This coming Saturday, May 17th will be our return date to the Dieppe Market for the 2025 season. We’ll be outside in our regular spot (by the rue Acadie facing entrance). We love it out there because it’s not as overwhelming as it is inside and because it stays cooler for longer (as the sun rises on the opposite side of the market) which is great for the produce.
We’re so excited to see you again!
So, what will we be bringing?
Veggies:
Bok choi, nettles, green onions, chives, lovage, Tetsukabuto Japanese Squash (our longest storing squash!), red onions, burdock, and possibly a few other things but it’s too early in the week to promise.
Seedlings and seeds:
A few of the many seedlings we’ll have this week: Strawberries, Sage, Thyme, Chard, Kale, Cut flower mix 4 packs, Grapevines, Kiwi vines, Parsley, Nasturtium (with rose coloured flowers), French Marigold and Gem Marigolds, Lettuce, Basil, Celery, Figs, Lavender, etc.
We won’t yet be bringing tomato seedlings (though we’ll start bringing them the following Saturday) as it’s a bit too early to plant them for most folks. But we have plenty on the way!
A bit about Burdock
I (Shannon) was especially excited about the burdock harvest. Because our fall was so warm for so long last year, I wasn’t super pleased with it, so we didn’t harvest it. But yesterday we harvested all the burdock (it’s quite challenging actually) and cooked it for lunch and I thought it was perfect. I’m looking forward to eating a lot more of it.
Perhaps you’ve never eaten burdock root before? That’s pretty normal as it’s very hard to find. It’s definitely more common in Japanese cooking. Though people all around the world have used it as a spring tonic – for helping to cleanse and nourish the skin, liver, and digestive tract most of all.
What does it taste like? It’s pretty mild….stir fried I find it similar to a carrot that isn’t super sweet, more nutty. Many resources refer to it as “earthy” though I certainly don’t find it as earthy as beets. You can scrub them and leave the skin on (which seems to be mostly recommended) though peeling is great too –and may remove any earthy flavour.
It’s always fun to eat something new, in the spring especially. For its health benefits, it can also be used to make tea, tinctures, infused oil (for using on skin), a bath soak.
As I was eating it, despite it being mild tasting, I had an inner craving for more and couldn’t get enough.
Other spring delicacies
I also love the spring tonic of eating nettles. They’re great for tea, but at this time of year, I prefer them as a green vegetable. We add them to egg dishes, soups, any dish where another green leaf would be added during cooking. We also add them raw to smoothies and find they add a tropical note (randomly since they don’t otherwise taste tropical).
The lovage is also a brief spring delicacy. During the rest of the year, it’s perplexing why we devote space to growing it. But at this time of year, I’m always so excited for it. It’s flavour is so rich and unique to me.
What else is happening on the farm?
Our only current hen to sit on any nests (last year she sat on 3, this year 1 so far) is busy raising her newest brood of 3 (one white one and 2 black/grey ones). All 3 in this round have feathery feet so they are at least ½ Silkie breed.
Even though it’s hardly an efficient or reliable way of raising new chicks on the farm (in terms of numbers), I love having chickens on the farm who were raised by a mama hen. Most chicks in this world are raised by electricity (first in the incubator and then, after they’re hatched, with heat lamps). They rely on their peers and instincts to figure out life, rather than watching and imitating their mama. Our mama hen was communicating with her chicks while they were growing in their eggs and they go to her for warmth and safety. They climb onto her for fun and definitely sometimes she seems exasperated!
What I’m Reading
I just finished a book I borrowed from the library called Coming to My Senses: The Making of a Counterculture Cook by Alice Waters (of the famed Chez Panisse restaurant in Berkely, California). It was a quick read and super enjoyable.
Here’s a quote:
“Carlo Petrini, founder of the Slow Food movement, calls farmers the intellectuals of the land – when they’re in the right understanding and frame of mind, they’re doing it (calculating all the intricacies of their microclimate) almost subconsciously. What’s endlessly fascinating to me about cooking and eating is the biodiversity of the planet. The depth of the abundance of the earth. I’ll never be able to comprehend it. Nobody can. And that’s the tragedy of fast food – everything in this country changed with fast food. We wanted shippability, we wanted year-round availability, we wanted food for cheap. And when you achieve all that, you takeaway everything – you lose touch with nature, and you exist in a hollow place, devoid of beauty and nourishment.”
See you at the Market!
We’re really looking forward to sharing this growing season with you. As each week passes, our offerings on the stand will shift and change to celebrate the changing seasonality. Thank you for taking part in the social ecosystem of Broadfork Farm!
See you soon, your farmers Shannon & Bryan
