Thank You, Local Producers!

As Aly and I gear up for our last week at the Market, we're feeling a great sense of gratitude towards all the local producers and food suppliers who helped make our food taste so great this summer. There's nothing that beats food made with love, and we were lucky enough to add our own touch to locally supplied produce, cheese, bread, and meat -- all handled with equal amounts of TLC by our vendors!

Eli of Chispas Farm talking to customers

Carey selling for The Old Windmill Dairy

So, before we even unveil our menu for this week, I wanted to write a thank you to these folks who make local food possible. Our community is stronger because of them, our food tastes better because of them, and our food future looks better because of them -- so support them when you can!!!

Jesse working hard at Amyo Farms

A big thanks goes out to:

Amyo Farms: beautiful produce, fresh eggs
Chispas Farm: amazing sweet onions, spicy garlic, scapes to die for!
East Mountain Organics: tender lettuce greens and spinach
Eco Step Farms: beautiful tomatoes & lettuce
Erda Gardens and Learning Center: wonderful greens
Heidi's Raspberry Farm: organic raspberries and wonderful jams
Holly Adams: home-grown peaches
Kemper Barkhurst: plump apricots
La Plazita Institute: eggplants galore!
La Quiche Parisienne Bistro: best artisanal bread in town!
Lee's Bakery: wonderfully light Vietnamese rolls (perfect for Cubanos!)
Leif Rustebakke: amazing variety of apricots
Lydia Baker: beautiful tomatoes
Macias Farms: wonderful produce served with a smile!
Montoya's Farm: peaches, peaches, and more peaches!
Lori's Farms: free-range eggs
Old Windmill Dairy: amazing goat cheese in amazing varieties!
Sange de Cristo Ag. Producers: Nativo unbleached organic flour
South Mountain Dairy: creamy goat cheese
Sunflower Market Meat Department: all natural, great service!

Maria serving with a smile at Macias Farm

And finally, a great big thank you to Eric Garretson, Manager of the Albuquerque Downtown Grower's Market. Eric and the Downtown Action Team have worked tirelessly to make the Market such a great event for our town. We loved being a vendor there this summer, and Eric played a large part in making that happen. Thank you, Eric!

Our Final Menu for the Summer

So now, to unveil our menu for our final week...You voted, and it wasn't even close in terms of your favorite savory item! We'll be serving up Aly's amazing Cubanos: sandwiches with slow roasted pulled pork, black forest ham, Boar's Head Swiss cheese, thin-sliced premium pickles and Aly's secret mayo sauce, all on fresh rolls from Lee's Bakery.

I'll be baking up an array of sweet goods: mango lime tartlets, coconut bites, mojito bars, and our Death-By-Chocolate drops (yes, you need to stock up!).

This is a crazy amount of food. We hope you'll enjoy it, and come help us celebrate our last hurrah!

-See you Saturday!

The Best of Good Nosh: Week 1

Well we have tallied the 136 votes for the Good Nosh Best of Menus. Thanks to everyone who participated!

Drum roll, please?

Your savory favorites are the Cubano Sandwiches, Pizza Margherita, Mushroom Chicken Crepes, and Greek Lemon Chicken Folds.

On the sweet side, fan favorites are the Death by Chocolate Drops, Fruit Tartlettes, Lemon Thyme Madeleines, Coconut Bites, and Mojito Bar Cookies.

To celebrate our last two weeks at the Downtown Growers Market we'll be reprising several of your favorites. For this week I'll be making Grilled Pizza Margherita once again. I roll the dough on site, slap it on the grill then top it with local basil and tomatoes, fresh natural mozzarella, and an organic tomato sauce. For the omnivores, I can add Boars Head pepperoni.


For the front sweets table we'll be offering our Death by Chocolate Drops - yes everyone, you made it through a week off from drops but we'll have them back tomorrow.


Off of our French menu, we'll also be making the Lemon Thyme Madeleines which use organic lemon and thyme, local flour, and local eggs.


See you tomorrow!

Is it Fall Already?

Prior Week Wrap Up
Last week was our first week of market during Fall hours. Beginning in September, the market is an hour later (8am to noon). I'm all torn up about the extra hour of sleep - but I'll soldier on. If you didn't make it to last week's market you missed chile roasting and piles of amazing corn. We really are at peak produce; the tables are overflowing will all kinds of goodies.



Last Saturday we sold out of everything early enough to shut down and pack up before noon. The chicken pita folds were gone by 9:58 am and they got several votes to return on the Best Of menu (see voting section below). People were loving Kei's berry tarts:



Coming this Week
This week, we continue our culinary tribute to the Olympics. Gotta hold on to that feeling, know what I mean? Our second Greek menu draws from our catering items. Kei is using some lovely all natural ground buffalo from Colorado combined with organic tomato and local herbs to make Savory Buffalo Phyllo Rolls. She'll also be combining local spinach and herbs with goat cheese from Old Windmill Dairy in our Spinach Cheese Phyllo Triangles. I'll be making Pecan Baklava - and not using the namby-pamby shortcut of piling all the nuts in one or two thick layers. We'll combine your choice of two baked treats with our tzatziki sauce and a composed Greek salad - so, make it a Pick a Pair Combo Plate. The salad includes Old Windmill Dairy feta, local cukes and tomato, olives, and our own Greek dressing. Local sources for this week include: Amyo Farm, B's Honey Farm, The Old Windmill Dairy, Mike and Lydia Baker, Chispas Farm, Gruet Winery, Lori's Farm, and Macias Farm.


Don't Forget to Vote
Beginning next Saturday, we'll bring back your favorite Good Nosh dishes for our final two weeks at the Downtown Growers Market. It's our Best Of Menu. We have a stack of paper ballots filled out from market goers last week, and hope for another fat stack this week. Please take a few moments to vote online or fill out a ballot at our booth tomorrow. To vote on the web, visit our site and you'll see two polls on the right hand sidebar. You can select more than one item.

Berries, Berries, and More Berries!

Hope you all had a great Labor Day Weekend! My family always goes up North for this holiday to enjoy a camping weekend with family and friends. This year, our friends couldn't make their usual stop-over in Mora to pick raspberries at Salman Raspberry Ranch since the crop wasn't yet ripe. But for market this week we're lucky that Heidi's Raspberry Farm in Corrales is a-ready-for-the-picking!

We're making summer berry tarts -- light flaky crusts bubbling over with four kinds of berries: raspberries, blackberries, strawberries, and blueberries. If this doesn't prolong the taste of summer for you, I don't know what will! And with a bite of death-by-chocolate, you'll be in pure heaven...

Kei's tart test-run...someone's gotta eat em'!

On the savory side, we're taking advantage of the abundance of veggies still in season. We're going Greek this week, and will be grilling some Lemon Chicken Pita Folds, using local tomatoes, onions, garlic, and cucumber. Our chicken is all natural and antibiotic-free, our tzatziki sauce is made from real Greek yogurt, and we'll be featuring hand-made pita bread from local favorite eatery Yasmine's Cafe (on Central and University).

The following week, we'll continue Greek, but because Aly will be in a weekend triathlon (Go, Aly!), we'll be shutting down the grill so she's not inhaling smoke for several hours. We'll offer some wonderful sweet and savory appetizers straight off our catering menu. Think hand-made baklava and delicate phyllo cheese triangles...

We missed you last week (but loved the break!) -- can't wait to see y'all on Saturday!