Food Friday | Guest Blogger, Alex - Freehold Farmer's Market

Hello! I'm Alex, from I Cook, She Eats, filling in for Kate this week on Food Friday. Clever name for a blog, right? My wife thought of it, and it's pretty indicative of how the culinary responsibilities are divided in my house. I'm glad that Kate is trusting me with her blog for the day, even though I'm nowhere near the photographer that Kate is. She did teach me how to tweak my camera settings to take some better pictures, and I'm looking forward to learning more from her in the future. I take photographs mostly of food and my cooking technique (goes along with being a "food blogger", I suppose) so I'm always trying to get better colors and details from my dishes.  You eat first with your eyes, after all.

Every Friday in Freehold, there is a farmer's market for local farmers to come out and sell their produce to people who are smart enough to come by. I like hitting up markets for a few reasons.  First, I'm all about supporting our local growers, which is going to allow them to continue to maintain the agricultural traditions that led to our state being known as the Garden State.  Second, the produce that I can get at a farmer's market usually is of higher quality, lower price, and a wider variety than I can get at my local supermarket.  Finally, I enjoy the challenge of seeing what is fresh and figuring out how I am going to take those foods and integrate them into my cooking.

I'll use the Kirby cucumbers to make some refrigerator pickles or some other manner of quick pickle. The cherry tomatoes will end up in some sort of crudo with pasta and maybe some fresh mozzarella and torn basil, or maybe I'll make this dish from my new Momofuku cookbook.  The eggplants are called neon eggplants (first time I'd ever seen them) and the lady manning the stand said they are sweeter than your normal Japanese eggplant.  Those will most likely get grilled up (her suggestion) with some other vegetables, maybe making a grilled "ratatouille" or as components in a sandwich.  The heirloom tomatoes, those will do just fine with a sprinkle of salt and a drizzle of oil.  The blackberries (which are so ripe and flavorful) are destined to be eaten with some whipped cream and gingersnaps, or maybe some ginger-infused pound cake.  I'll find some fun stuff to do with the honey, too.

Challenge yourself: go to your local growers, ask what's in season and available, and find something delicious to make with it.  Check out my blog I Cook, She Eats to see what I end up doing with my haul for the week!