Markets Are Sprouting Across The Region
Spring is hitting its stride and farmer’s markets are again starting to sprout up - in some new spots.
The Spokane MarketPlace makes its debut Saturday in its new location on the north bank in Riverfront Park, near the yellow butterfly and picnic shelter.
Early spring crops, including several varieties of lettuce and greens, will be available along with bedding plants and prepared food products.
Hours will be Wednesdays and Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Sundays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. For information, call 482-2627.
The Kootenai County Farmer’s Market opens the following Saturday at its new home in Coeur d’Alene, a tree-covered site at the southeast corner of Highway 95 and Prairie Avenue.
Look for greens, radishes, spinach and plant starts, along with advice at the master gardeners booth. Huckleberries and much more produce will appear as the weather warms.
The market will be open, rain or shine, from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. each Saturday through mid-October.
And if you’re headed for the Yakima Valley, copies of the 1995 Farm Products Guide are available by sending a stamped, self-addressed, business-sized envelope to Farm Products Map, 823 N. Liberty Road, Granger, WA 98932.
Area growers offer up a wide range of goodies through the summer, from peaches to peppers to tomatillos. Fiesta Days will be celebrated this weekend in towns throughout the lower valley.
Well-oiled
Speaking of spring greens, lettuce be the first to wish you a happy National Salad Month and pass along this fascinating fact: During May, Americans will soak their salads with 12.3 million gallons - that’s 1.6 billion tablespoons - of assorted dressings.
Death roe
If she committed some sort of capital culinary crime - sneaking Spam into the souffle, for example - what would a condemned Julia Child request for her final meal?
“Foie gras, oysters and a little caviar to begin with,” television’s venerable “French Chef” told The New York Times Magazine.
She would follow that with pan-roasted duck “accompanied with little onions, chanterelle mushrooms and little potatoes, with a sauce made out of the carcass.” She would wash it all down with a 1962 Romanee-Conti, which sells for $700 a bottle.
And with dessert - creme brulee from the Manhattan restaurant Le Cirque - “I’d have Chateau d’Yquem, 1975 or 1976. That’s $450 a bottle … What would you have?”
MEMO: We’re always looking for fresh food news. Write to: The Fresh Sheet, Features Department, The Spokesman-Review, P.O. Box 2160, Spokane, WA 99210. Call 459-5446; fax 459-5098.