Farmers Market Finds: Okra, Peppers and Beans

If you know me, you know I am a huge proponant of eating locally sourced proteins, produce and product. Every Saturday finds me at not just one, but several area farmers markets. Sometimes I go with a plan, this time of year, for example, I know I want to get tomatoes and cukes before the season is gone. But most of the time, I wait to see what is there and love the surprize of unexpected farmers market finds.

This week’s farmers market finds included locally grown Edamame ( edible soybeans), tiny red biquinho peppers and all sorts of okra. While there is a lot of okra at farmers markets this time of year, everything I bought was from farmer Ben Geiger at Garden Window Farm at the Charlotte Uptown Farmers Market

August Farmers Market Finds: Edamame

Honestly , this is the one that surprised and delighted me the most. I love edamame and I have never seen it locally grown. While North Carolina has a large soybean industry, most soybeans grown in the Old North State are for animal feed and some now go into the production of soy bean oil. But I’ve never seen Japanese soy beans, or edamame grown here, until now.

Ben told me he just decided to try and it worked. He’ll have fresh picked edamame from now till mid ot late September, so go and check it out. The Uptown Farmers Market is located at 300 S. Davidson Street and is open from 8 am to 12:30 pm on Saturdays, Parking is free during market hours.

How to Cook Edamame

Three great things about edamame: it is high in protein, fun to eat and its super simple to cook.

Its really as easy as boiling water. Literally. Boil 3-4 cups of water and season it heavily with your favorite sea salt. Once the water is boiling, drop in the edamame and boil for 5-7 minutes or until the pods are soft. Drain the edamame in a colander, sprinkle with additional sea salt and yoy are ready to serve.

Remember the pods are not edible but the soybeans inside are. You can pop the beans out of the pods by hand and eat them that way. Or lots of people, this food writer included, like to suck on the pods to get the bright saltly flavor and then pop the seeds out as you pull the pods out of your mouth. its a finger food for sure – enjoy. Serve as a fun appetizer, a great afternoon snack or a nutritous addition to any lunchbox.

August Farmers Market Finds: Shishito and Biquinho Peppers

I’ve been making shishito peppers for years and look forward to this time of year when they are in season. Several years ago, when farmers first started growing them, chefs made the long slightly spice peppers popular serving them as bar snacks.

To cook shishitos, simply toss them into a hot skillet with a bit of EVOO. My go-to hear is Olive Crate’s Kores Estate Extra Virgin Olive Oil. If you are in Charlotte you can find it in Building B at the Charlotte Regional Farmers Market. If you live out of the Charlotte area, you can order from them online here.

Seared Peppers for the Win

But I digress. To cook the shishito, just toss them in the pan with the hot oil and let them blister. That’s its. Remove from the pan, sprinkle with sea salt and serve.

The tiny Biquinho peppers can be cooked just like the shishitos and in fact add some nice color. Biquinhos aren’t quite as spicy but they aren’t sweet either. Together this combo makes a great appetizer or side dish – served them hot or cold.

August Farmers Market Finds: Okra

Now, lets talk about okra. Believe me, there is a lot to say and I am just beginning to learn all about it. I recently went to an On the Farm Dinner at Old North Farm in Shelby, presented by a group called the Utopian Seed Project. If you don’t already know about Utopian Seed, you should. You can find out more; and support the group and the mission here.

At the dinner, okra was featured in one of the dishes by Chef John Fleer of Rhubarb restaurant in Asheville, NC. Fleer quartered the okra lengthwise and fried them to a delicious crunch and served them with long beans and a delicious hot water corn bread with a sweet roselle cane syrup. Remember that word – roselle – I’ll be talking about those in a new post later this week.

And there was an okra tasting of a half dozen or so different varieties of okra. Amazingly they really do all taste a bit different, one from the other. And I picked up this book all about okra, written by the founder of the Utopian Seed Project, Chris Smith.

Did you know there are over 4000 different varieties of okra in the world; and nearly 1000 in the US alone. In North Carolina our local farmers are growing several hundred different varieties. It’s an amazing crop. You can toast the seeds and you can press the seeds for oil. I can’t wait to read Chris’ book and learn more

How to Cook Okra

There are so many ways to cook okra. I used to cut them into eights as Chef Fleer did and then flour, egg and flour them before frying to make crisp okra fries. Then you could of course cut them into rounds and toss them in seasoned flour or your favorite breader and fry them to a crispy finish.

But in the context of this quick and easy post, I bought the tiny red okra from Garden Window Farm and simply cut them in half – stem and all. Then I seasoned them with salt and pepper and added them to a hot cast iron pan to brown. To add a bit of texture and help absorb some of the moisture, I dusted a bit of Tidewater Grain Company Heirloom Rice Flour over the okra as they were cooking for delicious results. I also added a knob of compounded butter from The Buttery at the the Uptown Market ( you can see it melting in the center of the pan in this photo above) to add a tiny bit more flavor to the mix.

These seared okra made a great snack, a wonderful appetizer and a delicious side dish and they only took minutes to cook.

Want to See More and Hear about these Farmers Market Finds?

Tune into Charlotte Today on WCNC in Charlotte, on Tuesday August 20 between 11 and 11:30 to watch me cook all three of these August veggies. Then read more about it all in this week’s newsletter from the Uptown Farmers Market. I write their weekly recipes and will include a new okra recipe in this weeks edition. You can subscribe to their newsletter here.