Market Meals!

    A common question I hear both when talking to people about foraging and while browsing at my local farmers market is "How do I use this?" If we're all very honest with ourselves I think we can all remember a time when we let that funny looking squash or those wierd new greens go bad simply because we didn't know what to do with them.

  The theme for Finding Tomatoes this month will be how to utilize your market and wild finds! So let's get started with something simple!

    All of the produce used in this quick prep one dish meal can be found at the Ashland Area Farmer's Market. If you're in the Ashland Wisconsin area on Saturday mornings definitely put a stop at the market on your to do list!

   The first thing you need to know about farm fresh and wild harvest cooking is that if you are used to supermarket produce you are in for a big treat flavor wise! You think you know what a carrot tastes like and then you experience an heirloom dragon carrot and suddenly your whole life has been a lie! Or something less dramatic... I get a little passionate about produce. So that being said I end up using much less salt and flavorings than are necessary for factory farm produced veggies, fruit, and fungi.

  For this recipe (I don't know what to call it, someone come up with a snazzy name and leave it in the comments if you'd like!) the only special equipment you will need is a big crock pot! I don't do a lot of measuring which cuts down on the dishes but sometimes makes translating my cooking into recipes a challenge. So think of this as more of a general guideline that can easily be modified to suit your taste

Ingredients:
(Measurements are approximate)
2lbs fingerling potatoes
2 lbs beets
1 lb carrots
1/2 lb mushrooms (I foraged these chanterelles myself but Seasonally Sourced is the booth at the Ashland market to find safely identified wild mushrooms)
1 lb pearl onions
1 cup broth or stock (I'll show you how to make garbage broth on a later post)
1/2 cup apple cider vinegar (ACV)
Salt, pepper, sage, garlic, and oregano to taste, butter optional

There's a method to my madness on the layering. I put the potatoes down in the broth so they become all creamy and flavorful, the carrots go on top of the mushrooms to enhance their sweet notes, but really you could just huck everything in and turn the pot on low and go about your business. For the more detail oriented home chefs out there though:

Pour ACV and broth into the bottom of the crock pot. Then whole skinned pearl onions (retain skins in big zip lock or container in the freezer for a different recipe!) Add clean potatoes, don't skin or chop them, just dump them in!

Then come the beets, whole or halved. I don't skin these either and the WHOLE beet can be used. Beet greens are amazingly nutritious and tastey. You can include those in this recipe but I needed a treat for my turkeys that day.

Next the mushrooms go in. To properly clean a mushroom you don't use water. They are like sponges and will get water logged very quickly. Instead use a mushroom brush, soft tooth brush, or paper towel to get the bits of forest off. I chose to leave my mushrooms whole for visual interest but if the mouthfeel of whole mushrooms skeeves you out a bit go ahead and chop them up!

Now the carrots, skin on again and cut into big chunks rather than little rounds. Again you can use the WHOLE carrot, the greens have an herby sweet flavor that works well with this recipe but I saved mine in the freezer with the onion and garlic skins this time.

On top of all that go the remaining spices and flavorings. If you're using butter a little goes a long way in this as there are so many earthy flavors stewing together.

Close the lid and turn on low for sixish hours (until tender) mixing halfway through if you can. Serve as is or put it on rice...bonus points for wild rice!

  This simple meal is GREAT for a cool fall day and even without meat it will fill you up and give you good clean energy for all of the autumn fun to be had in the north woods!