The start of the new year is now past. Everyone is seemingly falling back into the routine of life, myself included. December was nuts. I didn’t make it to a single farmers market in the month of December. Part of me enjoyed the break from having to be at a set place at a set time to pick up produce (oh how convenient our big box grocery stores are.) But by the end nothing can come close to what you can find at the markets. I was happy to return.
The winter market is in full swing. By full swing, more than half the vendors are gone for the winter thus making the selection and variety much smaller. Which means I need to supplement a bit more than I do in the higher production months. Spring will be here before know it though. And until then, I am more than happy to revel in winters bounty of citrus!!! And finding it for a $1 per pound?! Overbuying is happening.
So yes, I did go last week and I did go today. I have been a little slammed with things. I’m not giving this up though. I love being able to look back and see what I am buying. I have considered including the supplemental produce I buy to get a bigger picture of our produce consumption but I am not sure I want to complicate this post. I LOVE its ease and simplicity to do… hence why you consistently see these posts every month.
Anyways onto the fruits and veggies.
So for 1/3 I piked up:
- kale
- Pea shoots
- Kohlrabi
- Green cabbage
- Cauliflower
- Green onions
- Yellow onions
- Garnet yams
- Tomato
- Ginger
The Kohlrabi is very new to me. I picked it up on a whim. Apparently it is very similar to broccoli stems. I can’t say for certain because I haven’t cooked it yet. Soon though. And Pea shoots! I can’t wait to talk more about pea shoots. These were an awesome discovery that have been right under my nose for a while. Liv grew a bunch of these in the garden this last summer and I didn’t quite grasp why or how you eat them. Basically they are the tendril tops of sugar snap peas. They are tender and taste like peas in the fraction of the time it takes to grow the pea pods. Incredible addition to salads.
- Pomelo (pink flesh)
- Blood oranges
- Cara Cara oranges
- Satsumas
- Pink lady apples
And for today’s haul:
- Curley kale
- Garnet yams
- Red bell pepper
- Jalapeños
- Tomatoes
- Green onions
- Celery
Kale and chard were about the only greens one could find in the market today. No leaf lettuce, spinach, pea shoots, and not even lacinato kale. And yes, I had lots of greens on my list this morning. Kitty decided to get in my shot and started inspecting things. Which resulted in her taking a few bites out of the celery leaves.
I think she wanted to know why I was questioning her inspection.
- Blood oranges
- Pink Lady apples
- Lemons
- Satsumas
I was telling my citrus lady that I really like that they have been leaving on the leaves and stems on the oranges (adds so much to a photograph) and she told me that they started doing that to cut cost. By not stripping the leaves and stems off and not washing them they are able to offer the citrus to us at a lower cost (and less labor for them). I am more than happy to scrub my oranges clean and shiny… I wash all my produce anyways.
Not So Serendipitous 
Oh heck yeah, I’d clean my own oranges too for a lower price! :o) Everything looks great and yes, spring will be here before we know it! I was out digging in the garden today, harvesting my red cabbage and turning over all the rest of the soil in preparation for spring!
Bonjour Elisabeth,
Following up your farmers market adventures, I thought you might be interested in this food blog: http://whiteonricecouple.com/
They are growing lot of stuff in their garden. And I guess this is the clementines, oranges, mandarins season… as the last posts have been dedicated to mandarins and blood oranges. So if you don’t know what to do with your blood oranges… maybe you can try the blood orange bars. It looks so good! I wish, I could but I did not find blood oranges around here in Cyprus.
I like the photos of your cats inspecting your groceries!
Hi Sandrine!
It is so funny you mention the White on Rice Couple. I do follow them and did end up making the blood orange bars! The blood oranges I had where not of the deep red variety so the bars did not end up pink (more orangish/lemonish color) but the curd turned out incredible. I didn’t get any pics as it was a late night project but I served it at a women’s gathering the next day and everyone enjoyed it.
What kind of citrus do you have in cyprus?
What do we have here?
Well, just checked this morning. So today, we have: grapefruit, clementine, orange, sweet orange, orange “Merlin”, mandarine, pomelos and clementine “εισάγων” which I don’t know what is it. Most are coming from Cyprus or Greece.
In most residential area, you will find lemon trees, clementine trees and… something very interesting I saw in a remote village: a lemon tree with the branch of clementine tree transplanted!