We wandered into the Farmers’ Market on Monument Square last Wednesday, tasked with finding a day's worth of meals from the produce here and at the Deering Oaks Saturday market. My friend was going to help with the grocery lists, shopping and cooking, so everything seemed in good stead. Breakfast for me usually consists of coffee and cigarettes so the notion of eating well for at least 24 hours was a fresh idea.
Dick Piper, of Piper Ranch in Buckfield, was setting up shop. A retired construction worker, Piper started farming 17 years ago. He and his wife, Lynn, have been selling at the market for the last six years. She has a commercial kitchen called Lynn's Good to Go.
“She's the boss,” he said, referring to his wife but implying my friend as well, I could tell.
I told him about the assignment and asked for suggestions on the main meat. The Pipers raise cows, pigs, chickens and quail, born on their farm. They sell quail and quail eggs to Boda restaurant in Portland. They buy the chickens in Maine and have them shipped when they’re a day old.
“I go to the post office and pick up a hundred of them,” Piper says. I imagine that scene and decide to go postal, choosing chicken and asking him for a recommendation. He suggested half chickens, “The Martha Stewart Special.”
A customer named Kati Christoffel was browsing the nearby stands for that night's dinner, entertaining guests from out of town. Originally from Albany, N.Y., she moved to Portland last December from northern Maine, and has been hitting the farmer's markets regularly since then. She doesn’t buy all of her groceries on visits here, but could easily see making a meal of it.
Ryan and Meg Mitchell run South Paw Farm, located in Freedom. They have been selling at the Portland markets for seven years. From them, I bought red potatoes, leeks, garlic, onions, summer crisp lettuce, tomatoes and cucumbers, several of the main ingredients for lunch and a few sides for dinner.
Josh Berry, executive chef, and Matt Duley, assistant chef, of the Union Restaurant at the Press Hotel, were shopping for the end-of-season rush. They say the nearby farmer's market is a weekly necessity, to stock up on the freshest ingredients for their new restaurant. Berry is a Maine native, and worked in Switzerland and Italy before coming home.
The market has a constant connection between youth and experience, bringing together modern sensibilities on healthy cuisine and age-old experience of drawing out the earth’s best bounty. Eddie Peterson is a fourth generation farmer with Beckwith's Farm, started by his grandfather. They've been selling at the Farmer's Market since 1978. Customer Susan Walsh, from Melrose, Mass. is vacationing on Peaks Island. She was perusing the vegetables at Beckwith’s stand and gave us some ideas for a novel salad, a spring mix with fresh berries perhaps, or a Caprese.
Cashed out, we looked to refrigerate and reorganize at Saturday’s market.
Deering Oaks was a typical swirl of farmstands and sellers, shoppers with strollers, dogs straining at the leash. There was one inexplicable sight: a woman with a tie-died shirt and a red Make America Great Again baseball hat.
David Koubek has worked the Good Shepherd’s Farm in Bremen for five years and has brought his produce to the Deering Oaks Farmer's Market for the past two. From him, we bought freshly milled bread called “Harvest Basket,” made with potato, caramelized onion and garlic. We got fresh eggs from the stand run by Tourmaline Hill Farm in Greenwood, between Norway and Bethel.
We were looking in vain for mozzarella for our lunch idea when we stumbled upon a cool source for distinctive food and flavors at the Fresh Start Farm stand, run by farmers whose lives provide quick and simple rejoinders to the baseball hat.
Cultivating Community, the Portland-based food co-op and education program since 2001, is partners with Fresh Start Farms stands, selling vegetables from local, shared gardens of the immigrant and refugee farm collective. From them, I bought a bag of fresh garlic, tiny potatoes and collared greens.
Rebeka Tombe, originally from Sudan, has lived in Portland for 16 years. She and her husband, John Yanga, have worked their farm for eight years. Christine Pompeo, of South Sudan, has farmed for five years, and lived in Portland for 10. “I started with a little garden, for my family only,” she said, “And then I thought, ‘This is a good business.’ All of my family are farmers.”
Products of the Produce:
Breakfast: eggs over medium on braised collard greens, thinly sliced on a biscuit (inspired by Bayou Kitchen), and roasted tiny potatoes
Lunch: tomato, mozzarella (we got at the grocery store) and basil with olive oil on Harvest Basket bread – a Caprese sandwich
Dinner: Roasted Chicken (New York Times recipe) in a big roasting pan. Roast chicken and potatoes after they’ve been marinated with olive oil, sriracha, and cumin. Halfway through, we added leeks tossed with olive oil, salt, pepper, and lemon zest. After roasting to a crisp, golden brown, we drizzled yogurt with grated garlic over hot chicken, potatoes, and leeks. Topped off with arugula and fresh dill. Finally, a drizzle of whisked lemon juice and olive oil over greens, completing the perfect one-pan meal.
Bon appétit!