Bobbie and her scrumptious Sweet and Spicy Stir Fry Bouquet!

BAYVIEW FARMER'S MARKET OPENS TODAY! 
One thing I've learned as the farm has grown...get a good employee and let them do what they do best!  This picture is a great example of that. 
This is Bobbie, she is the farm Market Manager this year.  Which means she will be the face "of the farm" at the markets, particularly the Bayview Farmer's Market.  And what, you ask, is she holding?  Well this is an AMAZING beautiful and scrumptiously edible bouquet that Bobbie created.  Now...I've tried to create such things in past years.  They ain't never looked like this!  But Bobbie has a flair for the artistic and an eye for vegetables....she took a few collard and mustard greens, some blooming kale raab, a blooming arugula stalk or two, garlic greens, lovely pea vines....wrapped it all up in a Whidbey Island Grown tie and voila - Beautiful and Edible!
This bouquet is also a good representation of "what is best" from the fields right now.  I was just having this conversation with our new crop of farm interns (more coming on them in later blogs).  We were talking about how with, eating "what we grow" we tend to eat things - at least fresh vegetables -  when they are in "their peak" because that is when they are most abundant.  And as I was noting, the additional bonus of this is we eat things when they are then most tasty as well.  This was while enjoying a scrumptious plate of collard greens.  Which, along with overwintered kale plants, are never more tender, sweet and tasty then in the spring.  When they have endured those months of sweet-enhancing cold weather and they are making tender leaves fueled by cool and wet conditions.  Yum!
So...you ask, what do we have coming to the Coupeville and first of the season Bayview Farmer's markets today?  Well....lots of things that are at their seasonal best!  Including...
From Willowood Farm
* Collard Greens
* Sweet and Spicy Stir Fry Bouquets
* Garlic Greens (immature garlic plants, like scallions only garlicky!)
* Radishes - just a few and they will go quick!
* Leek bunches
* Spinach bags
* Mesclun bags
* Peregion Dry Beans
* Rockwell Dry Beans
* Peanut Fingerling potatoes
From our friends at Prairie Bottom Farm we have....
* Cylindra Beets (giant ones!  Great for roasting!)
* Scallions
* Herbs
* Chard
* Kale bunches
* Kale Raab
From Georgina we have some lovely Ebey's Prairie grown grains including whole, cracked and fresh-ground flour versions of Kamut, Purple Barley and Red Hard Wheat.
And then (at Bayview Farmer's Market only!) Mikey at Whidbey Green Goods tells me his is bringing some beef, pork and salmon along with some carrots and some lovely baby cauliflower heads.
As a final word, please note if you frequent our Coupeville booth we WILL NOT be there next weekend!  Wilbur and Julieanna (Prairie Bottom Farm) are off for the History Day state tournament and well that combined with their new baby Henry and the challenges of slower growing spring fields means we just can't quite swing it without them.  We will be still at the Bayview Farmer's Market that weekend and back at both markets the following.
Hope to see you at market!
Farmer Georgie
Willowood Farm of Ebey's Prairie