Still Lifes and Keeping-Cool Tips
It's the most beautiful time of the year, even on the hot days
In This Issue
• Still Lifes at the Farmers Market
• Keeping Produce Cool in a Heat Wave
All of the Beautiful Colors are So Very, Very Meaningful
So sang the group Counting Crows back about 30 years ago. It just popped into my mind when I visited Green City Market on Wednesday and took these still lifes of the rainbow of colors out there near the peak of the season. The delicious, nutritious food is the biggest reason to visit your local farmers market this weekend, but man, is it pretty.
Keeping Produce Cool in Another Heat Wave
We were hit with some premature mid-summer heat in early June, which prompted me to share some tips for keeping that beautiful farmers market produce fresh all the way home on very hot days. This weekend we are getting a blast of real summer weather, especially Saturday, when air temperatures are supposed to be around 90 and the real-feel temp pushing 100 in some places.
As the photos of all those lovely produce colors above suggest, we are also nearing the peak of the region’s growing season, so surely you don’t want to miss this weekend’s farmers markets. So Local Food Forum is again providing its tips for keeping food (and yourself) happy.
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I learn a lot from my mistakes, a good thing because I make a lot of them. One of them is what I call “The Instant Peach Compote Incident.”
I haunted the DuPont Circle Farmers Market in Washington, D.C. for some time before we moved to Chicago 10 years ago. One Sunday about 20-ish years ago, I drove the four miles from our apartment. It was a very hot summer day (though “very hot” and “summer” are rather redundant in D.C.).
It was peach season and I bought a big bag of beautiful fruit. But the car, sitting in the sun during my market stroll, was like an oven. Though I went max on the air conditioning and scooted home as quickly as I could, the peaches had actually cooked, and my bag contained nothing but a big, soggy (and pretty expensive) mess.
Here are the key ways to learn from Bob’s mistakes:
Shop early on hot days. Vendors do their best to keep produce cool, but heat is not a friend to produce, especially when it is very ripe and/or delicate.
If you have insulated bags, use them. They keep the cool in and the heat out.
Bring cold packs, especially if you have a long walk or bike ride home, or have to put your fresh food in a hot car. (Or if you are an omnivore, buy some meat. Meat can only be sold frozen at farmers markets in Chicago, the rest of Cook County and many other regional jurisdictions. A frozen roast will surely keep the rest of your purchases nice and cool.)
Bring an insulated bag with cold packs? You get an A+.
Bring hard-sided containers for the fragile stuff. Getting berries and other very ripe fruit home intact is a challenge in any season, and since the markets are filled with this deliciousness, it’s a bonus to bring your own hard-sided storage containers instead of carrying this delicate stuff around in plastic bags.
If you have other ideas that work well for you, please share in the comments.