Farmer’s Market

This afternoon I was walking through our Farmer’s Market to pick up my Cape Ann Fresh Catch share of whole cod.  I didn’t have my Again & Again sail bag with me, capable of carrying two weeks worth of produce and a couple of pies.  I didn’t even have any money.  This stop was all business.

Until I saw this head of lettuce.  “That is one gorgeous head of lettuce,” I said to myself.   I am a sucker for those ruffled, tight, curls.  I could already taste they way a little goat cheese and vinaigrette would throw a coat on those leaves in an even swath, the way they would cup a teaspoon of cold seviche or lobster salad.  And then I saw these beautiful, dark green, firm squashes, just an eensy bit on the small side of medium.

I’ll write a check, I thought to myself.

“Can I write -” I started, looking up for the farmer, but instead saw three proud, eager faces.   Alanna Peres, 17, Jacob Souza, 17, and Luidwin Amaya, 13, were suddenly scrambling.  Bespeckled Luidwin couldn’t remember what kind of lettuce it was, and looked back for help.  “Butter,” Jacob said watching protectively from the rear, but Jacob didn’t know anything about checks.

I was still busy eyeing the beautiful produce in front of me, planning a dinner.  I reached for a couple of plump jalalpeno peppers, and was eyeing sweet little bundles of herbs chilling in a pan of water.  Three sets of hands tried to help me at once, and seemed to be bumping into each other, racing to be polite and helpful.

I heard a voice at my shoulder softly but firmly saying, “someone needs to add it all up while someone else puts it in -”  Mom.  – Loretta Peres was watching on, calmly waiting to help when something like a check threw the kids off.

Alanna, Jacob, and Luidwin, along with Mark Smith who wasn’t there at the moment, are kids who live in Riverdale Park and they’re “Chill Zone” kids.  The Chill Zone is a “youth initiated, youth led” project that intends to address teens in the Gloucester community with too much time, and not enough jobs, and a need to get together.  Loretta Peres is Alanna’s mother, but she’s also the Chill Zone Program Coordinator.

Alana, Jacob, Luidwin and Mark, with help from Beacon St. Farm’s Lara Lepionka, have started a garden on an unused piece of land behind the Gloucester Housing authority.  Lepionka, with serious help from The Food Project, attained a grant to begin The BackYard Growers Program, meant to teach people how to grow their own food, therefore providing them with better tasting, more nutritional foods, but – just as importantly -  building community.  Lepionka says gardens build community.  They get people outside.  They get people talking to each other in their back yards, sharing gardening tips and woes.  They make you ache and sweat, but who can argue that these beautiful rosettes of butter lettuce are not worth it?

With Lepionka’s mentoring, these kids are out there clearing, planting, weeding, working very hard on that plot of scrubby earth.  Not only do they get a space at the Farmer’s Market to sell their organic produce, (and see lettuce turn into dollar bills, a feat of magic to a city teenager, I’m guessing), but they are able to give back by contributing much of their produce to the Open Door’s Mobile Market, which regularly provides free fruits and vegetables to the Riverdale Park community.

I asked the kids what were their favorite vegetables to eat, and they all confessed to have been loving munching on snap peas that day.  Alana said she really liked learning to grow things, and she seemed to be amazed at how much money it saves to growing your own food.

Snacking on snap peas?  Saving money?  Two good lessons right there for all of us.  These kids are doing very well by the School of Backyard Gardening.

More treasures from the children’s garden?  Alanna praised her mother’s zucchini bread.  Alana’s mother, Loretta Peres, grew up in that other fishing community, New Bedford.  She generously shared her mother’s zuchini bread recipe (Loretta adapted it to include whole wheat flour, and says people love it even more now) and a photo of the tattered Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook it came from.

Keep your eyes out for Alanna, Jacob, Luidwin and Mark at the Farmer’s Market in Gloucester on Thursday.  I’m going to be there early next week for the snow peas, and promise to have my market bag and my wallet.

Zucchini Nut Cake

? Cup shortening. May substitute vegetable oil

2 ½ cups organic whole wheat flour

1 ? cups sugar

1 ¼ teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon soda

1 teaspoon salt

1 ¼ cups of grated zucchini

? cup buttermilk (don’t have buttermilk, take 2 tablespoons of vinegar, place in measuring cup and then fill with regular milk to make ? cup)

2 eggs

? Cup chopped walnuts

Oven 350?

If using shortening, stir till softened. Sift in dry ingredients. Add zucchini and half buttermilk; mix until all flour is dampened. Beat vigorously 2 minutes. Add remaining buttermilk and the eggs; beat 2 minutes longer. Fold in nuts.

Bake in buttered and floured 9”x13” pan in moderate oven (350?) about 35 minutes. Cool 10 minutes in pan. ENJOY!!!