I didn't get out till 10 a.m., and the place was packed. Parking has
been at a premium the last couple of visits and I don't recall ever
seeing them this busy. I did notice that every available stall space was
taken (four very long rows worth). I guess this girl needs to get out a
bit earlier.

The list of "must gets" was broccoli, cauliflower and green beans. It's
interesting to note that of all the booths there, only one had the
broccoli and cauliflower and another had green beans. These things are
typically at at least four stalls and are easy to acquire. As it was,
the green beans (very popular) were fetching a price of $3/lb. and what
was out was all that was left. Still, the quality of the product was
good for being picked over and I came away with 2 lbs. (Hmmm, green bean
soup?)

Not on the "must gets" list but "must haves" after seeing:

Mizuna - we're eating more salads lately and I need to switch things up
a bit.

Gravenstein Apples! Bob and I love going Apple Hill each Fall, and this
year we wanted to try Sonoma County's Gravenstein Apple Fair. And
looking at their event calendar -- that's next weekend! Not sure if we
will be there .... I thought it might be during Autumn. Bummer. I
haven't tried a Gravenstein yet, but they call to me! I think I'll let
Bob try it first.

Our favorite orchard pointed me to the last of their super-sweet
freestone peaches and said next week the O'Henry peaches would be in. My
understanding is that O'Henry's are wonderful for canning and freezing.
Got a couple pounds of the super-sweets (and they are!) and a couple
white nectarines.

Swiss chard. I was surprised to find it this late.

A sale at The Little Fish Company stall. I came away with a 1 lb. white
sea bass fillet and 1 lb. of white prawns. $26 for all of it, when
normally it would have been $42. (Yeah, the dude is pricey but his stuff
is sure fresh and good). He always posts when/where it was caught and
the method (if there's room on the dry erase board). I got last weeks
King Salmon that I used for my soy cured salmon from him. His halibut is
second to none. He's usually pretty good at knocking $2-$3 off per pound
on some things if I buy more than one item, but today was the best it's
ever been. He can also special order in fresh things like skate wing or
monk fish. I really want to try my hand with monk fish. I've had it at a
restaurant before, but I haven't found it anywhere around here. Well,
except for the frozen monk fish parts at the Korean market. It just
wasn't worth the effort to clean and get paltry amounts of meat off of.

For our latest family addition, Rayann, I stopped by the little doggie
treat baker that I would get treats for Blanca at. The bone-shaped
peanut-butter carob cookie was Blanca's favorite. I brought one home to
Rayann, but she wasn't all that impressed. Oh well. Speaking of Rayann,
it's like having a toddler in the house again. Her toys are EVERYWHERE
and she sticks to me like velcro begging for my undivided attention. Of
course, just like a toddler everything goes right into her mouth. The
toys have been a good re-direct for her and she's ignoring my fuzzy
leather slippers finally. Even at 18 mos., you would think she was 6
mos. Life is pretty good for this little girl now.

--Lin

On Sat, 08 Aug 2009 14:36:17 -0700, Lin wrote:

> A sale at The Little Fish Company stall. I came away with a 1 lb. white
> sea bass fillet and 1 lb. of white prawns. $26 for all of it, when
> normally it would have been $42.

I always wonder how much money I could make buying $4/lb shrimp,
$7/lb salmon, and $9/lb halibut at the grocery store and taking it
to the farmers market and selling it for 3x as much. I could
probably make a killing.

Somebody's already beat me to it.

> Well,
> except for the frozen monk fish parts at the Korean market. It just
> wasn't worth the effort to clean and get paltry amounts of meat off of.

Monkfish should require no cleaning. The fish weigh 20lbs and are
practically all meat once you chop off the head (and if you've ever
seen a monk fish, that's the first thing you want to do is chop off
the head or at least put a bag over it).

-sw

Sqwertz wrote:

> I always wonder how much money I could make buying $4/lb shrimp,
> $7/lb salmon, and $9/lb halibut at the grocery store and taking it
> to the farmers market and selling it for 3x as much. I could
> probably make a killing.
>
> Somebody's already beat me to it.

<snickers> I get what you're saying. But, not just "anyone" can walk
into a certified organic farmers market and set up shop. He's just a
small business guy doing what he does best and the product is much
better than most of my grocery store fish purchases. At least I know
where it actually came from and when. "Product of USA" is a bit general,
don't you think? Or "Product of Viet Nam" or "Product of Thailand."
(Seen enough of that sold in CostCo.) I'm not worried that the salmon I
get from him has been injected with dye to look fresh and orange. To
Safeway's credit -- they do put in small print that color has been added
to much of their salmon.

That said, Safeway had previously frozen, supposedly wild caught
"product of USA" Ahi tuna steaks on sale in the butcher block for
$7.99/lb. Snagged a couple of those so for dinner tonight I did a quick
pan sear, then sliced and served over a lovely salad of red leaf
lettuce, dried cranberries, fresh white corn kernels, toasted almonds,
mizuna, and a little chopped tomato. I made a vinaigrette of mirin,
white balsamic vinegar, a tiny bit of minced garlic, S&P, and a smidge
of olive oil. It was fantastic.

The "top shelf" stuff I got from my fish monger will probably get star
treatment on the grill.

> Monkfish should require no cleaning. The fish weigh 20lbs and are
> practically all meat once you chop off the head (and if you've ever
> seen a monk fish, that's the first thing you want to do is chop off
> the head or at least put a bag over it).

As I mentioned, it was in the frozen section of a Korean market. It was
lots of fins, spinal pieces, tail, bone and cartilage. It was rather
hard to see all that in it's frozen state, but once thawed it was a PITA
to clean up.

I'd love to get one of those big ugly fish! The meat is mighty tasty.

--Lin

On Sat, 08 Aug 2009 17:51:15 -0700, Lin wrote:

[Monkfish]

> I'd love to get one of those big ugly fish! The meat is mighty tasty.

I would think they'd be a favorite in taxidermy circles.

When I first started buying monkfish it was $5.99/lb in 2000-2001.
Now it's $18/lb at the only store that carries it.

The price of most non-mainline fish has more than doubled in the
last 5-6 years. Salmon, some tuna and catfish is about the only
thing that's remained almost the same price. Even Tilapia has
doubled to $4/lb. And that's a really boring fish.

Shrimp, OTOH, used to be $10/lb at it's lowest point in the 80's.

-sw

Sqwertz wrote:
>
> The price of most non-mainline fish has more than doubled in the
> last 5-6 years. Salmon, some tuna and catfish is about the only
> thing that's remained almost the same price. Even Tilapia has
> doubled to $4/lb. And that's a really boring fish.
>
> Shrimp, OTOH, used to be $10/lb at it's lowest point in the 80's.

Don't you mean the highest point?

That was about the time before ocean-caught shrimp
were overtaken by farm-raised in ecology-destroying
ponds in Central America, South America, and
Southeast Asia.

And the price dropped really low, compared to
what it was when I was a kid or teenager. Prawns
used to be really expensive, but became really
cheap. On the other hand, Alaskan cocktail shrimp
were really cheap then and are non-existent today,
apparently because the fishery collapsed.

On Sat, 08 Aug 2009 21:05:28 -0700, Mark Thorson wrote:

> Sqwertz wrote:
>
>> Shrimp, OTOH, used to be $10/lb at it's lowest point in the 80's.
>
> Don't you mean the highest point?

Nope. I never paid less than $10/lb in the 80's. Of course I was
landlocked for much of that decade, and allergic the other half of
the decade.

-sw

Lin wrote:

> The list of "must gets" was broccoli, cauliflower and green beans. It's
> interesting to note that of all the booths there, only one had the
> broccoli and cauliflower and another had green beans. These things are
> typically at at least four stalls and are easy to acquire.

....especially if you get there EARLY, as *I* am wont to do! :-)


> As it was, the green beans (very popular) were fetching a price of $3/lb.
> and what was out was all that was left. Still, the quality of the product
> was good for being picked over and I came away with 2 lbs. (Hmmm, green
> bean soup?)

I want to use at least some of them for green bean kimchi. I'm hoping to
make bulgogi in the next couple days.


> Gravenstein Apples! Bob and I love going Apple Hill each Fall, and this
> year we wanted to try Sonoma County's Gravenstein Apple Fair. And looking
> at their event calendar -- that's next weekend! Not sure if we will be
> there .... I thought it might be during Autumn. Bummer. I haven't tried a
> Gravenstein yet, but they call to me! I think I'll let Bob try it first.

Crunchy, sweet, tart, yummy. Road trip to Sebastopol in our future!


> Our favorite orchard pointed me to the last of their super-sweet freestone
> peaches and said next week the O'Henry peaches would be in. My
> understanding is that O'Henry's are wonderful for canning and freezing.
> Got a couple pounds of the super-sweets (and they are!) and a couple white
> nectarines.

We have PEACHES? But I still haven't finished the plums! I guess I'll make
tkemali tomorrow.


> Swiss chard. I was surprised to find it this late.
>
> A sale at The Little Fish Company stall. I came away with a 1 lb. white
> sea bass fillet and 1 lb. of white prawns.

I'm thinking about cooking the prawns with lemon, saffron, olive oil, and
smoked paprika -- kind of a takeoff on scampi. I want to use some of the sea
bass to stuff those delicate bell peppers we got from the CSA on Tuesday.


> For our latest family addition, Rayann, I stopped by the little doggie
> treat baker that I would get treats for Blanca at. The bone-shaped
> peanut-butter carob cookie was Blanca's favorite. I brought one home to
> Rayann, but she wasn't all that impressed. Oh well. Speaking of Rayann,
> it's like having a toddler in the house again. Her toys are EVERYWHERE and
> she sticks to me like velcro begging for my undivided attention. Of
> course, just like a toddler everything goes right into her mouth. The toys
> have been a good re-direct for her and she's ignoring my fuzzy leather
> slippers finally. Even at 18 mos., you would think she was 6 mos. Life is
> pretty good for this little girl now.

Rayann is a *total* drama queen. I carried my backpack out to the car so
that I wouldn't forget to take it to work with me, and as soon as I closed
the door behind me, she started whimpering (or sobbing, as Lin puts it).
Like other dogs, she wants her people to be TOGETHER -- and preferably
paying attention to her. She's much more finicky about food than Blanca, our
previous dog. Training a dog using treats is only effective if the dog
*likes* the treats, and we've been rather hit-or-miss in finding treats that
she likes.

Bob

On Sat, 08 Aug 2009 14:36:17 -0700, Lin wrote:

> I didn't get out till 10 a.m., and the place was packed. Parking has
> been at a premium the last couple of visits and I don't recall ever
> seeing them this busy. I did notice that every available stall space was
> taken (four very long rows worth). I guess this girl needs to get out a
> bit earlier.
>
> The list of "must gets" was broccoli, cauliflower and green beans. It's
> interesting to note that of all the booths there, only one had the
> broccoli and cauliflower and another had green beans. These things are
> typically at at least four stalls and are easy to acquire. As it was,
> the green beans (very popular) were fetching a price of $3/lb. and what
> was out was all that was left.

three dollars a pound! those must be some kind of beans.

your pal,
blake

blake murphy wrote:

> three dollars a pound! those must be some kind of beans.

LOL! I'd been getting them for $1.50-$2.00 lb. up until now. I find it
hard to believe they are getting to the end of season here. But Bob had
requested green beans, so I got them. They are nice looking though. I
need to start snapping them.

--Lin