South Dakota

The beef propaganda continues into South Dakota.

Kansas

Nu Way Cafe, Wichita Kansas

“Can I get you kids a couple of root beers in frosty mugs?” the waitress asked as we entered the empty Nu Way Cafe. It was 10:45. Perhaps a little early for a loose beef sandwich, but our breakfast was light and it was time for a snack. We settled in at the end of the long, low, L-shaped counter and ordered a couple of regular Nuways to go with our root beers. For a good fifteen minutes was nearly empty—just the server, the fry man and us. Then, just as we were starting to worry that no one came to the Nu Way anymore, save for Road Food-reading out-of-towners, a steady stream of regulars began to trickle in. Apparently, Wichitans wait until eleven o’clock, and not a minute sooner, to get their Nu Way fix. Most customers ordered the same meal as us, and almost all started with a frosty mug of root beer, except for the man who got his “on the take.”
Our Nuways arrived sliced in half and wrapped in paper that was already turning translucent with grease. We had ordered them as they recommend, with a tangy mix of mustard, diced onion, and pickle topping the crumbly beef. With the crisp and thinly breaded onion rings on the side it was the perfect taste of Wichita.

this is what a salad bar salad looks like

...in Fredonia, Kansas

sometimes Internet can deceive

So, it turns out that the Tuesday market in Webb City and the Wednesday market in Tulsa don't start until later in the season. Major BUMMER. So the new plan is to drive, and to drive some more. The West is calling! I will post on food related adventures encountered along the way, so stay tuned!

The Greater Springfield Farmer's Market, Missouri

In peak season, the Greater Springfield Farmer’s Market is an impressive sight with over 90 vendors filling the Battlefield Mall parking lot. The market we drove up to Tuesday morning was not this peak season market.
Dad Bigbee, proprietor of the Fassnight Creek Farm right in Springfield, told us it’s been unseasonably cold this spring (we noticed) and that April temperatures in Missouri could reach into the eighties. This Tuesday morning the high was closer to fifty and the number of vendors fewer than twenty. Among this number were several meat stands, one with eggs, one coffee vendor, one bakery, and a knick-knack vendor or two.
From Dan, the only vendor offering the spring produce options of spinach or some good-lookin’ leeks, we bought our one purchase of the market, a bag of spinach, picked the previous night. Sadly, there were no other options for a kitchenless meal, so lunch today will be a simple spinach salad.

Columbia Farmers Market, Missouri

Following the disappointment and misery of the St. Louis market, the bright and sun-shiny Columbia Farmer’s Market was a welcome sight. Like most farmer’s markets I’ve encountered, Columbia’s had its fair share of hippies, but this being God's Country, it also hosted a decent amount of organic religiosity—just enough to make a pair of coastal heathens a little uncomfortable, but not enough to keep us from trying the sizzling beef samples.

We entered the market with the intention of scrounging up a tasty lunch that did not involve ground beef or greasy potatoes, so abundant in this part of the country, and succeeded brilliantly. At the Uprise Bakery stall we found a sunflower rye bread good enough to make me consider staying in Columbia forever. Nutty and dense, it’s the best bread I’ve eaten since I left San Francisco. Next we hit the one and only stall selling cheese, or any other dairy, Goats Beard Farm, where we decided on a simple round of fresh goat cheese.

Next door to Goats Beard we found the Deep Mud Farm stall, where new-to-the-game farmer Jeremy was selling his mixed spring greens and arugula. We bagged enough to make a salad and, with his recommendation on where to find some good olive oil in town, set off for the southern Ozarks with our delicious market finds.

Soulard Farmers Market, St Louis

Maybe it was the rain or maybe the sad-looking, Busch-sipping vagrants, but it was a miserable day at the market in St. Louis. We arrived at Soulard Farmer’s Market hungry and road-weary, looking for something good to eat and somewhere warm to sit. This was not the place to go.
As we walked into the market we were greeted by a stack of boxes bearing the label “California Oranges.” Not a good sign. Walking up the corridor towards the center of the market building, we found stacks of citrus and bananas, pineapples and bags of baby carrots. Not a local or seasonable vegetable to be found.
When we reached the food vendors, we found ourselves faced with the difficult choice between Schmitz’s Snacks or Joyce’s Corner, a pair of second rate hot dog stands. Would we like a Busch beer with that? Perhaps a Hawaiian ice?

Soulard Market wasn’t all bad though. At the only stall with a crowd, we found a vendor selling collard greens, spinach, and kale. Frandeka Meat Market in the Main Hall offered all the fixin’s for a Southern pig fest including the biggest pile of smoked ham hocks I’ve ever seen. One stall sold only Missouri pecans. To be fair, it is early in the season. It was also Friday. Im not sure, however, that Soulard deserves the name “Farmer’s Market.”

Viking Village Foods, Reedsburg Wisconsin

It’s easy to forget, splitting my time between the foodie hotbeds of San Francisco and Brooklyn, how the rest of America fills its shopping carts. Walking into Viking Village was a HUGE reality check. From the airplane hangar-sized building to the double-wide aisles to the look of disbelief on the bag boy’s face when I handed him my reusable Baggu, this was nothing like the Park Slope Food Co-op.

But among the giant tins of canned beef, the many varieties of “cheese-like” foods, and Reedsburg’s Frozen Tundra—a freezer section spanning a football field—one can find a small but encouraging array of local and seasonal products. We found eggs from the Reedsburg Egg Company at 99 cents a dozen, produced less than a mile away at a family owned operation. Local honeys, pickles, canned cherry pie filling, and cheeses also dotted the shelves. These are the gems of the locally owned grocery store.

Finding these items in a conventional grocery store in decidedly un-foodie Reedsburg reminded me of this article about compromise and the future of food. Despite their inexplicable Viking theme, Viking Village Foods has the right idea.

Green City Market, Chicago

You know it’s spring when among the hearty staples of winter—potatoes, apples, eggs, and milk—the first tender shoots of green begin to appear.

I’m here to tell you that Spring has officially reached Chicago.

When we headed to the market, the sun was bright and the breeze was soft, a perfect spring morning completely out of keeping with the news that snow would be blanketing the Midwest the next day. The excitement of Spring continued when we reached the Peggy Nortbaert Nature Museum where the new bi-weekly market is held every first and third Saturday of the winter months. Market volunteers stood ready to direct market-goers to the upstairs location where we were greeted by local favorite Intellegentsia Coffee, as well as generous samples of cheeses and Blue Marble milk from Wisconsin. What a welcome!



Inside the market room a loop of market tables displayed their wares. We made a circle. And another. But what to buy? Remembering the market’s theme of the month, Bacon and Eggs, we decided to collect ingredients to make a simple Spring breakfast:

- a pound of organically cured, thick slab bacon, courtesy of Cedar Valley Sustainable Farm out of Ottawa, Illinois, 90 minutes SW of Chicago.
- a boule of sourdough from Bennison’s Bakery, an Evanston institution since 1938
- a dozen pastured eggs from TJ’s Pastured Free Range Poultry in Piper City, 100 miles south of Chicago
- one bunch of ramps from Nichols Farm, a family farm specializing in variety in Marengo, Illinois, 60 miles NW of Chicago. In addition to ramps they had eight varieties of potato including German Butterballs, Norland Reds, Russian Bananas, Red Thumbs, and Russian Blues

a rainy morning market

farmers market itinerary: april

3.29 Grand Army Plaza Greenmarket, Brooklyn, New York
4.4 Green City Market, Chicago, Illinois
4.10 Soulard Market, St. Louis, Missouri
4.11 Columbia Farmers Market, Columbia, Missouri
4.14 Greater Springfield Farmers Market, Springfield, Missouri
4.15 Cherry St Farmers Market, Tulsa, Oklahoma
4.18 Santa Fe Farmers Market, Santa Fe, New Mexico
4.19 Ahwatukee Farmers Market, Phoenix, Arizona
4.21 The Original Farmers Market, Los Angeles, California
4.22 Solvang Farmers Market, Solvang, California
4.25 Ferry Plaza Farmers Market, San Francisco, California
5.2 Healdsburg Farmers Market, Healdsburg, California