The seabean season has begun. Also known as salicornia, glasswort or pickleweed. This salty tide flat plant adds texture and fun. Can be eaten raw or cooked. Perfect with fish dishes, potato salads, soups, and dishes with an Asian flair.Spring kings are here! The spring flush is on. Kings Boletes (also known as porcini in Italian) will be available off and on into July. Quantities are limited but it is worth coming to the market in early hours to hopefully pickup some of these beauties.
Porcinis grow from small firm buttons to large spongy giants. Because of this difference in size, texture, and gill formation we sell them in different grades. One is not necessarily better than the other, just different and used for varying types of preparations. It is like the difference between baby vs mature zucchini.
Small button boletes(#1's) are firmer fleshed, and can have a longer shelf life. Use for roasting, sauteing, and can be eaten raw. Also good if you want a picture perfect presentation. Medium to large boletes(#2's) are softer moist fleshed, with a slightly more pronounced flavor. These are perfect for sauces, sauteed, or my favorite, grilled. The mature gills on the older mushrooms are delicious when grilled- crispy on the outside, custardy on the the inside. Remember boletes are best eaten asap, shelf life can vary but you don't want the bugs to beat you to the feast. And always refrigerate.
Also still in season- fiddlehead ferns, miner's lettuce, watercress, and morels.
Seen at the farmers stalls this week-The first snap peas! from Alvarez Farms from Eastern WA (I could live on snap peas- minimum allocation -2 lbs a week)
Lots of greens- spinach, scallions, spring onions, mint and garlic scapes
Asparagus is still marching in droves- great with morel mushrooms
Foraged and Found Edibles is a northwest wild food business selling locally to restaurants and at farmers market in the Seattle area. Throughout the summer you will find us Saturdays at the University District Market, and Sundays at Ballard and West Seattle markets.
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Boletes don't have gills.
ReplyDeleteYou are right, technically called pores, not gills. In the biz we usually just refer to them as gills- probably because of a combination of laziness and stupidity:) Thanks for pointing out the mistake.
ReplyDelete