Gulf Coast Newspapers: "Leave the shopping to the market"

Leave the shopping to the market

Windmill Market Produce Club brings together Baldwin County foods and local consumers

Friday, June 14, 2013

By Jill Clair Gentry Food editor people@gulfcoastnewspapers.com

Amy Ramagosa of Fairhope and her son Burke pick up their produce box at Windmill Market. Ramagosa says she loves teaching her son about different kinds of vegetables and how farmers grow food for their family to eat.

WHAT: Windmill Market Produce Club

WHERE: Windmill Market, corner of Equality and Bancroft streets in Fairhope

WHEN: Pickup is Mondays from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. in Fairhope and 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. in Mobile

MORE INFO: Stop by Windmill Market, call 251-990-8883 or email Maggie Lacey at maggie@windmillmarket.org.

Imagine: you don't have to go to the grocery store every week. The fruits and vegetables you feed your family tonight were harvested earlier today. You're trying vegetables you never would have bought at the grocery store and discovering you love them. You save money on food and are eating more healthful meals.

This might sound idyllic, but it's is a picture of a real-life program available here in Baldwin County — Windmill Market's Produce Club.

Every Monday for the past two years, dozens of people have flocked to the market to pick up a box of fresh and seasonal fruits and vegetables, dairy, bread, meats and specialty items like granola, soap or coffee.

“It's a ready-made meal plan for the week,” says Maggie Lacey, manager of the Windmill Market. “You've got it all packed up and ready to go, and you've got recipes to get you started.”

And every item is grown or made locally.

“It's as fresh as produce gets,” Lacey says. “We talk to the farmers all week long. Sunday nights, they tell us what they've got, and they harvest Monday morning. There's almost nowhere you can go to get produce that fresh.”

Lacey says about 90 percent of the vegetables come from Baldwin County, but for some items, they work with farmers in south Mississippi, Georgia or Florida.

Ellen Mitchell: An all Alabama diet, is it even possible?

Mobile Press Register (via al.com)

"In an attempt to explore Alabama produced food and the people that supply it, Mobile-based business reporter Ellen Mitchell will eat only food that is grown, raised or caught in Alabama for five days. 

On the first day of her project, she visits Oak Hill Tree Farm in Grand Bay and talks to owner Brian Keller about his hydroponic lettuce, the trend of eating local and the struggle to find a variety of Alabama produce this time of year.

The haul for the day includes cucumber, zucchini, squash and of course, lettuce."

Click here to see the article online and read the subsequent days challenges. 

Lagniappe Covers Produce Club

The Lagniappe, one of our favorite local reads, did a great piece on our Produce Club a few weeks back. We are dreadfully behind in sharing this article, written by Eleanor Baker.  Because of this article, so many folks on the other side of the bay have now discovered our great produce that we are on the brink of having to buy a van to get it all to Red or White every Monday! Thanks for the support, Lagniappe!

Produce club tilting Windmill Market toward locally grown food 

By Eleanor Inge

Issue FEBRUARY 7, 2012
There’s a lot going on at Windmill Market in downtown Fairhope. Located on the corner of Equality and Bancroft Streets, anyone is welcome to stroll up to the tiered gardens surrounding the eco-friendly building and pick what they want of the organic fruit, vegetables and herbs growing there. 


Click to read more on Lagniappe's web...

Michihili - Oh My!

What in the world is michihili cabbage? What we thought was going to be regular chinese cabbage (the nice crisp, tight heads of crinkly cabbage we see at big box grocery stores) for our Produce Club this week turned out to be a softer, loose leaf cabbage more resembling a thick lettuce or greens. So of course all our cole slaw recipes flew out the window and we were left scratching our heads about what to do next!

The farmers tell us it can be eaten raw mixed with lettuce in a salad, or used in any way you would use collards or kale: stir a handful of chopped leaves into a bean or vegetable stew, use with eggs for a frittata or quiche, or just boil with some sausage or ham and served as a side dish!

On the blog written by JWS Farm, who grows michihili, we found a bit more info worth sharing. See below.

Michihili (mi-CHE-he-lee) – Chinese Cabbage
When we first planted the seeds for this variety of Chinese Cabbage, we were expecting small, oval ’bok choy’ sized heads… but we soon realized we were in for a BIG surprise!

This tall Asian green has coarse, dense, narrow leaves with a deeper green outer color and lighter green interior with wide, flat white ribs. A quick internet search revealed that it can be used for fresh, raw salads or braised/stir fried as a cooking green.

It was very good stir fried , with a little olive oil, some onion, and soy sauce to taste. Quick, healthy & delicious… BUT we still had quite a bit more in the fridge & began looking for a way to use this gigantic veggie at least a pound at a time… so, with the change in weather, we started thinking SOUP!
The recipe below can easily be adjusted down, using 2-3 leaves of michihili cabbage (or a smaller head of cabbage, such as bok choy or napa cabbage) and 1/2 the amount of the rest of the ingredients, incase you don’t have a large enough soup pot. When we made it, we used ground turkey for the “meat”, but next time we are going to try some ground pork or pork sausage, which we expect will have even more flavor. If you are vegetarian, you can leave the meat out and add an egg or two, if you are not vegan.

CHINESE CABBAGE SOUP
1/2 onion diced
1 lb. ground meat
2 Tablespoons sake
10 cups water
3 Tablespoons chicken stock
2 Tablespoons soy sauce
1 lb. Chinese cabbage chopped finely
2 teaspoons sesame oil
dash of white pepper
pinch of salt or more soy sauce (optional – season to taste)

In a pot, pour some cooking oil, (use whatever you normally use – we use olive oil and it doesn’t affect the taste) and saute the onion until golden brown. Add the ground meat and brown.
Add the sake and the water. Bring it to a boil and then add the chicken stock and soy sauce. Add the chopped Chinese cabbage, sesame oil and finally, the white pepper. Simmer until cabbage is done.
Onced served, you may find it needs a little bit of salt or more soy sauce, (but taste first, because most chicken stock and soy sauce have a pretty high sodium content.) Season to taste and enjoy!

Produce Club Makes its TV Debut!

We made our TV debut today talking about the Produce Club and whipping up some delicious Farm Stand Shrimp and Grits on Fox 10 News. You can watch the video below... we ain't no Paula Dean but it turned out pretty well! Thanks for all the folks who tuned in!

Farm Stand Shrimp & Grits: fox10tv.com

NPR: CSA/Produce Clubs

We found this article on NPR.com and wanted to share- its a neat profile of a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture). The author chronicles the excitement of cooking from a surprise box of fresh veggies, not at all unlike our own Produce Club here at the Windmill. 

Once difference with the Produce Club and a CSA, however, is that we contract with and buy from numerous local farms as opposed to just one (what you usually get with a CSA). This way you are supporting more small farmers in our area and we retain control the items we purchase so as to avoid a monotony of winter greens, an over abundance of potatoes, or a mountain the same crop week after week. 

We also include recipe ideas each week, as you have no doubt seen if you have spent any time on this blog. We also love to share recipes from our customers, so send them in if you have them!

Oh, The Things You Can Do With A Farm-Share Box

by NICOLE SPIRIDAKIS

June 8, 2011

I stared at the box brimming with vegetables, wondering what I'd gotten myself into. Unidentifiable greens, tiny round potatoes, a clutch of dirt-dusted, perfectly red radishes, a small container of wild strawberries — all this bounty was mine, if only I could figure out what to do with it.

For an urbanite such as myself, being connected to a farm brings a bit of the country into the city. It reminds me that there's a vast acreage out there not bound by concrete and tall buildings, helps me to eat with the seasons, and brings home how important it is to know the source of my food.

Variety

They say its the spice of life, but sometimes you need some definition for your variety! Here we have our own version of Cliff's Notes for the pear varieties we included in this week's Produce Club boxes. Can't wait to see how our members cooked these beautiful local fruits!