Growtopia Farms is located in Lockhart, TX, and is dedicated to making it easy for their customers to get quality grown produce and mushrooms from the field to their forks. Owners Cody Brown, John Ruwwe, and Quinton Rowland strive to make environmentally conscious decisions on the farm and refrain from using any synthetic agrichemicals that are harmful to humans and the environment. They amend their bed rows with compost and organic fertilizers, and utilize drip irrigation wherever applicable to reduce water usage. They compost their spent mushroom substrate on the farm, creating a closed loop energy system that not only reduces input costs, but also decreases environmental waste. This week, our team spent a morning volunteering at Growtopia and learning more about their farm – take a look at the video here, and stop by Growtopia’s booth on Sundays at Mueller!

Market Recipe: Spicy Pickles

By Sheena Moore of  Sheena’s Pickles

Prep time: 10 minutes. Processing Time: 10 minutes. Water Bath Time: 10 minutes. Yields about 4 pints.

Pickling Cucumbers (do not use salad cucumbers)
Jalapeños and/or Serrano and/or Habanero peppers
Pepper flakes
¼ cup of pickling salt
4 cups of water
4 cups vinegar

1.  Wash pickling cucumbers and remove the ends. *Note: The ends of cucumbers contain enzymes that can cause the cucumber to go soft. Remove at least 1/16th of an inch from the ends. Cut cucumbers in rounds or spears.
2. Cut cucumbers in rounds or spears and set aside in large bowl. 
3. Using gloves, cut peppers into thin slices or rounds. Add and mix peppers in bowl with cucumbers.  Set bowl aside.
4. Start your water bath by placing jars in a pot and cover jars with water. Bring to a boil for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes turn temperate down to a simmer.
5. In a separate pot, make you brine. Heat vinegar, pickling salt, over medium heat. Start off with ½ teaspoon of pepper flakes. If you want it hotter, taste, and add more as need. Brine is ready once pickling salt has dissolved.
6. Fill jars with cucumber rounds or spears. Ladle brine over cucumbers using a funnel. Leave ¼ inch head-space.
7. Remove air bubbles from the jars by running a plastic bubble remover and head-space tool into the side of the jar to release bubbles. Chopsticks will also work. Do not use any metal knives to remove the air bubbles.
8. Heat lids in hot water to warm up the seal. Do not boil the lids. Simmer lids for 10 minutes. Wipe lid of jars and place lids on top and tighten with ring.
9. Place jars in boiling water with at least 2 inches of water covering the lids and process for 10 minutes.
10. Remove jars from water and cool on counter-top under a clean tea towel.

Market Recipe: Spicy chilled noodles

Ingredients:

vermicelli/rice noodles

One small cucumber (or ½ a large cucumber) (B5 farm or Flintrock Hill Farm)

Handful cherry tomatoes (Bernhardt’s Farm or Hohn’s Acres)

Handful broccoli (you can also sub zucchini or squash) (Emadi Acres or f-stop farm)

One spring onion/green onion (Munkebo Farm or f-stop farm)

Arugula or greens of choice (Animal Farm or Bouldin Food Forest)

½ cup cashews, chopped or whole

1 tbsp Sesame oil

Spicy sauce:

3 tbsp tamari

2 tbsp rice vinegar

1 tbsp chili garlic sauce

Cashew Tamari Dressing:

3 tbsp tamari

2 tbsp sesame oil

1/2 cup cashews

1 garlic clove

Black pepper to taste

Directions:

Cook vermicelli noodles – add to a pot with ½ cup water and tbsp sesame oil, cover and let sit for a few minutes, stir and cover again for a few minutes until soft. Add noodles to a bowl and let chill while you prepare the sauces and chop up the cucumber, tomatoes, and onions. For spicy sauce, add ingredients to a bowl and mix together. For dressing, add ingredients to a blender or food processor and blend until smooth.

Add all ingredients to the bowl of noodles, top with dressing and spicy sauce, and enjoy!

Did you know that food waste makes up over 30% of all human waste? This Earth Month, Texas Farmers’ Market is making strides towards our goal of creating a zero waste market and community. One way you can cut down your food waste is by composting it through our FREE community composting program (currently available at Lakeline, but we are fundraising to bring it back to Mueller this summer!). There are also lots of great ways to use parts of your produce in your meals that you may not normally think of! Read on for some of our favorite zero waste food tips.

Celery Leaves can be used in a variety of different dishes, or as a substitute for parsley! We love using them to make this easy Celery Leaf Chimichurri that makes a delicious topping for soups, pastas, or your protein of choice. You can also juice them!

Carrot tops are another ingredient that can be used to make chimichurri, and they also make an amazingly fresh Carrot Top Pesto! We love making this pesto and dipping the carrots in it, it is also delicious on sandwiches, with pasta, or as a salad dressing.

Beet greens are not only beautiful but they are one of the healthiest greens you can eat! They contain even more nutrients and antioxidants than the beets themselves, so instead of tossing them out, try using them in your next stir fry or salad, like this Zero Waste Beet Greens Salad packed with other spring produce. You can also cook with radish and turnip greens!

Green Onions can be found all over the market this time of year! Stick the bottoms in a jar with a little bit of water, place them on a windowsill, and watch as they continue to grow!

Did you know that you can dehydrate mushrooms and grind them into a powder that makes an amazing topping on salads, pasta, stir fries, and more? Our Operations Manager made us some and it adds an amazing umami flavor to almost any dish! A great way to use your excess mushrooms that have been sitting in the fridge all week and give them new life.

This tip came from Ryan at f-stop farm – Cilantro Root can be used to flavor soups and stocks, and is commonly used in Thai cuisine! Ryan brought whole cilantro plants to the market recently and we grabbed one to give it a try – it adds such a delicious flavor to soups like Tom Yum.

Last but not least, one of our favorite ways to use veggie scraps is to make a stock! Just toss any scraps that you want to use – things like onions, greens, carrots, garlic are perfect – into a container in your freezer. To make a stock you can follow a recipe like this one for vegetable stock. If you aren’t vegan, lots of people also like to use bones in their stock!