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Nampa Farmers' Market In Historic Downtown Nampa, 12th Ave. and
Front St. , |
Saturdays, May - October 9 a.m. - 1 p.m., |
Pollinator Paradise
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Pollinator Paradise sells produce at Nampa and Caldwell Farmers' Markets and by special
order. The Nampa Farmers' Market is held Saturday mornings on 12th Ave. between 1st St. and Front, in downtown Nampa, Idaho. Hours are 9am to 1pm. The 2009 Market Season runs from April 25 until Oct. 31. Our booth is in the west parking lot off 12th St. near Front St. Look for the banner with the leafcutting bee, behind the stairway next to the brick building. The Caldwell Farmers' Market is held Wednesday evenings at Serenity Park, 12th and Dearborn next to the Caldwell Library, 5:00pm - 8:00pm. Last market was Sept. 30. Produce can also be delivered in the Parma area on special order. Contact us by phone to arrange delivery: 722-7808. |
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Read past Pollination Moments, and check out our recipes and links to nutrition information. From other farmers' markets, read "The Hows and Wise" of shopping at the market, and a slide show on farmers market shopping and food safety Well, two nights night of frost hit our garden and ended the production of summer produce for this season. It's probably the earliest frost that we've experienced since we've been doing the farmers' market. Often our garden escapes a borderline frost by a degree or two, but no such luck this year. We're coming to the market this Saturday, October 3, mostly with salvaged produce. So, we have a little bit of a lot of things, including a few items that we haven't had at market yet this year. Then, we are taking a break from the market for a while. If the weather isn't too bad, we may be back for the last market or two with salad mix and other greens. Meanwhile, we're going to try a camping trip, and we'll prepare the garden for the winter. The two items that we have the most of this week are new this year for us: green and purple tomatillos and yellow Finn potatoes. The tomatillos are great for salsa (try our favorite recipe) or roasted with squash or peppers. Yellow Finn potatoes are very similar to Yukon Gold, with yellow skin and flesh, and a buttery texture. Also relatively abundant thanks to the salvage harvest are green bell peppers (many good for stuffing) and Anaheim peppers. I haven't had time to till in the radishes that we had for several weeks, so I harvested a bunch more huge (hot) radishes. Now that we've had a frost, tilling the garden and planting a cover crop for the winter is high on our to-do list. Sadly, the pineapple tomatillos were hard hit by the frost. I only found enough in my salvage harvest for three little bags. The last of the candy cherry tomatoes are a little more abundant. There's a little bit of mini squash left from early in the week, and in my salvage harvest I picked lots of micros. Many hadn't bloomed yet. We'll sell them by the pint this week, along with a recipe for roasting them, and a small spring of rosemary. We roasted some for ourselves yesterday, and I was surprised that the flavor reminded me of corn! We have only a few small lemon cucumbers and a couple of bags of mixed French Filet beans and Dragon's Tongue beans. Arugula, and New Zealand Spinach are still available. We have a few bags of stir fry mix with komatsuna, mustards (hot), a few leaves of black and red kale, and New Zealand spinach. If your salvage harvest includes pickling cucumbers, we'll have several stalks of dill at the market. Elsewhere at the market, the Powers had some very nice heads of lettuce last week. Add a small bag of arugula, some ripe tomatoes and the last of the cucumbers for a traditional salad. Plus, there are lots of fall crops waiting at the market including winter squash and pumpkins of all kinds. The Nampa market continues through October 31. Our booth is in the west parking lot off 12th Ave. west of the new basement stairs next to the brick building, across from the Martin Family. Remember to bring a cooler when you come to market if you plan to purchase produce, and won't be headed home right away. Come early for the best selection. Bring your friends! Show up at the market without enough cash? Nampa Farmers’ Market takes credit cards. Bring your master card, visa or American Express card to the market manager’s booth and purchase wooden market tokens, which can be used for your purchases at most vendor booths. Also at the market booth, you can get a large ecologically friendly canvas shopping bag with our market logo and tee shirts with the market logo in a variety of colors. Plus you can sign up for our monthly gift basket drawing. The market is located in Historic Downtown Nampa, on 12th Ave. between 1st St. and Front St., in front of the old railroad station/historical museum. The market takes place every Saturday from 9am until 1pm, rain or shine, through October 31. Check out the Market web site for more information: www.nampafarmersmarket.com Below are photos and descriptions of some of the items that we
had for sale previous seasons. We hope to have the same or similar
produce during the 2005 season. If there is something that you could
not find at our market last season and would like to have available this
season, let us know. We'll consider growing it, or will
suggest it to the other vendors. Sometimes it's a matter of coming
during the appropriate week, since some produce has a short season. If
we know of your interest, we may be able to contact you when
your favorite produce is in season. |
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| Spring Crops | click on photo to see a larger image. | ||
| Hand crafted Salad Mix - of
about 9 different lettuce varieties, including buttercrunch, black seeded
simpson, red sails, and heirlooms such as freckles, speckles, rouge d'hiver,
red oak-leaf, and others. Depending on availability it may also
include some baby spinach leaves, and a little tat tsai and other mild
unusual greens. I make it no more than 48 hours before it goes on sale, and it lasts for about two weeks. |
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| Head and leaf lettuces
- I
sell head lettuces in late spring, in addition to salad mix. Heads are
washed, but the leaves may still have some soil and an occasional earwig,
because I use no pesticides.
Right: Red Iceberg. Below from right: Jericho Romaine, Speckles, Slowbolt Simpson type, Buttercrunch. |
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| arugula a spicy green with a
nutty, radish-like flavor. Tear it up and add it to salads for pizzazz,
or use it alone in a salad with fruit and toasted nuts to tone down the
heat. It can also be used in cooking like spinach. I usually
sell small and large bags at a fraction of the grocery store cost. |
Arugula salad | ||
| Washed Spinach, with little stem. Several varieties are usually available, including semi-savoyed and smooth leaves, and oriental types. They are great for cooking, or tear them up in a salad or add to a sandwich. Very healthy! |
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| Other spring crops include,
red mustard greens, kale, pak choi, tah tsai, and purple mountain spinach (orach).
Sometimes I put together stir fry mix with a variety of these greens.
Also available is fresh cilantro, rosemary, and tarragon. Pictured: Red mustard greens |
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| Late Season Crops
(Generally available no earlier than August through frost.) |
click on photo to see a larger image. | ||
| French Filet Bean Medley: French Filet beans, yellow wax beans, and burgundy beans. The burgundy beans turn green when they are cooked. Beans are harvested two or three times a week so they are very tender. Steam for about 5 minutes, until the burgundy beans turn green, and add a bit of butter, pesto, rosemary, or just eat them plain. |
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| Roma Bean Medley These are flat, Italian beans, a bit meatier than snap beans. They are particularly good with pasta dishes. The medley contains green and dragon's tongue, a pale yellow pod with purple speckles. When cooked, the Dragon's tongue loose their purple and turn pale yellow. Cut diagonally into 1 inch pieces and steam until the burgundy color fades. (burgundy varieties not available in 2005) |
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| Summer Squash - Picked daily
so they stay small. Some elongate zucchini varieites, including
sungreen, raven, butterstick and zephyr. Patty Pan types include Peter
Pan, early white, sunburst, starship, papaya pear, flying saucer. Also Geode
and Eight-ball, light and dark green round zucchini.
New: Read about our 2006 Summer Squash Research
Project: |
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| Basket of mini squash, with
a mixture of varieties. Summer quash are great steamed, sautéed, or grilled with or without herbs. Or sauté with eggplant, tomatoes and herbs in ratatoulli. |
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| Fresh Edamame, the Japanese snack, is high
in protein, lower in fat than peanuts, and high in isoflavones, which help
prevent cancer and the symptoms of menopause. Boil the pods in salted water
for 5 minutes, then drain and cool. Then pop the beans out of the pod and
eat. The pods are compost, like peanut shells. These are small bags, about 4 oz. Larger bags are available during peak seasonl |
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| Cherry tomato medleys: Varieties
include Sungold
(bright orange when ripest), yellow pear, white currant, gold nugget, large
red cherry, and red and green
grape tomatoes. These look great in a salad, or eat them like candy right
out of the basket. |
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| Tomatillos I grow
traditional large green tomatillos, as well as purple de milpa and pineapple
tomatillos. They are great in salsa and chutney, or cut them up and
put them raw in a salad. |
Green tomatillo salsa | ||
| Lemon Cucumbers - shaped
like lemons but taste like cucumbers -always sweet and juicy, never bitter.
I pick them small before the seeds take over. and Orient Express Cucumbers - thin and crisp, few seeds. |
no photo available | ||
| Eggplant, including white "Snowy",
"Lilac Touch", the thin pale purple "Bride", and green "Italian White".
Ratatouille is our favorite dish with
eggplant. Eggplant can also be baked, and the pulp mixed with tahini and herbs
to make
baba ghanouj (pronounced baba ganoosh), a Middle Eastern spread that is used
for dipping pieces of pita. |
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| sweet peppers, and
cayenne peppers. These generally aren't ready for sale until September. |
Jacque Scott's roasted peppers | ||
| fresh basil: Genovese, lemon, purple and
mammoth. |
Pesto season starts in July! Try a Caprese salad. | ||
| Italian flat leaf parsley
More flavor than curly parsley, very nutritious, low calorie. (not available
in 2005) |
tomato
marinara on pasta Tabouli salad |
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Come early for the best selection. Bring your friends!
Top of Page
Leafcutting bees
& alfalfa The
Solitary Bee Web
Binderboard™
New Mexico Native Bee Pollinator Project Nampa
Market About Dr. Strickler
Bee Nests and Accessories
Links to Food, Gardening and Nutrition Information
Recipes
Pollination Moments
Summer Squash Research Summer Squash Diary Blog
Updated 012/21/2007
© Karen Strickler