Welcome to Brooklyn

Big changes: I've moved to Park Slope, Brooklyn! Apologies for my absence over the last few weeks. I was spending a glorious last month in Carrboro, full of farmer's markets and fun and friends and fabulous times. Though the local veggies remained close to my heart (saying goodbye to my favorite Carrboro farmer, Rob, was actually almost tearful), this blog fell by the wayside. However, I'm newly invigorated by fresh landscape and Yankee seasonal foods, and starting next week I'll be a full-fledged, honest-to-God employed social worker, so I hope to live up to my Foodie Social Worker aspirations.

Though I miss Carrboro desperately, Park Slope certainly has its charms. One item of note is the abundance of farmer's markets: I can go to one of the biggest farmer's markets in the city every Saturday at Grand Army Plaza, and most months of the year on Sundays go to another sizeable market at 5th Avenue and 4th Street, each within a fifteen minute walk of my apartment. This weekend, of course, I attended both.

The goods from Saturday's market: blueberries, a sourdough baguette, one tomato (still from the greenhouse; not quite the season here yet!), sugar snap peas (rated the best in the market six years in a row), kirby cukes, and some fresh, fragrant garlic.


And from Sunday's market: baby potatoes, a huge amount of fresh dill, and one red onion -- I'm planning to make Smitten Kitchen's horseradish potato salad this week, so keep your eyes peeled -- and as a special New York treat, pickles! Doc Pickle, run out of New Jersey, had a stand with many a persuasive free sample. We ended up with half-sours and sweet chips, both really excellent pickles. The chips were truly New York aside my pastrami sandwich at lunch.


So much dill came in the one bunch, much more than I'll use for my potato salad, so I chopped it all up and food processed it with a bit of water and oil to make a light paste. I stuck it in the freezer so next time I need some dill in a recipe I can break off a bit. Thanks for the idea, Mark Bittman!



In other update news, when I left Carrboro, I left my baby tomato plant (recently given the moniker "Beulah") in the caring hands of my dearest friends. As I left, Beulah's fruits were reaching an amazing size, but sadly none were ripe at all, and despite all my weeks of hard work, I wasn't able to try a tomato before hitting the UHaul. However, Hilary and Erin have been keeping me up to date with Beulah's progress: she's started to show her sultry side! Enjoy those tomatoes, my dears.