A Wisconsin native gets creative in her cooking with local, seasonal ingredients.

Posts Tagged: Wisconsin

The West Allis Farmers Market

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11 months ago    |   Tags: farmers market vegetables local west allis wisconsin onions chard lettuce strawberries gardening plants   |   Notes: 1

A big part of the inspiration for this blog came from the fact that we live very close to an amazing Farmers Market.  

The West Allis Farmers Market began in 1919, and it runs three times a week, though Saturdays are the best day.  At this time of the season, the stands are mostly selling plants for the garden, but you can find some great veggies if you know how to look!

Check out this haul from this past weekend:

That’s lettuce, spring onions, rainbow chard, and strawberries.  My friend, who came with me, bought some kolrabi and garlic scapes.  We also bought a few plants - basil, mint, and jalapenos!  

I’m looking forward to watching the market grow and change over the coming months.  

Here are a few more photos:

Geraniums

Tomato plants

The crowd - it’s always packed on Saturdays!

In the Garden

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11 months ago    |   Tags: gardening the secret garden Wisconsin sunshine beer homebrew garden peas beets lettuce zucchini peppers tomatoes summer   |   Notes: 1

“When you see a bit of earth you want,” with something like a smile, “take it, child, and make it come alive.” - The Secret Garden

It’s been quite warm in Wisconsin these past couple of weeks, and my garden is going CRAZY!

Oh yeah, I have a garden - didn’t I mention?

Today, coming home from work, it was gorgeous, sunny and breezy - the perfect day to get some much-needed weeding done in my garden.

So grab a beer…



…and let’s go outside!  


This is our garden plot.  My grandmother teases me about it, since we live so close to the Farmers Market, but I’ve wanted my own garden for a while, and this year we went for it!  My lovely landlord allowed Micah and I to have a bit of space out behind our apartment building.  We’ve planted a number of things.

Peas…



Beets…



Lettuce…



Zucchini…



Peppers…


And of course, tomatoes!



Keep your eyes open - you’ll be sure to hear more about it as the season goes on.

Maple salmon with garlic scapes and quinoa

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11 months ago    |   Tags: Wisconsin cooking local locavore seasonal farmers market salmon recipe scapes roasted quinoa spinach feta wine dinner   |   Notes: 3

This past weekend, Micah, his brother, some friends and I were all involved in the local 48 Hour Film Project.  Between 7 PM on Friday and 7 PM on Sunday, we planned, wrote, filmed, and edited a short movie.  

Needless to say, by the time Sunday evening rolled around, we were pretty exhausted, and I didn’t have the energy to cook a fancy Sunday dinner.  I did, however, make it to the local farmer’s market on Saturday afternoon, and picked up a few fun ingredients to play with.  Since Sunday night was a bust, I used them tonight to make a delicious dinner for the two of us.  

We have not quite made the transition to totally local - we’re still using up other ingredients in the freezer and fridge.  Tonight’s featured local ingredients were:

  • Maple Syrup (purchased at the Madison Farmers’ Market earlier this season)
  • Garlic scapes*
  • Fresh spinach*

*If not otherwise specified, assume that all local ingredients were purchased at the West Allis Farmers’ Market.  

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