Every Wednesday - East Nashville Farmers Market

It’s Wednesday, so we headed over to the East Nashville Farmers Market to shop and take in the sights on this beautiful, hot afternoon.

The Howling Brothers provide musical goodness.

While browsing, we took a moment to sit on the haybales and listen to the Howling Brothers play a little old-fashioned southern folk music.

Tangy salsa!

We got free samples of a nice, tangy salsa from Gracias Salsa – a new addition this week. Cheila Eagan, whose husband makes the stuff, told us that they use the salsa for everything from a dip to a marinade at their house.

A crowd at the Delvin Farms booth.

The Delvin Farms booth was hopping as usual, with people picking up their CSA shares as well as browsing the popular farm’s offerings.

We liked their pork chops so much that we came back!

This week we opted for ground lamb from Peaceful Pastures instead of their pork chops, which we’ve already determined are delicious. We also got a full bag of the sugar snap peas from Foggy Hollow Farm in Joelton that we sampled last week, which we’ll probably use in this week’s Market to Table.

The Farmers Market closes at 6:30 today, so you’ve still got time to get over to 210 S. 10th Street and get some fresh food – if you hurry!

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For your own Dang Good Eastside Pork Chops, you’ll want to visit the folks from Peaceful Pastures at the Farmers Market and pick up two pork chops. Then gather all these items together:

• 1 small sweet onion, finely diced
• a few squirts of lemon juice
• 1/2 cup soy sauce
• 3-4 tablespoons oil
• 1/2 cup Southern Comfort
• hot sauce (to taste)
• salt (to taste)
• pepper (to taste)
• 2-3 teaspoons brown sugar

Mix all the above ingredients together in a saucepan and simmer until the onions begin to cook. We used Dave’s Gourmet Insanity Sauce for the hot sauce; if you use it, just a few drops are necessary for the whole recipe because this stuff is hot. Drop the pork chops in the pan and simmer them until they have a nice sear.

While they’re cooking, you can prepare a side dish of green beans; we got ours from the folks at Delvin Farms. Trim the ends off the beans and drop them in a pot of boiling water until they’re your desired texture – we like ours crunchy, but you might be different. Drain the water and lightly coat the beans with olive oil. Add a splash of lemon juice, and salt, pepper, and garlic powder to taste.

When you finish, your tangy, spicy meal should look something like this:

Dang Good Eastside Pork Chops - click to see full-size image

If you keep your portion sizes fairly small, you’ll have room for a treat later in the evening. Tonight we’ll be enjoying our Chipotle Colby from Kenny’s Farmhouse Cheese with a 2006 bottle of Sebeka Shiraz Pinotage Cape Blend.

Enjoy!

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There was a bit of light rain but that didn’t stop a healthy crowd from showing up. Under a tent in the middle of the market was a three-piece acoustic bluegrass band, complete with stand-up bass. There were a number of non-food vendors selling handmade soaps and jewelry. For those who couldn’t wait to eat some of the goodies the fine folks from Moose Head Kettle Corn had plenty of tasty treats available. (For those of you who Twitter, check out @MooseHeadCorn.)

Several vendors had already sold out of a few choice items before we arrived, but there was still plenty to look over for our next week’s meals. Delvin Farms had three different kinds of kale, including a neat-looking one called Dinosaur Kale, not to mention shiitake mushrooms. The only seasonal fruit we saw was strawberries, though that should change in the next few weeks or so. We got the chance to sample some delicious sugar snap peas from Foggy Hollow Farm in Joelton – they’ll be on our shopping list next week for sure.

In the end we bought a pound of green beans from Delvin Farms, a pound of pork chops and some dog treats from Peaceful Pastures, and a block of chipotle colby cheese from Kenny’s Farmhouse Cheese. That ought to tide us over until next week, when we plan to get there at 3:30 p.m. so we can scope out everything that’s available for early birds.

Related posts:

1. East Nashville Farmers Market Wednesday
2. Market to Table: Dang Good Eastside Pork Chops