This Week at the South Durham Farmers' Market

This Week at the Market

• Music by 
• Riverside High School Choir
• Guest Chef 
• Derek Treuer cooking & sampling Collards with Raisins
• In Season: cauliflower, broccoli, potatoes, cabbage, squash, carrots, lemongrass, radishes, bok choy, turnips, brussel sprouts, greens and more

Winter Hours Begin!
Enjoy an extra hour toasty warm in bed this Saturday because the market will not open until 9 o'clock. Our winter hours of 9am-noon will be in effect this Saturday, December 14th through Saturday, March 29th.

A Remarkable Vegetable
Even after all the leaves have fallen and we approach winter’s shortest day, somehow our farmers’ continue to coax their crops into yielding ever more beautiful vegetables from the hard ground.  One such specimen, and a new one for me, was the Romanesco from Parker Farm and Vineyard. They are alternatively known as Romanesque cauliflower or Romanesco broccoli, the bud’s name always referring back to its point of origin, Italy (though perhaps not specifically Rome).

I bought several to roast as a side to meatballs made with lamb from Sassafras Fork Farm. (The resulting meal is pictured below.) Often described as a nuttier tasting cauliflower, the Romanescos were sweet and crunchy and each cone looked like a Christmas tree in miniature, especially when dotted with pomegranate seeds.

A local farmer friend pointed out to me that the geometric pattern of Romanescos conforms to the Fibonacci sequence and the closely related Golden Spiral. The Fibonacci sequence starts with 0 and 1, and every subsequent number in the sequence is the sum of the previous two. For example:

0+1=1   1+1=2   1+2=3   2+3=5   3+5=8   5+8=13  8+13=21   13+21=34