Back in Dane County

The stars are shining bright when I arrive shortly after the official 6 a.m. Saturday opening of the Dane County Farrmers Market in Madison, Wisconsin. This is America's Dairyland (the auto license plates say so), even under the state capitol dome, as the Chula Vista cheese truck attests.

After my initial walk around Capitol Square, where about a hundred vendors are setting up shop, and a leisurely cup of coffee in the Starbucks, dawn breaks and I repeat my farmers market circuit, this time going counter-clockwise around the big block, which is the required direction; go clockwise and you'll get polite stares from the other early shoppers.

All my previous visits to this market (probably the nation's largest true farmers market; you can't sell here unless you grow, raise or make it yourself) have been in early spring when meats, cheeses and baked goods predominate with only a scatteing of early spring crops. Today, however, boasted the last of summer and hearty fall fare. Four or five vendors offered late season raspberries, many others had tomatoes (some, though, finished under hoop houses), but there were plenty of winter squashes and apples, too.

The grower pictured above was selling a great variety of tomatoes, including heirlooms, all grown in the field without benefit of hoop houses. At less than a dollar a pound these beauties were bargains.

Apples, however were my main area of interest, since they were one of the few products I could bring back to the hotel and maybe even back home to Philadelphia.

Suncrisps from Pleasant Valley Orchard

Although more than half a dozen vendors sold apples, only half of them offered antiques. Taking the prize for variety was Pleasant Springs Orchard: Hubbardston Nonesuch, Tolman, Black Gilliflower, Hoople's Antique Gold, Richard's Red Delicious, Calville Blanc d'Hiver (a classic French dessert apple which I first tasted in upstate New York abut a dozen years ago), Wolf River (a Wisconsin native and widely grown here), Arkansas  Black, Northwestern Greening, Court Pendu Plat, Ashmead's Kernel, Show, Cortland, Golden Russet, Spitzenburg (better known as Esopus Spitzenburg), and Cornish Gilliflower.

Another vendor claimed 30 varieties,  including some lesser known commercial cultivars: Haralson, Regent, Sonata, Suncrisp (a yellow Cox Orange Pippin-Golden Delicious cross popular in the Midwest), Keepsake, Swiss Gourmet, Northern Spy, Blushing Golden, and Melrose.

For those with any interest in learning about these or any other variety, I commend the Cox Orange Pippin website, which hardly limits itself to my favorite variety.

My words can hardly do justice to the variety of produce I discovered this morning, so pictures (annotated with a just a little verbiage) follow. As always, click on a photo for an enlarged version.

The harvest of winter squashes just peaked

Mums, of course, dominated the flower stalls

Only one vendor offered still offered sweet corn, but a few more had plenty of popcorn

Beauty Heart radishes look like what is labeled a watermelon radish in Philadelphia

Celeriac and chiogga beets

Urban pumpkin patch

Want some winter squashes?

More winter squashes, and some winter greens

This season's garlic is nicely dried

Lots of peppers

If you eat like a bird...

Berkshire pork is hard to find, especially at these (relative) bargin prices

Local potatoes and radicchio, among other veggies

Cruciferous vegetables weren't lacking

One-stop shopping for vegetable soup

String beans, parsnips, carrots, daikon radishes

Ramps at the Dane County Farmers Market
(Click on photo for enlarged version)

Back To Madison
I wake up early for the Dane County Farmers Market

This weekend marks my annual trip to Madison, and that means Saturday morning at the Dane County Farmers' Market.

A few weeks ago, visitors to the market site would have had to deal with thousands of protestors, since the market is located on the square surrounding the Wisconsin state capitol building. With the protestors (mostly) gone, the Saturday morning market takes center stage.

Of course, with Wisconsin being almost three weeks behind Philadelphia in terms of growing season, not much in the way of fresh produce could be found. The queen of those items, at least for me, were the ramps, which only one of the roughly 100 vendors featured. These, as you can see in the photo, were near-pristine, with broad, clean leaves and healthy bulbs. To bad I don't have a kitchen available during my stay. They were priced at $3/bunch, but given that a bunch was about 50-70 percent larger than a bunch I'd pay $1.99 for at Iovine's, it was at least comparable in price, maybe better.

The same stall also featured black radishes, Jerusalem artichokes, burdick and other winter roots.

Over-wintered Spinach and green onions, with an occasional appearance of rhubarb, predominated at the produce stands, especially the Asian farmers, whose presence I failed to not in my previous visits; this year there were at least half a dozen. At other stalls you could purchase hothouse lettuces, greens, parsnips and hydroponic tomatoes and cucumbers. One farmer specialized in potatoes.

At 7 a.m., an hour after the market
opens, shoppers seek the best produce

One counter-culturist produce grower specialized in herbs and roots for tea, including fresh dug comfrey, and nettle leaves.

Otherwise, bakeries, cheese-makers, meat-sellers and horticultural stalls filled up the sidewalks along the capital building.

Reading Terminal Market Expansion

More room for more vendors in planned $4.5 renovation

With all possible space completely leased for the first time in more than 16 years and other entrepreneurs wanting to join its roster of vendors the Reading Terminal Market Corporation has drawn up plans for carving out about 3,500 square feet of additional retail space from its existing footprint. It would expand the selling floor by nearly 9 percent from the current 40,000 square feet.

Closer collaboration with Bob Pierson's Farm To City, which operates many of the area's farmers' markets (including the recently inaugurated Sunday market outside the RTM) is part of the plan; that organization is expected to move its staff to enlarged office space at the market.

A Farm-to-City/RTM collaboration augers well for the market's desire to bring some farmers back into the market for direct sales to shoppers. (For more on that see Replacements for Livengoods, below).

Paul Steinke, now in his eighth year as the market's general manager, hopes funding for the expansion and related renovations can be secured by the end of the year and work begin in 2011.

Another benefit from the expansion will be larger restrooms, with a significant number of added stalls for the ladies who form a long line in the aisles when market traffic is heavy.

The genesis of the project was the need to rehabilitate the existing obstreperous freight elevator, which had merchants accessing basement storage areas cursing. The additional retail footage will be created by relocating to the basement current storage and prep space on the market's east side after the existing elevator is fixed and a second elevator installed in an existing unused shaft.

The market's Avenue D aisle, which provides access to the current storage areas, restrooms, and two vendors (Miscellanea Libri and the shoeshine stand) would be moved further west to create the retail space.

The new restrooms would occupy space currently occupied by the market's floor operations staff, La Cucina at the Market and part of the aisle known as 11th Street. Seating and event space would be added next to the relocated La Cucina along Avenue D.  More retail space would be carved out on both sides of the new Avenue D.

The additional office space for market office staff and Farm to City would be created by extending the existing office loft over the remainder of Tootsie's Salad Express.

The expansion would take place in phases, starting with the elevator work, after which storage would be moved to the basement. Restrooms would then be expanded, followed by the new retail space and the extention of market office space.

The new Avenue D would temporarily jog around the rear of Flying Monkey Patisserie and L. Halteman Family's meat, deli and produce stall. Eventually, after their leases come up for renegotiation in a few years, Avenue D could be straightened out.

Replacements for Livengoods

No doubt about it, both market shoppers and managers miss Earl Livengood's Saturday-only produce standing selling fresh Lancaster County produce from his farm in center court. Earl declined to return this year, favoring his existing presence at the Bryn Mawr farmers' market and adding King of Prussia on Saturday.

To fill the void Steinke said he is close to adding a rotating series of producers to Livengood's spot. Two produce growers and one non-artisinal cheese-maker are in discussions to occupy the space on Saturdays.

A Week in Wisconsin

She Who Must Be Obeyed and I returned Wednesday from what has become an annual spring trip to Madison and Racine, Wisconsin.

In recent years, the Madison part of the visit coincided with opening day for the Dane County Farmers' Market around the state capitol building. It also coincided with some early tulips, as seen in photo at right.

The pickings were slim last Saturday, as should be expected since spring in Madison is about two weeks behind Philadelphia. Cheese, of course, was plentiful, as was its sibling, curds, which only Wisconsinites and those seeking poutines can appreciate. Meats were available, and plenty of baked goods, but produce was largely limited to some greenhouse and root cellar items. Even with a paucity of produce, however, a trip to the market in Madison is always worthwhile.

The culinary highlight in Madison for us was a new restaurant, Cooper's Tavern on the north side of Capitol Square. It's billed as an Irish pub, but it's a lot better than that. (Though the one pub item I tasted was disappointing. More on that later.)

Beer is essential for any pub and Cooper's doesn't disappoint. They didn't have one of my fav Wisconsin brews, Spotted Cow, so I opted for its stylistic equivalent, Lake Louie Cream Ale. Tasty, but I still prefer the unfiltered Spotted Cow. Overall a lot of nice choices both on tap and in bottles: not an overwhelming number of beers like you'd find at Monk's but a broad selection to satisfy just about any craving. Speaking of Monk's, their Flemish Sour Ale, made in Belgium, made the draft list; Victory and Dogfish were represented among the bottles.

Bone Marrow!

For food I could not resist the veal bone marrow appetizer, a longitudinally sliced femur of fine fat. The lengthwise butchering of the bone made it easy to spread the marrow on points of pumpernickel. The whole dish was made even better by half a dozen cloves of roasted garlic to add even more depth to the marrow flavor.

With my diet blown between the marrow and the beer I went with a bowl of bacon-studded cabbage soup as my second and last course. Not exactly a diet dish, but no carbs beyond the cabbage's. It was a rich, vegetable soup that I'd gladly consume on a cold winter's eve.

My companions (SWMBO and Executive Chef Tim Larsen's mom, Marlette) went for the sliders, a salad and the cottage pie

SWMBO's sliders were made high quality meat and served on small rolls that seemed to be a cross between brioche and biscuit, accompaied by hand-made potato chips hot from the fryer. Her salad, one of four on the menu, was spinach with crunchy, sweet and savory accents provided by brandied cranberries,
walnuts, pear, apple, and crisped goat cheese in a balsamic vinaigrette.

The cottage pie was a bit odd on two counts. First, it wasn't cottage pie. Where shepherd's pie is traditionally made with minced lamb, cottage pie is beef. This cottage pie, however, was made from lamb. And it wasn't really a pie at all, or even a casserole where the meat and veggies form the bottom layer topped by mashed potatoes. Instead, this was a large lump of the potatoes topped and lamb and gravy. Certainly satisfying, according to Marlette, but not what I would have expected.

Highlights of the appetizers I intend to try on future visits include house made soft pretzels (strictly to compare with the Philadelphia version) served with a Belgian beer-Dubliner cheese dip; twice-fried Belgian fries (also done as poutine with gravy and curds); and, rounding out the appetizers, a take on Scotch egg using a local bratwurst patty as the wrapper. Among the sandwiches (all the popular meats plus burger, the latter accented with a couple strips of pork belly rather than bacon), I'd opt for the lamb on sourdough with tomato jam, caramelized onions and provolone. For an entree, I've definitely have to try the Pork Belly Mac with porter-glazed fresh bacon, Dubliner cheddar mac and cheese and baguette. Fish and chips, curried chicken (British style), goat cheese polenta and bourbon salmon with cranberries, truffled mushrooms, mashed and veggies are also on the entree list.

The lunch menu is pretty similar, less the entrees.

Coopers Tavern has only been open for a couple of months and still has kinks to work out: the server screwed up the order of service and, of course, blamed it on the kitchen. Tim wasn't in the kitchen, since we met him outside leaving as we were entering; my guess is he wouldn't be amused no matter where the failure originated. Still, that wouldn't keep me from returning. Larsen has created a something for everyone gastro pub menu that would be admired for both creativity and execution anywhere.

The following night we dined with an old friend of SWMBO, Jerry Minnich who long held tenure as the restaurant review for Isthmus, Madison's alternative newspaper. (Then again, everything in Madison is alternative; it's like Ithaca with a state capital thrown in.) Jerry took us to Bandung, a local Indonesian restaurant where he's a regular.

To start we shared an order of Otak-Otak, a fish cake grilled in banana leaf served with a spicy garlic peanut sauce. I would have eaten two orders myself: clean fish flavor and great texture set off nicely by the sauce. Jerry and SWMBO selected Krakatoa as their mains, a sizzling platter of lightly battered chicken breast (you could also get shrimp or tempeh) served on a bed of steamed veggies and bean sprouts with garlic sauce. Back to my diet, I ordered a bowl of Asse Cabe, shredded chicken attop soft mung bean noodles, lemon grass and jalapenos served in a candle nut and sweet soy sauce.

Bandung also offers a rikstaffel daily.

Kringles!

On to Racine, a city that until recently had more Danes than any other in the world save Copenhagen. And where there are Danes there's Danish.

The highest expression of the baker's art in Racine is the Kringle, the oval pastry pictured here at Bendtsten's. They come in myriad flavors, though the most popular for very good reason is the pecan; my favorite, though, is the almond macaroon.

Bendtsten's is one of three bakeries in Racine known for their kringle (the others are O&H and Larsen's), and each has their partisans. I'm in Bendtsten's camp. Maybe it's the 1920s era oven shown here. More likely is the fact that while the other bakers introduce vegetable shortening to their pastry, at Bendsten's is strictly butter, and lots of it. Whether you get one of the smaller single-serving pastries, a large kringle or any of their other goodies, Bendsten's has what my in-laws admitted is a flavor that "is how kringles used to taste".

Which is not to say that you should pass by the other bakeries. If cke is your thing, Larsen's is tops, especially their Danish layer cake, a soft yellow cake with raspberry filling and a luscious butter cream icing. Over at O&H, SWMBO adores the poppyseed sweet rolls (your basic Danish pastry). However, at O&H's Danish Uncle specialty store I make a beeline for the deli counter where I order the rollepølse, a brined, pressed lamb cold cut. Two pounds are now sitting in my home freezer.

The 800-Pound Gorilla of Farmers' Markets

What's undoubtedly one of the nation's premier pure farmers' market opened for its 38th season today around the state capitol building in Madison, Wisconsin.

The Dane County Farmers' Market on the Square limits vendors to producers of Wisconsin food and horticultural products. No arts, no crafts. No food carts. (All those vendors must be located across the street and get their permits directly from the city and are not part of the market, though they benefit from the thousands who visit every Saturday from mid-April through early Novenber.)

As one would expect, the pickings were slim so early in the season, for in Wisconsin spring arrives a couple of weeks later than it does in Lancaster County or South Jersey. Still, one could amply supply the larder from provisions available today.

Root vegetables from storage or the ground were plentiful. Like the giant kohlrabi displayed here by Diane Westra of Mammoth Produce of Randolph, Wisconsin. Smaller, less woody though by no means diminutive samples were also for sale by Diane and her husband Ed, along with some great looking small cabbages. The Westras concentrate on brassicas throughout the year, including broccoli and cauliflower. They also do eggplants and peppers in seson. And no, they didn't name their farm for the size of their vegetables. In 1989 they uncovered woolly mammoth bones while digging an irrigation pond.

Potatoes were much in evidence, and no where more so than at Butter Mountain Farm where John Aue was selling about half a dozen varieties for $1.50-$3.00 a pound. John became entranced with potato cultivars in graduate school. He's been selling potatoes and only potatoes from his Richland Center farm at the market since 1993.

Harmony Valley Farms of Viroqua featured other root vegetables at its colorful stand. Today, among other items, you could purchase two varieties of Jerusalem artichokes, red cipolline onions, shallots, horseradish, beautifully firm black radishes, and parsnips. They also featured pristine bunches of ramps for $3 apiece, or three for $8. (At least one other stand had wild garlic.). Harmony Valley is no small enterprise, with a staff of 10-30 workers supplying 800 shares in its CSA. They raise 60 varieties of fruits and vegetables on the farm's 100 acres, and also sell Angus beef in partnership with a neighbor.

Winter and eary spring greens accented by spinach could be found at a number of stands, including "frost-sweetened spinach" at Snug Haven.

Popcorn populated Krinke's stall. The Reeseville farm featured Calico, Black, White Hullless, Yellow Hybrid, Baby Rice and Red Baby Rice kernels in packages, and also sold some by the cob. To accompany the popcorn you cook one of their rabbits or poultry. (The duck was $2.89/pound). Krinke's has been selling at the market for 31 years.

Sorrel and French breakfast radishes were available at Jen Ehr Family Farm's stand. The sorrel was $3/bunch, the radishes $2.50. The Sun Prairie farm sells a full range of fruit, vegetables, herbs and poultry in season.

Plenty of plant vendors, bakers, mushroom growers, maple syrup harvesters, beekeepers and, since this is Wisconsin, cheesemakers sold their goods, though only about two-thirds of the available slots were filled so early in the season. (There's a three-year waiting list for vendors to earn a space at the market.)

I was particularly intrigued by the many varieties of coleus offered by Domann's Plants of Beaver Dam, a greenhouse operation specializing in bedding plants and herbs. One of the many cheese vendors was offering samples of a baked cubed cheese fresh from the warming plate. They also bragged about having the "squeekiest" cheese curds at the market, cheese curds being to Wisconsin what pretzels are to Pennsylvania. Cow, sheep and goat cheeses were in abundance at more than half a dozen dairy stands, though I didn't spy any raw milk.

Although this was the first outdoor market of the season, the Dane County Farmers' Market operates year-round indoors at Monona Terrace in early winter and from January until mid-April at a local senior center. On one Saturday in mid-summer, when an art fair occupies the capitol square, they move the market to an outdoor facility near Monona Terrace, a convention complex designed by Frank Lloyd Wright.

A few more of photos from today's visit can be found at my Dane County Farmers' Market Photo Gallery.