What's In Season Now - Ramps!

Guest Blogger David the Hat Hammond Blogs the Rampfest

About the first thing to arrive in the ground around these parts are ramps, and man about town, David Hammond happened to be there as they sprouted. He contributed a report to WBEZ's 848 on the annual Rampfest at Spence Farm, and he also agreed to write a post for the blog.

Rummaging for Ramps

Ramps are funny vegetables. They’re the first tender premonitions of springtime, delicate, yet resistant to being torn from the still cool earth. As Marty Travis of Spence Farm explained, “You have to get under them,” with a shovel or spade, and work them up gently, or they break and you’re left with a fistful of greens.

Travis is one of the coolest guys I’ve met in a long time. Supplier to Frontera/Topolobampo, Vie and many other higher-end Chicagoland restaurants, Marty is an unassuming man who speaks with simplicity and gentleness that reflects the rolling land of a farm that’s been in his family since 1830.

Every year for the past few, Travis has worked with Terra Brockman of the Land Connection to host a ramp dig, which is now a major attraction among chefs who come to get their hands dirty ripping up ramps and reconnecting with the source of the food they serve their patrons.

After a few hours of ramping, there’s a farm lunch that’s about as wonderful as one could imagine. Some of the area’s most adventurous chefs bring in favorite dishes in an unspoken, gentlemanly competition to shine in a room of some of the brightest culinary minds. From Frontera, there was incredibly tender and subtly piquant roast pork with fresh tortillas; from Vie, full flavored pate, brilliantly crisp housemade pickles and goat butter pound cake. There were many other miraculous contributions, but perhaps the most memorable sensation was the feeling that these chefs were coming together to make great food but also to rediscover and reconnect with the source of that food.

Like I said, ramps are funny. Fresh from the ground, they are almost unpleasantly strong tasting, a kind of vibrant hybrid of garlic and onion, aggressively green. Cut into, say, an egg salad and kept a day, they lose their anger at being ripped out of the earth so young, and gain a subtle tang that makes them a special and pleasing, though transient, taste of spring.

Some pix from the dig, courtesy of the Hat:

Paul and Janet Virant, ramping

Dean Zanella of 312 Chicago, along with a coterie of other ramp-loving chefs, cleaning the leek-like shoots

Goat butter pound cake

Goat, done birria-style

What's in Season - April

On Your Own

The newest list of seasonal and available local products is below. April's a mixed blessing for the local food lover. It is the first month that this list grew (compare to last month or the month before). On the other hand, the outlets for local food are somewhat sparse right now. Aside from the Geneva local superstore, there's no area farmers markets (that I know of) this month.

Last week, Cassie had Wisconsin potatoes; Irv and Shelly have the ever present sprouts and a few other items, but outlets for local foods are not ample this month. Lucky folks like me have Spring CSA subscriptions. Farmer Vicki made the first delivery of her Spring CSA yesterday. Farmer Vicki, at least, however, has limited space for her Spring CSA. The best place for locavores* this month, for sure, will be a few hours northwest of Chicago, the Dane County Farmers Market in Madison, Wisconsin, which goes outdoors on April 19. I'll be there.

Meat

Beef, lamb, chicken, pork

Fish

farm raised tilapia and trout
trout
smelt
commercial Great Lakes fish - pike, whitefish, perch, white bass, carp

Field crops

asparagus
rhubarb

Greenhouse crops

beets
turnips
spinach
chard and other greens
lettuces
arugula
herbs
sprouts and microgreens
mushrooms
burdock
radish

Storage crops

onions
potatoes
carrots (also greenhouse)
parsnips
apples

Wild and weeds

ramps
morels
watercress
dandelion

*I was using the spelling "localvore" in respect for Drake's site, but since he's gone long dormat (hopefully he'll be up again) I'm going to the more common spelling.

Use Local Dairy

Yogurt, Ice Cream

Earlier this week, I blogged about all the good local milk that goes into local cheese. There's other ways to use our local milk.

I find three ways to make great yogurt. First, drain the stuff. You get a thick spread with a nice mouth feel. Second, use whole milk. In fact, the great yogurt in Greektown is the result of both of these steps. The third way is to use pasture-fed, organic, high quality local milk. There's at least three places around us doing that. There's Sugar River Dairy from Wisconsin, Whispering Meadows Farm from Illinois and Traders Point Creamery from Indiana. The first two are somewhat hard to find around Chicago markets (now), but my sources tell me Sugar River yogurt might be showing up at some markets, including farmers markets soon. Traders Point Creamery yogurt can be found at most Whole Foods and also Fox & Obel.

While Traders Point Creamery yogurt can be found at a lot of places, I do not know many places to find their ice cream. Luckily, it's just another good excuse to visit Cassie's Green Grocer. Her freezer case contains the vanilla ice cream from Traders Creamery, and when I say ice cream, I mean cream. This is an ideal variation on the theme of cream, one in its more solid state.

Discover how our local farmers are putting their milk to good use.

Farmer Blog

Harmony Valley

The farmers at Harmony Valley Farm in Wisconsin have taken to the blogisphere. Some interesting stuff on how organic, year-round farming works. Harmony Valley products, especially their ramps, can sometimes be found in Chicago area Whole Foods. You can also stop by their stand at the Dane County Farmer's Market.

What's Local, Whole Foods, Maxwell Street

20 Varieties of Sprouts, Some Mushrooms

Whole Foods and the rest of the businesses with their complex near Roosevelt and Canal succeeded in moving the Sunday Maxwell Street Market a block away from them. So, if their plan was to keep the Maxwell Street shoppers out, they failed. I stopped in at that Whole Foods last Sunday. With my Maxwell Street bags.

I espied the chalkboard. 26 local items this day it said. My family and I played local hide and seek. Could we really find all 26. It took a few minutes to find something, beets from Wisconsin. We looked more. We asked. We looked. 25 to go? We asked. Someone put the number up, but no one could account for it. We checked for apples. This winter we did once find Michigan apples at a Whole Foods. We looked for potatoes. We have seen organic potatoes from Igl Farm of Wisconsin before. Onions. No. Finally, we made it to the sprouts. Most of the sprouts came from area greenhouses. Maybe if we counted. Then, again, there was at least one pack of Wisconsin mushrooms. 26?

Eat Local Cheese

Continued

Here's Jeanne Carpenter's, of Cheese Underground, list of favorite Wisconsin cheeses. Not a bad list, not a bad list...

Eat Local Cheese

NYTimes Highlights Wisconsin Cheesemakers

I bought the NYTimes yesterday, partly for the Spring Travel Mag; then I noticed that part gone when I sat down to read. I found it soaked, this morning, in the backyard. I must have dropped it. Luckily, Daisy on the Mouthfuls site tipped me off to the great spread on Wisconsin cheesemakers in the magazine that I could find online.

The piece gets it pretty darn right. Profiling (briefly) the really famous, Uplands; the almost as famous, Carr Valley; the one known to those in the know, Bleu Mont Dairy; the one who's almost just as known for not being able to have her cheese, Fantome Farm, and the one who's working hard to be known, Hidden Springs Creamery.

It's certainly a who's who of my favorite cheeses, with Bleu Mont's bandaged cheddar and Hidden Springs spreadable sheep milk being about the two best cheeses in the bungalow right now--being given some competition from some Hook's 10 year old cheddar I found hidden in our basement fridge.

Vie, The Menu

No Pork Sausage for You

A day after our Vie meal, Chef Paul Virant created (and posted) a new menu. Unfortunately, it appears you won't be able to try his house made pork sausage. My guess is that he ran out. My further guess is that this menu will soon be ramp-redundant. If you want your baby artichokes, now's the time to hit Vie.

Yesterday's Must Read

3 New Farmer's Markets

Actually this was Saturday's Must Read but I'm just getting 'round to catching up on a lot of things to blog. My friend Monica Eng reports on the good news of three more farmers markets opening, and the especially good news that they will be serving "food deserts", areas generally lacking in fresh food options. The good news is somewhat tapped down by the reporting

Farmers markets sponsored by the city have strict rules that allow only those who grow the food to sell it and prohibit the sale of prepared foods. The new hybrid market in Bronzeville will allow cooked foods, antiques vendors, music, re-sold produce and other items prohibited at regular markets.

As I have become friends with Robin, who did such a fantastic job organizing this season's winter markets (which ended with a bang yesterday), I've learned that there's some tension between antiques, crafts and the what-not and farmers at markets. Essentially farmers don't seem to like the artsy types. Me, I not much for that kinda stuff either, although my wife can spend as much money as I do on food as on home-made earrings, but I think any thing that drives traffic to a farmers market is a good thing. I, obviously, have problems with the re-sold produce.

The rationale for the third party produce is that the neighborhood has such limited access to fresh fruits and vegetables in the first place."We wanted the opportunity to have some resale of things like citrus and bananas," [market manager] Johnson-Gabriel said.

Me, I think that's a recipe for trouble, a vicious circle in the making. Too many market visitors will get tempted by the lower prices of the re-sold produce. Local farmers will give up on the market. I mean during the farmers market season do people need access to citrus and bananas? I would be more sympathetic to that argument if the market ran year round. I also know I'm being overly cynical and perhaps a bit, no it's really not racist because I see all kinds of people sticking to the least local food at the Oak Park Farmer's Market, but what, classist, I do not know, but I certainly don't trust people to make the local choice (always) on their own. I'm an eat local Trotskyite.

Today's Must Read

Factory Farmed

From today's CTrib, a California dairyman looks to bring Cali-style milk farming to the Midwest. The words that give away the game:

Much of the feed for the cows he milks on his dad's land comes from the Midwest, and a good portion of the milk is shipped back to the Midwest. Bos said it doesn't take a business genius to figure out how to increase profits. "It's more expensive getting feed to California and hauling the milk back," he said. "It's more efficient to put the cows where the feed is."

Me, I prefer my milk from cow's that eat grass, on pasture.

Factory dairymen taut the economic benefits they bring, transforming a sagging part of the agricultural economy in Illinois.

He estimated the farm would create 40 jobs, paying about $10 per hour.

Wow

Now, I'm not against business and commerce and success. Farmers should be able to make money and best use their land (cf what's wrong with the current farm subsidies), but there's also good farming and bad farming. This is bad farming. Bad animal husbandry (I know I've toured a factory milk operation in Arizona), bad tasting milk (cows need grass), tremendous enviromental risks (google Smithfield). For forty jobs. Instead, try producing good milk that can demand a premium at the market, local milk.

Eat local encapsulates a lot of things for my family and me. We use local milk--I would say drink, but 95% of our milk purchases goes into morning coffee, so it's more like a condiment than a beverage--as part of our greater commitment to local. Local means supporting good farmers. Local means supporting sustainable agriculture. Local means finding products that tastes great. You can have it all. Here in the Chicago area we can chose from such dairy as Crystal Ball Farms or Oak Grove Organics or the most accessible, Farmer's All Natural Creamery from Kalona, Iowa. (Compare your milk here.) Be willing to pay the small premium for this kind of milk. It's worth it.

The Vie-Dict

Spring Break at Vie

Aside from a quick jaunt to Madison, we did not leave town for spring break. With Trillinesque logic (as well as an about to be expired gift certificate) we planned on visiting Vie this week. The chance to arbitrate between Ulterior Epicure's stellar meal and Abby from Gaper's Block trying experience gave me all the more reason. Fodder, fodder, fodder.

And, as long time devotees of my eating can suss, the winner is Mr. Epicure. This is no offense to Ms. Abby. Bad meals happen to everyone. Our dinner last night met all our expectations for Vie in terms of deliciousness, innovation, ingredient quality, and generosity. I'm just always left ready to return. Is there no better endorsement than that?

My daughters are somewhat reluctant gourmets. In fact they pushed for delivery pizza as this week's splurge. At Vie, both had a hard time deciding what to get, especially the younger who decided she was in a no-split kinda mood that day. Still, after tense ordering, Sophia sez with confidence, "I always look forward to the amuse. I may not like it, but I'll always try the amuse." What a proud papa moment.

The amuse is always good at Vie. Most of the time I am left with the desire to have about five more helpings. Yesterday's meal started with a fritter dotted with green garlic, served over a green garlic mayo. We all picked up a bit of curry of what not. It reminded us of the pakoras we had last weekend on Devon (Da'bomb).

First course for me was a touch choice between house made salami/mortadella and house-made pork sausage. I'm glad I went with the later. One of the best dishes I've had a Vie. For one thing, I loved the sausage with its high funk and lose texture. For another, the garnish really made this dish. It was marinated chick peas (a Virant signature ingredient) with bright preserved oranges (think more than one meaning of bright) and a smoked paprika vinaigrette. Seems like a lot, no? It was a prime example of a Vie dish; the combination of fresh and tang, use of the wood stoked grill, and mostly, the hand, the special taste that only small batch sausage can have. Moreover, not many think molecular gastronomy when they think Vie, but here was a dish were all of those disparate elements (plus some miner's lettuce) combined into something wholly greater than their parts. A true recipe.

My wife's scallop appetizer converted older daughter to a scallop lover; really garlic heavy salad enticed the other daughter (what's that you are always saying about wine friend food Paul?). The New Zealand venison combo I shared with my wife offended my localvore convictions but not my palate. Chef Virant is incapable of sending our an inferior plate of gnocchi. It was nearly all good. Just so you know I am not a shill, I will point out a few things.

My younger daughter, who loves a good amuse, also has a thing for just trying stuff on a menu. Why something appeals to her, I'm not quite sure. In Madison, shrimp de jonge called out to her; last night it was the baked farinata or chick pea cake. She and pretty much the whole table, found it bland (especially compared with so much else on the table). The fresh bacon, crisped on the surface and gooey within, between my wife and I, tasted good, fatty-good, but was, perhaps, just a bit too much fat even for me. Maybe. The house made giardinara helped cut the richness. Fatty or not, we still made empty plate.

We really made empty plate from that venison. The venison itself, seared leg and smoked loin, was somewhat inoffensive, not bad, but on its own probably boring. Chef Virant takes this blank space and fills it with good things: wild rice and preserved pecans and preserved blueberries. He cooks down the juices of the preserved items and makes a sauce with browned butter. With tiny, earthy fried sunchoke chips atop, this was a pick your plate up and lick clean kinda dish. Maybe next time, sticky customer that I am, I might just have them skip the venison and have the wild rice as a side dish.

The rest of the meal proceeded with an array of tasty food. Mid entree, for the table, house manager Jenny brought over a special of ramp cake with fried egg. As much as this is spring and local and new ramps, what made the dish was the perfectly cooked, awash in butter, farm egg. Pre-dessert, the kidz got sorbe made with mandarins, my wife and I got sorbets made from white wine. Like the egg, the fritter, Vie's techniques are so good. The sorbets had that fruitier than fruit quality to them. The kidz shared a creme brule, my wife and I the gooey butter cake, and we split an order of donuts with caramel corn. Our last bites were tiny whipped up nutty meringues. We were stuffed.

Today's Must Rant

Phil Vettel, Tired of Root Vegetables

In today's CTrib, Phil Vettel writes:

No more rutabaga! I mean it. Don't get me wrong; I love root vegetables. Roast me up some beets, throw a turnip in the blender and I'm a happy guy. But it's the end of March. Subterranean vegetables have been a part of Chicago menus since, oh, October. And if I have one more hunk of braised meat on a bed of parsnip puree, I'm going to do something drastic. Like move to Mexico. I've given a name to my pain: Culinary Cabin Fever. It's caused by a prolonged, harsh winter and an endless stream of seasonal menus.

I hear your Phil. I mean who's suffered more from the endless winter then me and my apple loving daughters. I should be like, "right on bro", right? I'm not. Sure, I get the bit of humor in his rant, but frankly, the bit did not ring true. I think the end of the article gives it away.

Chicago's most respected produce wholesaler offers this advice to Phil:

"We're starting to get strawberries," he says, "and the answer is, look to Florida. I love the Florida berry. And in the early spring, first off, we'll see the fiddlehead ferns, morels from the woods, ramps. Green garlic—it's wonderful for soup. Then the rhubarb, and finally the California delta asparagus."

Does that sound like a man living off his root cellar?

Drink Local Water

It Tastes Better

For a while, we were uncorking a bottle of Polish fizzy water per dinner. It had a bright, clean taste. More importantly, it was only about a dollar per bottle (16 ounces). As Mom and I drank wine or beer, the inclusion of bottled water helped make the meals seem a bit more complete for the kidz.* For reasons stated in this Monica Eng piece, we've mostly ditched the bottled water.

*I'm a big believer in the little things make the meal matter; theory of eating at home. We hardly ever allow ourselves to eat dinner in front of the TV; at least two courses helps, a bowl of olives or a plate of pickles increases the pleasure of the meal. Good bread makes a difference and fresh bread is nearly always good bread. Things like that. You cannot eat local unless you make the dining experience worthwhile. And the ephemera of dining makes a difference.

Locally Grown With Love and Dedication

Look Who Has a Web Site Now

My favorite farmer, Farmer Vicki of Genesis Growers has gone online. Information for ordering from her CSA is on the site and a nice schedule of her forthcoming crops (pdf).

Site Meter

Turn Over a New Leaf...for Life! Eat More Watercress

The crawler from Watercess.com got my site today. Who knew! I do agree with the sentiment from the banner on their site.

End of an Era/Era Continues

Thai Grocery/Abruzzo's

Just some quick vital info:

Thai Grocery (5014 N Broadway St., Chicago), the source for all things Thai food, and repository of the finest curries (head straight back, choose three from six or so, with rice for $4.50) is closing. They are having a retirement sale now. The always smiling man behind the counter (what's his name Erik M?) will use his laser pointer to show you his favorite fish sauce, sweet chili sauce, mushroom sauce and more amongst the array crammed into his store. While contemplating the curries, other good things you'll find in the back include mash-ups of herbs, spices and peppers called nam prik, battered fried ribs that hold up better to time than someone's corn dogs, and house-made sausage. This is a place who's departure will be sorely missed.

In Melrose Park, at Abruzzo's (1509 Division St, Melrose Park*) when you hear "How ya doin' Bobby", six heads turn. When my wife and I first tried the buffet at Abruzzo's, we were the only ones in the crowd not named Bobby. OK, maybe not everyone was Bobby, but amongst the Tony's, Nickys and such we were the only ones not known to each other. It did not make a difference. The staff appreciated our visit and the food made us return. An Italian wedding spread still exists Monday through Friday, lunch, in Melrose. There's a pasta or two, the lasagna noodles are house-made, the salad has that kinda delicious vinaigrette that I can never figure out how to make myself. Once it was Chicken Vesuvio, heavy with dried spices; another day nearly the same type of baked chicken was smothered with pickled hot peppers, olives and artichoke hearts and called hunters's. There's things like bite sized sausage and simmered greens and beans. The bread from Labriola is amazingly good, and to finish, there's slices of pound cake, three varieties per day. The food is refilled as needed. For roughly $8, a great lunch option in the Near West suburbs.

*Don't let the address fool you. It's the same Division but Division does not run through from Chicago/Oak Park/River Forest. The easiest, pretty much the only way, to get to this place is off of 15th Avenue (see this Google map). It's worth the schlep not just for the classic Melrose Park Southern Italian fare, but it's a short jaunt then to Caputo's Cheese Market on the other side of North Avenue on 15th.

You Know You are a Localvore

Watercress

We worked our dinner last night around a few sprigs of watercress, but before I get into that, let me amend something I wrote yesterday. I said hooray, something grown in the ground, the watercress. Now, there have been all sortsa things local to eat, all winter, grown in the ground, using hoop houses. These polyethylene plastic contraptions trick Mother Earth, keeping the ground from freezing, and allowing for various plants to grow around here in the winter. For instance, all winter long, Paul Virant at Vie has been serving a salad with lettuces from Wisconsin. The frost kissed spinach from Snug Haven Farms is grown ala hoop. Hoop stuff is grown in ground stuff. It tastes real, natural. What I really meant to say is that the watercress is the first thing grown outside in the ground. Nature grown.

It's a great thing watercress, certainly this wild watercress from Wisconsin. When you start nibbling you get a pleasant, anise-ish taste in your mouth, just a bit vegetal. Then, before you know it, the mustard's creeped up on you and soon that pleasant taste in your mouth is not one of licorice but of spice; not habenero hot, but nicely hot. It's worth building a meal around. One of the best ways to use watercress, I think, is with egg salad. Now, being a local eating family but also a snobbish family at that, it cannot just be egg salad. First we have to run to the Dominick's on Lake Street in Oak Park. We cannot have egg salad with mere Hellman's. This store has absolutely one thing we like about it, only one thing to ever cause us to set foot in it: Davidson's Pasteurized Eggs. My wife and I, even with Farmer Vicki's farm eggs, feel safe(r) making our mayo from the pasteurized eggs (of course I say we, but only one person makes the mayo in our house and it aint me). What did we find. Three cartons of Davidson's eggs, two expired and the third with a broken egg. We trucked to the next closest Dominick's, the one in River Forest (an even worse example of the modern supermarket). They had maybe three cartons as well, a few days past their sell-by date, which seemed good enough. So it's a-boiling eggs, whipping up mayo. That's not good enough for our cress. I have to boil maybe twelve red potatoes to make salad to side our egg salad. Dinner came eventually.

Watercress garnish for egg salad sandwich makes little dent in our stash. I went to bed last night dreaming of watercress ideas. One of the most famous dishes in the modern French era was the late Bernard Loiseau's frog legs with parsley sauce. I figured given the natural proximity of frogs to water and water to watercress, would not this dish be more interesting with a watercress coulis? Having also looked at several watercress soup recipes and washed about 10 small freshwater snails outta our cress, I wondered about a cream of watercress soup with snails and garlic croutons. Let me know your watercress ideas.

Winter's Just a Market Away - For One Last Day

This is It

This is your last winter market and also last farmer's market (except Geneva) in the Chicago area until May. Stock up. Market notice/details below.

It’s officially spring, and time for the
F I N A L
Winter Farmers Market
of the 2007-2008 season!
~
Winter Farmers Market & Brunch
Sunday, March 30
10 A.M. TO 2 P.M.
Grace Lutheran Church
7300 Division Street, River Forest, IL (One block West of Harlem & Division)

Plenty of free parking on-street, in the Concordia parking garage just South of the church, or in the Priory lot to the North across the street.

Brunch
will be served while quantities last,
featuring ingredients from participating farm vendors.
Suggested donation for brunch is $8 Adults, $4 Children under 12

This Market will feature:
* Natural, hormone-free meats

* Organic lettuce, kale & chard

* Organic herbs (including basil)

* Micro-greens & shoots

* Tilapia (farm-raised in Illinois –no mercury!)

* Organic potatoes

* Fresh mushrooms (several varieties)

* Onions & shallots

* Michigan apples NEW to the market this week!

* Organic wheatberries; several varieties of milled flours

* Cheese, in a variety of flavors

* Yogurt, in a variety of flavors

* Honey, in a variety of flavors

* Apple & pear butters

* Goats’ milk soaps

* Pet products

* Mead (honey wine) NEW to the market this week!

* Spa & beauty products

* Freshly made basil vinaigrette dressing & pesto NEW to the market this week!

* Infused vinegars & dried herbs

* Wool yarn & woolen goods

* Sorghum syrup

* Beautiful fruit tarts & pastries by the Sisters of Fraternite Notre Dame

* Fair trade coffee, chocolate & tea

* Fair trade organic olive oil from the Palestinian region

* CSA (community supported agriculture) subscriptions for fresh, locally grown vegetables this summer—available for pickup at the Oak Park Farmers Market!

* Free blood pressure screenings and nutrition information by members of Grace’s Health Cabinet

* And much, much more!

What's In Season Now

New Products Spotted!

The localvore has a few new things to try these last weeks of March:

Spinach - "frost kissed" spinach from Snug Haven Farms has been available all winter on and off from Irv and Shelly's Fresh Picks. It's on now and should on for the rest of the month. Snug Haven was also selling last week at the Dane County Farmer's Market. I also expect them to be there through the end of the month.

Watercress - Something from the ground! Watercress really is cress from water. It grows right up against many streams and creeks and such in these parts, and has actually peeked its little green heads up out of the ground already. At the Dane County Farmer's Market, there's a man who specializes in these types of things, wild-ish/forest-y kinda products (he got my kids to buy some slippery elm). If you cannot make it to Madison, you might be able to forage some of your own.

The previous edition of March's What's In Season Now is below.

This month, we will not see local asparagus, peas or green garlic [all items on the Chez Panisse menu this month.] We do have a couple of interesting items this month. March is generally maple syruping time in the Midwest. Here's a listing of some maple festivals [most of these are past]. In addition, those little wild onions that gave Chicago its name, ramps (try Google), will begin their short season in March. Read about past ramp digs at Spence Farm here and here, and consider the Rampfest on March 28.

Beef, lamb, chicken, pork - Winter markets; farm direct, Cassie's Green Grocer, Freshpicks.com
Grains - Winter markets, farm direct
Eggs - Winter markets, farm direct, grocery, Cassie's Green Grocer, Freshpicks.com
Farm raised tilapia - Winter markets
Farm raised rainbow trout - Grocery
Great Lakes fish - pike, whitefish, pearch, white bass, lake trout, carp - Grocery, speciality stores
Microgreens, sprouts and related - Winter markets, Freshpicks.com, grocery
Lettuces - Winter markets, farm direct
Carrots - Winter markets, farm direct, Freshpicks.com
Potatoes - Winter markets, farm direct, grocery, Freshpicks.com
Apples - Winter markets, farm direct, grocery
Herbs - Winter markets, farm direct, Freshpicks.com
Mushrooms - Winter markets, Grocery, Cassie's Green Grocer, Freshpicks.com
Onions - Winter markets, farm direct, grocery
Burdock root - Freshpicks.com
Horseradish - Freshpicks.com
Radish - Winter markets (limited quantity)

Those interested in February's What's In Season, see here.

Vie Not Bad After All

Hold the Presses

Just moments later, we find a new verdict in, this one from the blogger and poster at various food forum, Ulterior Epicure. He likes Vie.