Stale bread—it happens to the best of us. We buy loaf or two from our favorite farmers tailgate market bread vendors with visions of endless tomato sandwiches, but then life happens and the loaf goes stale before we’ve had a chance to finish it. Enter panzanella, a fantastic vehicle for reviving stale bread—that also happens to celebrate summer produce available at markets now.
Fresh at Farmers Markets
Start your shopping list and get meal inspiration each week with ASAP’s roundup of what’s fresh at farmers markets. Although this report focuses on vendors at Buncombe County markets, many products mentioned can be found at markets throughout the region. Want to get this report in your inbox each week? Subscribe to ASAP’s Weekly Farmers Market Report newsletter. Looking for a yearlong view? Check out ASAP’s produce seasonality chart.
Fresh at Farmers Markets This Week
This is the sweetest of times. The great mingling of late summer and early fall fruits is happening now at farmers tailgate markets! While many farms still have peaches, raspberries, blackberries, and even blueberries, we’re also starting to get the first pear and apple varieties. Figs have arrived and watermelons and cantaloupes are more widely available.
Fresh at Farmers Markets This Week
Melding summer’s produce into a single simmered dish gives you a satisfying vegetarian meal and celebrates the height of the farmers tailgate market season. We’re thinking about recipes like French ratatouille, Spanish piperade, and Middle Eastern shakshuka. These similar dishes all start with tomatoes, sweet peppers, onions, and garlic, with additions of eggplant, summer squash, potatoes, or eggs. All of these recipes adapt easily to accommodate market purchases or what you have leftover in your fridge.
Fresh at Farmers Markets This Week
We spotted the first of the season’s melons at farmers tailgate markets this week, heralding the arrival of summer’s midpoint. Of course, melons of all types are ideal for eating fresh, but you can also incorporate them into your salads, cook them on the grill, or get creative with the rind.
Fresh at Farmers Markets This Week
It can be hard to see past the rainbow of tomatoes, peaches, corn, summer squash, peppers, eggplants, and other summer favorites weighing down tables at farmers tailgate markets right now. But farmers are also bringing some superstar herbs to markets that pair wonderfully with these vegetables and offer new flavors.
Fresh at Farmers Markets This Week
Corn arrived at farmers tailgate markets especially early this year, thanks to an early planting gamble that paid off for Lee’s One Fortune Farm. You can get solid yellow or bicolor “peaches and cream” ears from the Lees now at ASAP, Black Mountain, West Asheville, River Arts District, and East Asheville markets. Expect other farms to have it ready in the next few weeks.
Fresh at Farmers Markets This Week
As eggplant joins the march of summer produce available at farmers tailgate markets, our thoughts are turning to Middle Eastern meze. You can easily fill several platters with a colorful combination of tomatoes, cucumbers, roasted squash and beets, babaganoush, hummus, tzatziki, eggs, olives, pickles, and pita for a feast. Or you could toss everything into a single pita for thoroughly satisfying sabich sandwich.
Fresh at Farmers Markets This Week
Fireworks will light up skies this weekend, but colorful displays of another sort are filling farmers tailgate market tables. Whether you are gathering with friends and family or preserving some time for yourself, here are a few ways you can celebrate the best of local food this holiday weekend.
Fresh at Farmers Markets This Week
Freshly dug new potatoes in red, yellow, and purple are here! You really don’t need to do much to enjoy these. They are delicious on their own, salt-boiled or roasted with olive oil. But new potatoes also work well in simple salads that celebrate some of the best summer produce at markets now, including green beans, cucumbers, tomatoes, and more. Look for new potatoes from Full Sun Farm and Gaining Ground Farm at North Asheville and River Arts District markets; Sleight Family Farm at West and North Asheville markets; Root Bottom Farm at West Asheville Tailgate Market; Smallholding Farm at Weaverville and East Asheville markets; and Ten Mile Farm at ASAP Farmers Market.
Fresh at Farmers Markets This Week
Sure, the image is a little trite: Dad in his battleworn apron, presiding over the Weber. But since Sunday is both Father’s Day and the first day of summer, we’re going to lean into the stereotype and devote this column to grilling. Grillable veggies like summer squash, spring onions, and mushrooms are plentiful at farmers tailgate markets right now, in addition to a wide assortment of steaks, sausages, chops, and birds.