My youngest and I have had a lot of quality time at the park recently. My kids were spending long hours at the theater and we were spending long hours waiting around for them. As we pulled into the park early one morning we noticed a small farmer’s market setting up, so we decided to explore.
Now, when it comes to local farmer’s markets I’m not usually very enthusiastic. Around here, unless you actually go to the farm, the fare at the markets is pretty awful. What happens is the farms sell directly to a warehouse in the southern part of the state, which sells to distributors who then sell it to the grocery stores. What is leftover is available to the public at wholesale prices and that is what usually ends up at the farmer’s market. Most of the time it is nearly rotten (I have seen rotten produce for sale, including fuzzy raspberries a man was trying to sell for $1/package!) and it’s not any cheaper than going to the grocery store. And organic? Fugheddaboutit.
This market was a little different. There were some of the typical low-quality/high-price tables and there were others we avoided because the sellers were smoking cigarettes (no apologies, my son & I are asthmatic). On the other end of the market we found gold. There was a man who owned an apiary that gathered and sold home from his own bees, talk about local! He invited us to visit the hives (bee farm? LOL) one day but my bug-averse son nearly ran away crying ;) There were also two tables that were full of direct from the farm produce, at really great prices.
That was a really long story to tell you how I can about acquiring beets ;) One of the tables was selling big beats 3/$1. The kids don’t really care for beets but Jason and I love them so I bought 3.
I browsed the internet for a raw beet salad recipe but didn’t have most of the ingredients (as in, I didn’t even have cider vinegar, I’m not sure how that happened!) so I whipped together the following recipe. It was delicious. I’ve listed some add-ins that would be fantastic in this salad, to make it a little more substantial.
Meg’s Raw Beet Salad
8 servings
3 large beets, peeled and julienned or shredded
1/3 cup basalmic vinegar (you can also use red wine, rice or cider vinegar)
2 Tbsp honey
2 Tbsp lime juice
1 tsp salt
cracked pepper to taste
dash rosemary
Mix the dressing well, pour over beets.
Chill for at least 4 hours before serving.
Optional add-ins
Shredded carrots
Shredded jicama
Shredded parsnips
Shredded cabbage
Goat cheese crumbles
Candied pecans
Ii don’t like beets…but that actually sounds edible. :) I may have to get brave and try it.
I make my raw beet salad with grated carrots and grated apples, plus finely chopped walnuts. My dressing is similar. I love it!