Special Event:  Find out how to start collecting rain water off the roof or encouraging it to slow down and soak in to benefit the plants in your yard at the Rain Water Harvesting Day with Cooperative Extension’s

Last Sunday at the Douglas Farmers Market customers flocked to buy freshly dug purple and white sweet onions, the new crops of Italian red, crisp white and elephant garlic as well as green beans, heirloom round yellow Papaya Pear and other summer squash and fresh “nopalitos” or young cactus pads which can be added to eggs, salsas or salads from Emma and Jim Montoya, a family that raises produce using natural methods of fertilization and no pesticides on their In the Beginning Farm in Palominas.

Water Wise info booth and rain barrels that match your house for sale from large (2,500 gallons) to small.

Father’s Day Raffle:  Enter your father or husband for a chance to win a day of golf, a hair cut or a dinner out. 

Music:  Cumbias, corridos, country and oldies by Arnold Arvizu on his keyboard.

In season:  Locally and organically raised by family farmers or backyard gardeners: tomatoes, “quelites” or red amaranth greens, freshly dug purple and white sweet onions, new crop of garlic (Italian purple, white and elephant), green, purple and yellow beans, fresh herbs, summer squash (look for heirloom round Papaya Pear or firm, creamy Italian varieties), blackberries, beets, carrots, shallots, radishes, greens (Red Russian Kale), green onions, “nopalitos” and watermelon. Pecans & farm fresh eggs.

Baked goods:  Homemade whole wheat bread, granola, pecan and peanut brittle, pecan candy, cookies & pastries. Naturally sweet mesquite cookies & mesquite tortillas. Mesquite baking kits and mesquite pancake mix.

Also available:  Just coffee beans  including Arabica, Robusto & premium Marago, (larger beans with a rich, chocolatey taste), white and brown tepary beans (desert-hardy beans grown on the San Xavier Indian Reservation outside of Tucson), grass-fed beef, goat and lamb & beef jerky,  herb and garden plants starts, chiletepin plants, rubs, prickly pear nectar & fruit leather. Hand made goat’s milk soap, gourds and gourd seeds, natural herbal bug spray and herbal remedies for people and pets.

Prepared Food:  Fresh fruit juices or “jugos”, fruit smoothies, fruit salads, shrimp tacos & burritos, spinach, beef or corn tamales, elote cocktail, nachos & freshly brewed hot coffee and cold Mormon tea.

In Season Recipes

Baked Onions with Pecans

(both recipes adapted from Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon)

4 large onions, peeled

1 c chicken stock

3 tblsp butter

1 tblsp honey

1 tsp grated lemon rind

? tsp paprika

sea salt

? c crispy pecans, finely chopped

Cut onions in half along the equator and place cut side up in a buttered glass baking dish.  Mix stock, butter, honey, lemon rind and paprika and heat gently until well blended.  Season to taste.  Pour over onions.

Bake, covered for 50 minutes at 350 degrees F basting occasionally, until onions are just tender.  Remove cover, sprinkle with pecans and bake another 10 or 15 minutes until lightly browned.

 

French Onion Soup

4 to 5 purple onions

4 tblsp butter

2 quarts beef stock

? c cognac (optional)

? c red wine

2 tblsp arrowroot mixed with 2 tblsp water for thickening

sea salt and pepper

Slice onions very thinly in food processor.  Melt butter in a large, stainless steel pot.  Add onions and cook on the lowest possible heat, stirring occasionally, for about 2 hours, until onions are very soft and slightly caramelized