Mixed Greens Blog

Plot to Plate: Artichokes in the Pacific Northwest Garden

I used to think artichokes were strictly Mediterranean. It’s true they’re native to northern Africa where they grow wild, and southern Europe, but it turns out we can grow globe artichokes in the Pacific Northwest.

Maybe not commercially like they do in California, but I have to tell you there is a mini-artichoke orchard in the [...]

Local on Orcas Island

The Orcas Island Farmers Market is all about local — food grown locally and the people who live and work there. The “locals,” as they are known, think of many creative ways to bring in extra income in an environment that is even more expensive than the Seattle area. Pristine beauty comes with a price [...]

Roasted Tomato Salsa Tastes Good & You Can Dance To It

You gotta love something that you can both dance to and eat.

Tomatoes are ripening in the back yard, especially the Fourth of July’s, a handful of Sundgolds, Green Zebra and Muskovites – bins at Farmers Markets are overflowing. The first and best thing to do with a ripe tomato is to pick it [...]

Coming Back to Fava Beans

While I was on Orcas Island over the weekend, my sister-in-law fixed some delicious fava beans, so tiny and fresh, there was no need for skinning. She prepared them very simply — steamed along with snow peas and green beans, topped with butter. She went out just before dinner to pick them from the garden [...]

Please Pass the Peas & Pasta

Summer is the time to eat local with everything coming into season at once. I’m continually thinking of easy dishes to make use of these plentiful summertime ingredients and still give myself time to enjoy being outdoors. Fresh peas were the inspiration for this pasta dish, combined with sage butter, prosciutto and freshly grated parmesan.

Sage [...]

Growing Our Food: Stoney Plains Organic Farm

Stoney Plains Organic Farm is another vendor who’s become a familiar part of the Pacific Northwest Farmer’s Market scene.
One of the reliable, upbeat purveyors of local organic food, they bring their seasonal array to our neighborhood markets, including Seattle’s Pike Place Market. Patrick Meyer is the amiable farmer who makes it even [...]

Small Actions: A Positive Approach

I can’t help feeling guilty after being on vacation. It’s not so much about taking time off from work or drinking cocktails every night that bothers me. It is more about being faced with all the ways I was adding to my carbon footprint along the way. One biggie is six of us flying across [...]

I Like Bread ‘n Butter

Coming back from vacation is hard enough for adults, but what do you do with the kids after days of nonstop fun and activities? Time to pull out that bag of flour I bought from Bluebird Grain Farms and put them to “work” baking bread.
I’ve been feeling pretty lazy and jet-lagged myself and didn’t want [...]

Cookin’ up a Storm: How to Make Gumbo

When it was my night to cook dinner for my extended family at the beach, I decided to fix gumbo so that I could use as many local ingredients as possible, all in one big pot. Gumbo is a traditional dish in the South, but we can make a Pacific Northwest version using our local [...]

Cookin’ With Munchkins

They actually did make music after making and eating their veggie critters. A while back Poppy and I had this brilliant idea that we would host a ‘food experience’ for munchkins, little ones, aged 3 – 6. … They dipped strawberries in chocolate and even saved a few to take home; they made and loved both a thousand island-type dip and a peanut buttery dip based on an Indonesian peanut sauce; they decorated their plates with inspired versions of veggie people; we had a picture story about a strawberry which involved a tiny mouse and a bear, both enamored with the same strawberry. At first the carrots, snow peas, radishes, tomatoes, purple lettuce were merely the vessels on which to transport dip to mouth, dip to mouth as if the veggie were a spoon and not an edible thing.