Finally live in a town that has a farmer’s market – not that I lived so far from it before we moved a whole mile and a half to the new place, but there is something about being able to walk out the door with a couple of bags and walk down to the farmer’s market on a Saturday morning that is particularly awesome. I have never lived within reasonable walking distance of one either.

Neither of the two farmer’s that have stalls are certified organic, but they both claim to be using integrated pest control and are trying to minimize chemical fertilizers . . . not thrilled, but I want to do my part to help support them. You can be sure I made it clear that sustainably, responsibly grown food is important to me and many local folks I know. It is the perennial debate: if you HAD to choose between local and organic, which is better for you AND the environment. ugh. I’m polling people again on our FB page PLEASE weigh in!

Meanwhile, Here’s what we made this weekend from the goodies you see in the picture.

Carrot Juice w/ Beets & Kale

My favorite carrot juice recipe includes (per 1 cup serving):

• about 6 carrots
• 1 leaf kale
• 1 celery stalk
• 1 t fresh ginger
• 1/4 of a medium raw beet

Farmer’s Market Fig Salad

The only things that didn’t come from the farmer’s market were the pistachios and the salad dressing! We gobbled this one up and can’t wait till next week’s market – hope they have more figs!

Ingredients

1 pint container of figs cut into small bite-sized pieces

1 pint cherry tomatoes (we found these golden DELICIOUS yummies) halved

2 beets roasted and cut into small bite-sized pieces

3 carrots shredded

1/4 cup red onion finely chopped 

1/4 cup pistachio nuts (shelled of course)

fresh cilantro to taste

salt & pepper to taste

1/4 cup your favorite light vinaigrette

Vegan Roasted Beet & Cashew Cheese Tower

We love to roast beets and get creative with them in the summer. Here’s one interesting beet tower we came up with:

Ingredients

6 beets roasted (skin and slice off ends and put in a pan that has olive oil on bottom and roast in oven @ 400 degrees for about 50 min)

1/2 cup vegan cashew cheese (here’s GD Meg’s recipe for cashew cheese)

1/4 cup finely chopped roasted nuts (I used Trader Joe’s spicy roasted pecans – YUM)

your favorite balsamic vinaigrette 

Instructions

Roast the beets as per above and let cool. Once they are cool enough, slice them into 3 or 4 slices so they sit nicely when stacked. On each plate, put a tablespoon of cashew cheese, then first (largest) piece of beet stack, then another layer of cheese, sprinkle some roasted nuts, then repeat till you get to the top. Drizzle balsamic vinegar over whole stack. 

BBQ Corn

Not sure where we came up with this, but half the family loves this, the other half not so much, so we divide our corn catch and do half plain and half BBQ’d.

Ingredients

Locally Grown NON-GMO Corn (if you can find it!)

Your favorite BBQ sauce

Instructions

Cook all the corn as you normally would (we usually just cook in boiling water). Take out the ears you want to BBQ and cool a bit. When you can handle them, roll them in your favorite BBQ sauce and toss them on the grill, turning as they brown and blacken. YUM