Today’s a rare day that I’ve got mostly to myself.  So, it’s off with the wife to find some fresh pick-your-own strawberries.  Updates forthcoming.

I had a good dinner on Sunday for our wedding anniversary, but lately I just haven’t been feeling the food love.  Case in point: dinner last night – tuna salad sandwiches.  Dinner Monday?  Canned soup.  Dinner tonight?  Leftover tuna salad.

I haven’t fully changed seasonal gears yet, which is part of the problem.  Summer goodies are becoming more scarce, but so far I have not really managed to get the fall goodness under my skin.

That being said, it is starting to be apple season.  I need to get up to the orchards and find myself some Stayman Winesap apples.  If you haven’t tried these, do so.  They’re an heirloom variety – no super-sweet hybrid, this.  It was developed in the mid-1800s and is a beautiful apple for cooking as well as an unusual treat to eat out of hand.  It’s not a pretty fruit – dull red with a brownish bloom.  The flavor, though, is intensely sweet-tart and winy.  Many orchards grow them to add depth to their pressed cider.

First, I would exhort you to make these from scratch.  Jiffy mix and Bisquick are convenient, sure, but that box of miscellaneous baking mix that’s been sitting in your cupboard for months isn’t going to give you the best results.  Besides, if you’re going to spend the calories on something tasty, doesn’t it make sense to put some love into it?  Making your own batter also ensures that you know exactly what you’re eating.  Plus, it’s just really simple to do.

Ingredients:

1 c flour, unbleached all-purpose
1 tbsp sugar
1/4 tsp salt
2 tsp baking powder
1 c soy or skim milk
2 tbsp vegetable oil
1 whole egg
1/4 tsp cinnamon, fresh ground if possible
1 c blueberries, fresh or frozen, rinsed & drained

In a medium bowl, combine flour, salt, sugar, baking powder, and cinnamon.

In a 16-oz. Pyrex measuring cup, or small bowl, combine milk, oil, and egg.  Beat lightly until combined.

Pour wet ingredients over the dry ingredients, and mix until just combined, but still slightly lumpy.  Let batter stand for 5 minutes, then briefly mix again.

Heat a griddle or heavy skillet over medium heat until hot.  Lightly wipe or brush with vegetable oil, and add 1/4 cup of batter to pan for each pancake.  Add blueberries to the top of pancakes once in the pan while the batter is still liquid, before flipping.  Cook first side until golden brown, flip, and cook until done.  Remove finished pancakes to a plate in a warm oven until ready to serve.

Makes about 8 pancakes.  Each pancake is about 125 kcal, most of it from the starch in the flour, before you add any butter, syrup, or honey.  There’s really no way to make these “light” – cutting the oil in half only saves you about 20 kcal per pancake.  But, honestly, a little powdered sugar might be all you want for these guys.  They’re moist, fluffy, and fruity all on their own.

And, by market I don’t mean a trip to the nearest strip-mall supermarket with cart corrals, though I shop at Giant and Safeway like everyone else.  It was walk-to-market day.  I work from home one day a week, and every other Wednesday I’m afforded the luxury of my own private branch office in Catonsville, MD.  Not only to I get to save 20% on my commuting fuel consumption, I can walk or ride to somewhere interesting on our “main street” at lunch time.

Every Wednesday morning, from May to November, we have a local farmers’ market.  It’s small, it’s in the community center parking lot, but it’s better than just about any grocery store’s produce department. All vendors must grow or produce for themselves all of the goods they sell.  No “faux-farmers” offloading trucks of greenhouse tomatoes from produce distributors; these folks grow it, care for it, pick it, and truck it to your community.  We use the farmers’ market a lot.  When I’m home on Tuesdays instead of Wednesday, Theresa makes the trip to gather the goods.

Today’s catch was excellent – August is a peak harvest month for vegetables here in the Mid-Atlantic.  The early ripening tomatoes are tailing off and the late ripening ones are in full swing – Romas and cherry varieties produce prodigious yields throughout the summer starting in July.  Summer squashes are piled high, in beautiful condition, and dirt cheap.  Yellow crooknecks and zucchinis share a season, for the most part, and they produce like crazy all at once.  The ones pictured above weigh about a pound and a half a piece and were in the huge “Take my squash, please!” bin at 3 for $1.00.

Cantaloupe and eggplants of all sorts are in full swing.  The melons, heavy and sweet smelling, were piled high at a buck each, and the large eggplants were going for 75¢ apiece.  I bought two of each.  Roasted eggplant is a great diet food – filling and low calorie, it soaks up other flavors with aplomb and has a savory sweetness of its own.

Some of the specialty items can get a little more pricey, but I’d much rather pay a local organic farmer $4 for a carton of beautiful, unblemished fingerling potatoes than $5-6 for a half-dried-out pint in a gourmet market.  I didn’t get any dairy or smoked fish this week, which kept me from a lot of the higher costs.  A pint-sized mixed variety of yellow, orange, red, and purple cherry tomatoes cost me all of $3.  A plastic package of not-quite fully ripe Mexican grape tomatoes runs $2.50 at the supermarket – you do the math.

Roma tomatoes were on the list, and there were some beauties for $2 a quart – firm and fleshy but sweet.  I breeze by the heirloom vegetables every time I’m there without buying.  I must commit some sort of foodie heresy by saying that I really don’t taste the big deal.  Maybe it’s just this one vendor picking early to get the premium prices these rare fruits demand.  Of course, this makes me want to experiment with growing them myself.

Then there’s the bread – I spare no expense with the bread.  If I could eat enough of the stuff in a week, I’d drop a double-sawbuck here every time I walked by.  Today, though, it’s just a loaf of crusty Italian bread with rosemary.  The baker at the market is Atwater’s – one of the premier bread makers in Baltimore, perhaps even in the region.  Their artisanal breads are hand-formed, baked locally daily, and use locally sourced ingredients, including organic flours.  Besides the gorgeous loaf shown here, they offer a rustic wheat loaf, a round boule with kalamata olives, another sourdough boule with cranberries and toasted walnuts, and dense, chewy whole grain raisin-nut bread.  If bread is the staff of life, Atwater’s whittles a hell of a stick.  $5 a loaf, on average, which is a steal for handmade goods of this quality, and they also offer pre-made soups and locally produced cheeses.

When all was said and done – I had two shopping bags full of goodies holding somewhere between twenty and twenty-five pounds of food.  In the process, I spent about $22.  Much of it was organically grown, all of it produced within about an hour’s drive, and all of it at the peak of freshness.  I mean, just look at those plump, almost translucent cherry tomatoes in that picture.

Find a market in your area – if you can walk or bike to it, even better.  You’ll directly support people who need your patronage to earn their living, and you’ll be rewarded with top of the line ingredients for your kitchen.  Take reusable bags and paper sacks with you – that way you won’t be bringing home a wad of plastic film bags, destined for the landfill.  If you walk, consider a canvas tote with comfortable handles.  If you bike, saddlebags, bike baskets, and backpacks will help with your haul.

Linkin’ it up for y’all:

• Atwater’s Bakery
• LocalHarvest Farmer’s Market Directory