Food city area

Using Local Produce

Using Local Produce

Okra and peppers from the Farmers' Market: Okra omelet recipe in The New Orleans Cookbook by Rima and Richard Collin: Apple cake made w...

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17.25

Exotic and ordinary vegetables grown at Monticello in Thomas Jefferson's lifetime included: "asparagus bean, sea kale, tomatoes, rutabaga, lima beans, okra, potato pumpkins, winter melons, tree onion, peanuts, 'sprout kale,' serpentine cucumbers, cauliflower, broccoli, Brussells sprouts, orach [a type of spinach], endive, peanuts, chick peas, cayenne pepper, 'esculent Rhubarb,' black salsify, sesame, eggplant." The grand total was "330 varieties of eighty-nine species of vegetables and herbs, 170 varieties of the finest fruit varieties known at the time." So I learned in a recent article about Jefferson's agricultural activities: "<a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/peter-hatch/thomas-jeffersons-legacy-_b_714645.html" id="title_permalink" title="Permalink">Thomas Jefferson's Legacy in Gardening and Food</a>" by Peter Hatch, Director of Gardens and Grounds for the Thomas Jefferson Foundation. Many new food preparations and traditions got a start in the Monticello kitchen and garden, possibly including: "French fries, peanuts, Johnny-cakes, gumbo, mashed potatoes, sweet potato pudding, sesame seed oil, fried eggplant, perhaps such American icons as potato chips, tomato catsup, and pumpkin pie." According to the author, "The Jefferson legacy supporting small farmers, vegetable cuisine, and sustainable agriculture is poignantly topical today." I had only a vague idea of Jefferson's work as a promoter of farming and wine culture. This article fills in some gaps about vegetables.

Thomas Jefferson's Vegetables

Exotic and ordinary vegetables grown at Monticello in Thomas Jefferson's lifetime included: "asparagus bean, sea kale, tomatoes, ru...

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12.21

Cooking

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/12003515@N05/4981107432/" title="dookey4070 by mesander2000, on Flickr"><img alt="dookey4070" height="375" src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4107/4981107432_d4ece31f6c.jpg" width="500" /></a> At the farmers' market today I bought ingredients for trying out recipes from my new Dooky Chase Cookbook. (See my post on the book from a couple of days ago: <a href="http://regional-food.blogspot.com/2010/09/leah-chase-new-orleans-princess.html">Leah Chase, New Orleans Princess</a>). From Ernst Farm I bought chicken gizzards, from other favorite market stalls I bought green pepper, onion, and corn. I didn't find celery or other chicken at the market, but bought them elsewhere -- and above you can see that I made the very exotic dish "Giblet Stew" (p. 35). It was delicious, spiced with thyme, paprika, and parsley. <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/12003515@N05/4981107710/" title="dookey4072 by mesander2000, on Flickr"><img alt="dookey4072" height="359" src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4152/4981107710_b513d5a34d.jpg" width="500" /></a> <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/12003515@N05/4980502015/" title="dookey4073 by mesander2000, on Flickr"><img alt="dookey4073" height="500" src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4129/4980502015_552fe75582.jpg" width="498" /></a> I have some okra from the market in reserve for another of Leah Chase's Creole recipes. And earlier in the day, for lunch we had a more usual salad of red and yellow tomatoes, basil, and yellow pepper from the market. We have apples, a disappointing melon, and some leeks that I already made into leeks vinaigrette. The Ann Arbor Farmers' Market strikes again!

Cooking

At the farmers' market today I bought ingredients for trying out recipes from my new Dooky Chase Cookbook . (See my post on the book fro...

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16.40

Ann Arbor Farmer's Market Today

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/12003515@N05/4979415307/" title="market4065 by mesander2000, on Flickr"><img alt="market4065" height="480" src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4144/4979415307_d60859d8e1_z.jpg" width="640" /></a> Here's the market stall for the famous Tantre Farms as seen in this weekend's New York Times magazine: <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/12/magazine/12food-t-000.html?ref=magazine">Field Report: Will Work for Food</a> By CHRISTINE MUHLKE. Also, walking around the Ann Arbor Farmers Market this morning I saw lots of beautiful apples, squash, pumpkins, tomatoes, herbs, peppers, onions, potatoes, and one little basket of raspberries (which I didn't buy). Lots of people too: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/12003515@N05/4979415695/" title="market4055 by mesander2000, on Flickr"><img alt="market4055" height="375" src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4130/4979415695_c788d58d4f.jpg" width="500" /></a> <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/12003515@N05/4979415905/" title="market4060 by mesander2000, on Flickr"><img alt="market4060" height="375" src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4132/4979415905_eb50256925.jpg" width="500" /></a> <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/12003515@N05/4979415493/" title="market4058 by mesander2000, on Flickr"><img alt="market4058" height="375" src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4153/4979415493_d89b0ba8e5.jpg" width="500" /></a> <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/12003515@N05/4979416101/" title="market4054 by mesander2000, on Flickr"><img alt="market4054" height="374" src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4111/4979416101_3bc74e32a2.jpg" width="500" /></a> Above: I didn't recognize these -- Chinese squash and bitter melon.

Ann Arbor Farmer's Market Today

Here's the market stall for the famous Tantre Farms as seen in this weekend's New York Times magazine: Field Report: Will Work for ...

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09.36

Leah Chase, New Orleans Princess

<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCrLHpj_a7n2ZR3Z9YHEaunwuKK3urVJ5zz6hjPxHrw66hhgAg9HRIw0M7g0zdhzO2Psg4xVXj5E-afCrEjnh7AiQO07475Shsa70igV6p_pdRkl1I6P8CjQfgg2SJE-BPMJa5osT7eLf_/s1600/DookeyChase.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5515297496704388786" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCrLHpj_a7n2ZR3Z9YHEaunwuKK3urVJ5zz6hjPxHrw66hhgAg9HRIw0M7g0zdhzO2Psg4xVXj5E-afCrEjnh7AiQO07475Shsa70igV6p_pdRkl1I6P8CjQfgg2SJE-BPMJa5osT7eLf_/s400/DookeyChase.jpg" style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 274px; height: 400px;" /></a>The Dooky Chase Cookbook documents the life and recipes of Leah Chase, owner of the Dooky Chase restaurant in New Orleans. Her father-in-law, "Dooky" Chase, founded the restaurant in 1941, at a time when black people in New Orleans had few places other than home where they could sit down to a meal -- after years of selling lottery tickets door-to-door, Dooky Chase opened a "meager po'boy stand" where he sold both lottery tickets and food. She writes: <blockquote>"With 'Dooky,' Sr., being so popular with the lottery and his wife, Emily, being such a good cook, before long they were outgrowing the little corner. Five years later the lottery passed from the scene but the shop was still a popular place to go. It was the only place of its kind for black people at the time." (p. 7)</blockquote>Leah Chase's involvement with the family business started years later, but eventually she became the soul of the restaurant: owner, chief cook, and important local personality. During the Civil Rights era, the restaurant became a meeting place for activists as well as being popular with New Orleans establishment figures. Recent high-profile visits to Leah at her Dooky Chase Restaurant by George Bush and Barack Obama, and her long struggle to reopen after Hurricane Katrina are part of the story, but those events were long after she wrote the book. I enjoyed reading her description of her girlhood and her food memories, which interspersed with detailed recipes, which I look forward to trying. Vegetables, for example, were the main dish for most family meals in the country atmosphere where she grew up. The family just couldn't afford much meat, though her mother loved fishing for perch and similar fish in local waterways, which were far from the sea. "Coming up in the depression days," she wrote, "Daddy always planted everything. He planted greens, okra, and onions." The kids in the family had a lot of work to do, and she was often unhappy when her Daddy insisted on giving away tomatoes or onions that she had worked hard to cultivate. She's anything but nostalgic for her early labor: <blockquote>"If you have ever grown vegetables yourself, you don't care if you grow another one in your life. I'd just as soon go down to the French Market and buy it off some vendor. Some of my sisters still grow herbs for me, but I don't care if I never grow another thing. Farming has got to be the hardest thing in the world. Having grown vegetables does make you more conscious of the quality of the things you are buying, though. There is nothing like fresh vegetables." (p. 168)</blockquote>Since the original publication in 1990, Leah Chase has written another cookbook and also has been interviewed as a model for Disney's Princess Tiana, whose dream of owning her own New Orleans restaurant is a key plot item in the movie. Leah Chase is credited with one of the recipes in the tie-in cookbook -- which to our great surprise is actually a fantastic source of recipes: <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDDVyfr16Djkl51KnR9WfLTQZnRydtqb9I6MIFdRxPebsqLvIEGaDlhPSS0Q5MYdkHMFhuJE2zUb516imd7HtbZnvo31TYCAgTtVzbPAep662ZWWgNUkx0iBP8gsGsIGN9W65-HB7iIXoV/s1600-h/tianas-cookbk.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5419296671643481890" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDDVyfr16Djkl51KnR9WfLTQZnRydtqb9I6MIFdRxPebsqLvIEGaDlhPSS0Q5MYdkHMFhuJE2zUb516imd7HtbZnvo31TYCAgTtVzbPAep662ZWWgNUkx0iBP8gsGsIGN9W65-HB7iIXoV/s320/tianas-cookbk.jpg" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 240px;" /></a> For my previous posts on New Orleans cooking see: <a href="http://regional-food.blogspot.com/2010/02/new-orleans-cookbooks.html">New Orleans Cookbooks</a>, <a href="http://regional-food.blogspot.com/2010/02/alices-birthday-cake.html">Alice's Birthday Cake</a>, and <a href="http://regional-food.blogspot.com/2009/12/what-do-princesses-eat.html">What do princesses eat?</a>

Leah Chase, New Orleans Princess

The Dooky Chase Cookbook documents the life and recipes of Leah Chase, owner of the Dooky Chase restaurant in New Orleans. Her father-in-la...

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07.45

My Parents' Markets

<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxoR07p2Q0ECEPJ0O98zk5bvtN-9s7EOHUi27Nfb_LfGxJMHWZojhJiSOUyQORdjObD1MLaFh9GCM5MsMEHW2VNoxKU1Cep0HTDGZPbtaW9ZwwAL3Cj16RevyFntccAb8jWLd5HWvmLHgd/s1600/loopmkt.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5514268018403990402" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxoR07p2Q0ECEPJ0O98zk5bvtN-9s7EOHUi27Nfb_LfGxJMHWZojhJiSOUyQORdjObD1MLaFh9GCM5MsMEHW2VNoxKU1Cep0HTDGZPbtaW9ZwwAL3Cj16RevyFntccAb8jWLd5HWvmLHgd/s400/loopmkt.jpg" style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 317px;" /></a> Recently, I've posted photos of some of the markets where I shop these days. I was browsing a <a href="http://cdm.sos.mo.gov/cdm4/browse.php?CISOROOT=/ucdelmar&CISOSTART=1,1">collection of historic photos</a> of places I've lived, and found two photos of the markets where my parents frequently shopped when I was in elementary school. Above is a market called Schenberg's. I don't recall quite so much merchandise stacked outside. My father (who did most of the grocery shopping) preferred it to most others, until later when he switched to A&P. In fact these small independent stores weren't really able to compete with the big chains. Below is the Loop Market, which my parents definitely didn't like much, though I recall going in there from time to time when I was sent to buy something. In the background of this photo you can see the distinctive octagonal City Hall of University City. At right you can see the streetcar tracks and just a bit of a streetcar making the "loop" around the building, from which it would then return to downtown St.Louis. <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVlXPIIvzEmZN5R46XuVx2uKQn4o0_lqdbNPXQ2eAgtTggCarGFisnNMCsnZpai-cARwFnEKphO_gmCIjICUIHlOUP0cNaPDdV2HSL9_XLr14ididatVFqFsGamO3M4HR30CESZNZnUQoI/s1600/loopmkt2.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5514268017950971842" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVlXPIIvzEmZN5R46XuVx2uKQn4o0_lqdbNPXQ2eAgtTggCarGFisnNMCsnZpai-cARwFnEKphO_gmCIjICUIHlOUP0cNaPDdV2HSL9_XLr14ididatVFqFsGamO3M4HR30CESZNZnUQoI/s400/loopmkt2.jpg" style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 322px;" /></a>I was also very excited to see a photo of the Dime Store that I shopped in as a child -- including a typically dressed family being helped by a friendly policeman, just like in the beginning readers. My friend Dorothy and I would go there and look at dolls and doll clothes. She had money for doll clothes, and so her dolls were better-dressed than mine were. Later, we shopped there for jewelry and for makeup. <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqfkoQsG5eJGAFjjvYgYGskGEMFwgl34A73Tu6Rdj4c4L-o377uNpiH0Re0nNqvcrJgIxh9H4rTIZl9c5jgO-aaQMvqCnXQlOYqtPlhoE1gm7bmjoV6RRT5L2embIod6Br7_Osy0wInH1u/s1600/kresge.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5514268013051733842" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqfkoQsG5eJGAFjjvYgYGskGEMFwgl34A73Tu6Rdj4c4L-o377uNpiH0Re0nNqvcrJgIxh9H4rTIZl9c5jgO-aaQMvqCnXQlOYqtPlhoE1gm7bmjoV6RRT5L2embIod6Br7_Osy0wInH1u/s400/kresge.jpg" style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 317px;" /></a> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQ_tWeek6JI5CxNNh5Tu0BaZzAZQ6O58R17ISZwrRazzdyZCxyY9IX9PWd5EjtcQ6I-H_PwYFrDEq50S-CSkpKXT_OMeCejN_s96XhZNtfAFFWmK6TZ0t78aQMQ0PFiF0zYVZYcyRahzbr/s1600/molls.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5514712137752439442" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQ_tWeek6JI5CxNNh5Tu0BaZzAZQ6O58R17ISZwrRazzdyZCxyY9IX9PWd5EjtcQ6I-H_PwYFrDEq50S-CSkpKXT_OMeCejN_s96XhZNtfAFFWmK6TZ0t78aQMQ0PFiF0zYVZYcyRahzbr/s400/molls.jpg" style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 118px;" /></a>UPDATE: Here is a photo of Moll's Market, where my mother shopped in my early childhood. We had no car, and I remember walking several blocks from our apartment with my sister in her Taylor-Tot (a type of stroller). This is the only photo I can find, and it's very little, but you can see the displays of produce on the sidewalk. It was quite a luxury market, with an in-store bakery with glass cases full of beautiful cakes. The family favorite was a really delicious lemon layer cake, sold by the slice. I've never had anything quite that good.