right now. At the sampling dishes we all had the same experience: 1) Gently choose fruit piece with tongs, 2) place fruit in mouth, 3) moment of silence, 4) “Oh my god. I have to buy those.” Today it was the yummy rosa pluots that had us all hypnotized.

Yummy Rosa Pluots

Fruit is always spectacular, but for my day-to-day cooking I’m most excited about all the fresh greens, vegetables and herbs.

Lemon Cucumbers

I’ve been making the best salads with radishes, turnips, carrots, cucumbers and other bits of deliciousness.

Summer Tomatoes

Today I even got some green zebra heirloom tomatoes (top) to add to the salad mix.

Salad Fixins

The shear volume of herbs is also incredible. Today we found not one, not two, but four different varietals of basil. There was sweet Italian basil, Thai basil, purple basil and lemon basil. Who knew?

Lemon Basil

I also found chervil at the market today, an herb I’ve read about but never tried (pics weren’t that great). Any serving suggests are welcome.

Purple Basil

Other summer vegetables are also starting to appear. For the past few weeks I haven’t been able to get enough summer squash. The yellow and green zephyr squash I’ve been getting are so good when cooked with eggs I sometimes mistake it for cheese. I know it sounds weird, but it’s something about the chewy texture and earthy, salty, sweet texture that puts the zucchini I grew up eating to shame. These days you might be lucky enough to find squash with their blossoms still attached.

Zucchini Flowers

I was excited to see yellow wax and green beans this week, they always look so inviting it’s almost impossible to resist digging your hand into the basket and grabbing some to take home.

Yellow and Green Beans

Oh yeah, and I discovered a variety of kale today I’d never heard of before. Anyone familiar with spigariello kale? I didn’t have room for it in my bag this week, but I’ll probably pick some up next time I see it.

Spigariello Kale

Every week I see more varieties of peppers, which makes me ecstatic. Peppers might be my favorite summer treat. These padrons are a little ripe for my taste (they’re best when dark green), but they sure look pretty.

Padrons

I also saw corn for the first time this week, and I went ahead and grabbed an ear, just in case. I’m thinking I’m going to throw it in a stir fry with peppers, beans, squash, cilantro and tomatoes. Yum.

First White Corn

I saw okra too, but I did manage to restrain myself from this one. Next week.

Okra

Did I mention that the flowers are beautiful too? I love this time of year.

Sunflower

Today’s purchases (~$55):

• Summer squash (Lucero Organic Farms)
• Italian basil (Dirty Girl Produce)
• Green shallots (Dirty Girl Produce)
• Broccoli (Dirty Girl Produce)
• Tokyo turnips (Dirty Girl Produce)
• Strawberries (Dirty Girl Produce)
• Collards (Green Gulch Farm)
• Tea bouquet (Green Gulch Farm)
• Green beans (Catalán Family Farm)
• White corn (G&S Farms)
• Blue berries (Triple Delight Blueberries)
• Salad greens (County Line Harvest)
• Cioggia beets (County Line Harvest)
• Dill (County Line Harvest)
• Chervil (Star Route Farms)
• Italian garlic (Star Route Farms)
• Breakfast radishes (Star Route Farms)
• Yummy rosa pluots (Kashiwase Farms)
• Green zebra heirloom tomatoes (Bruins Farms)
• Eureka lemon (Brokaw Nursery)
• Sea beans (Far West Fungi)

What did you find at the market this week?

Adriatic Figs

Although I finally got my first sun tan of the summer this weekend at the Outside Lands music festival, the produce at the San Francisco Ferry Plaza Farmers Market is hinting that summer is winding down.

Okra

First Winter Squash

You can still find all the wonderful summer tomatoes, pluots, peaches and melons, but delicate fruits like berries are becoming tart and more difficult to find.

Likewise, zucchini and crooked neck squash are still around, but I was shocked to find the first thick-skinned winter squash this weekend too.

Assorted Grapes

Niitaka Asian Pears

Other hallmarks of fall are apples, pears and grapes, which are all spectacular right now. This is also a great time to get figs, dates, jujubes (Chinese dates), French plums (prunes), corn, okra, eggplant, melons and chili peppers.

Chantenay Carrots

Jujubes

I found some gnarly, giant chantenay carrots that I plan to turn into soup using my new hand blender. I also purchased the ingredients to make some delicious Thai food this week, since my lifetime cuisine poll from Wednesday reminded me how much I love it.

My final advice this week as summer winds down is to go to Frog Hollow and get some flavor king pluots while you still can.

Did you find hints of fall at the farmers market this weekend?

Today’s Purchases:

• Chinese eggplant (Chue’s Farm)
• Lemongrass (Chue’s Farm)
• Okra (Chue’s Farm)
• Thai peppers (Chue’s Farm)
• Thai basil (Chue’s Farm)
• Garlic (Chue’s Farm)
• Chinese long beans (Chue’s Farm)
• Green onion (Chue’s Farm)
• Early Girl tomatoes (Dirty Girl Produce)
• Cippolini onions (Dirty Girl Produce)
• Chanentay carrots (Tierra Vegetables)
• Red flame grapes (Capay Canyon Ranch)
• Flavor king pluots (Frog Hollow Farm)
• Red flame nectarine (Frog Hollow Farm)
• Pimento pepper (Happy Quail Farm)
• Miyogi ginger flower (Happy Quail Farm)
• Mediterranean Cucumbers (Happy Quail Farm)
• Arugula (Marin Roots Farm)
• Purslane (Marin Roots Farm)
• Lettuces (Marin Roots Farm)