It’s melon season! The foodie tots and I can’t get enough of melons in every size and color — we’ve enjoyed cantaloupe, honeydew, sun melon, a melon that looked like cantaloupe on the outside but was green like honeydew on the inside, and of course, watermelon. Now, I consider myself something of a watermelon expert, having been quoted on the subject in the Washington Post (cough), but I was still shocked to spot orange watermelon at the Reston Farmers Market this past weekend.

After tweeting a picture, a friend suggested sprinkling fennel pollen on the melon. I couldn’t find fennel pollen at Whole Foods (uh, where else would it be?), but remembered that Cypress Grove‘s Purple Haze chèvre is made with lavender and fennel pollen. And so this quick summer appetizer was born: extremely thin slivers of watermelon, drizzled with extra virgin olive oil, a heavy pinch of sea salt, and topped with crumbled Purple Haze chèvre. It’s not really a recipe as a suggestion: you could mix it up with flavored vinegars, use plain chèvre to keep it local, and/or top with fresh mint or basil or any other herbs from the garden.

The kids were intrigued — the boy asked for a helping of “my” watermelon alongside his straight-up slices, and the bebe nibbled a few crumbs of chèvre before turning her attention back to the melon. What’s your favorite watermelon recipe? (And you do buy seeded melons, right? Remember, Seedless is Soulless. )

This past week we got our first garlic scapes in our CSA bag. Garlic scapes are the curly bright green shoots of a young garlic plant, not to be confused with the “green garlic” stalks that soon follow. Last summer at a New York farmers market, I watched a farmer practically plead with a skeptical customer to give them a try. If you love garlic, you can’t go wrong — but if you’re expecting something mild like a chive, you’ll be in for a pungent surprise.

Garlic scapes are commonly used in pesto — a great way to store them for later use as the scape season is fairly brief. And I like to throw them whole on the grill for a little mellower flavor and perfect accompaniment to a grilled steak. This week we again had Cibola Farm’s buffalo meat, the steaks rubbed with olive oil, smoked paprika, oregano, salt and pepper before grilling. We also had home-baked brioche, which is not exactly local as I don’t have local flour, but I’m taking partial credit here because the rich brioche dough got a boost of flavor from our local, cage-free farmers market eggs and butter. I haven’t had much time to bake lately but am looking forward to cooking up some cherry treats now that the first cherries have arrived at our local markets. We snacked on Emperor Francis cherries from Long Meadow Ecological Farm found at DC’s Eastern Market on Saturday.

We’ve also been snacking on some local goat cheeses from Firefly Farms and Spriggs Delight in Maryland. You can read more about them over on the cheese blog.

Recipe: Grilled Garlic Scapes

• 4 garlic scapes, rinsed
• 1 drizzle olive oil
• course salt and pepper

Instructions: Toss the scapes in olive oil till lightly coated. Place on hot grill over high heat and sear several minutes, until soft and grill marks appear. Remove from heat and season with salt and pepper. Serve along side your favorite grilled meat or fish. Enjoy!

One Local Summer is an annual challenge in which people around the world join together for 13 weeks of seasonal eating, supporting local farmers and exploring their local foodsheds. Visit FarmtoPhilly on Tuesdays for the weekly round-up; here’s what my neighbors in the Southern region cooked up this week.

On last year’s trip to the Oregon coast, my mom and I visited the Lincoln City Farmers Market and came across the largest zucchini I’d ever seen. This year, we headed to the source, Barking Dog Farms, just south of Lincoln City at the base of the Siletz River. This was perhaps the greenest, lushest little farm I’ve ever seen, clearly benefiting from the cool, damp climate. The toddlers snacked on watermelon and picked dandelions while the rest of us checked out the offerings.

My sister-in-law chatted with the owner about their heirloom seed supplier as we drooled over the beautiful tomatoes, zucchini, and cut-to-order herbs and greens. I brought back a large, freshly harvested leek, garlic chives, romanesco zucchini, black russian tomato, pluots and some local goatzarella cheese from Fraga Farm. The leek and chives were used in my oven-roasted salmon, and I made a roasted zucchini, tomato and goatzarella salad to serve on the side. Just two of those hearty zucchini fed the entire family of 10!

Hitting the road soon? Check out Culinate’s “Local 50: Good things to eat in every state.”

While we unfortunately weren’t able to actually eat at Oyamel during their Squash Blossom Festival last week, there was no way I was going to miss Chef Joe Raffa’s demo and tasting at the Penn Quarter FreshFarm Market Thursday evening. I have been going to Penn Quarter on occasion for years – a former coworker and I used to go out of our way to schedule meetings downtown on Thursday afternoons to take a late lunch at the market. Like just about every other local market, it seems to have grown quite a bit from the humble beginning of about three vendors (I remember cheese, bread and soap in the early days). I had read grumblings about DC market prices being significantly higher than those in the ‘burbs, but didn’t really believe it until we picked up blueberries for the toddler at $6 a pint. That would be twice what we’ve been paying in Alexandria. Yikes! (You city-dwellers might find it worthwhile to venture across the river after all … might I suggest the Old Town market, with the free trolley service from the King Street metro.)

There were a few things at Penn Quarter we don’t have though, like the squash blossoms Sand Hill Farm brought, and the marvelous gelato by Dolcezza. I bought the lemon ricotta flavor, made with my favorite Keswick Creamery ricotta. The lemon was the perfect touch to keep it light yet flavorful. Cibola buffalo is also absent from the Alexandria markets (though I think they may be down at Kingstowne – Ramona?) See below for photos from the market.

Chef Raffa dished up a delightful squash blossom soup and watermelon agua fresca (also with squash blossoms). He was also handing out a recipe for goat cheese stuffed squash blossoms, which is how I cooked them up as soon as we got home. (No toddler review of this one, as I greedily ate them all myself! The husband was sick and doesn’t eat goat cheese anyway, his loss.)

Recipe: Flor de Calabaza Rellena de Queso de Cabra con Salsa
(Goat cheese stuffed squash blossoms with salsa)
by Chef Joe Raffa, Oyamel

Ingredients:

• Fresh salsa
• 1 lb goat cheese
• 2 jalapenos, seeded and deveined
• 1/2 c epazote leaves (I didn’t read the recipe at the market to know to buy this – so had to substitute parsley. I would suggest cilantro if you can’t find epazote, but parsley worked as well.)
• 12 squash blossoms
• 1/4 c extra virgin olive oil
• salt

Instructions: (Prepare salsa first, to allow flavors to meld while preparing the squash blossoms. I was missing several ingredients for Raffa’s salsa, so I made a simple one of corn, tomato, red onion, parsley.)

Preheat the over to 350*. Gently rinse the squash blossoms in a bowl of cold water and lightly pat dry with paper towel and set aside. Combine 1 c of the goat cheese, jalapenos and epazote in a food processor and process until smooth. Transfer puree to a mixing bowl and mix in remaining goat cheese. Season with salt. Separate into 12 pieces and roll into 2-3 inch long logs. Gently pry open a squash blossom by pulling back on one of the petals and place a cheese log inside. Lightly pinch the blossom closed around the cheese. Repeat. Place the stuffed squash blossoms on a baking sheet and heat in the oven for no more than 5 minutes. The cheese should be warmed through and the blossoms should soften but not brown. Divide the salsa between 4 plates, top each with 3 squash blossoms and drizzle with olive oil. (Serves 4 – I reduced this for one serving and needed less than 4 oz. of goat cheese to fill my 3 blossoms.

This was by far my favorite meal of the summer. With a simple green salad on the side, it’s rich and creamy yet crisp and refreshing. I loved the jalapeno heat with the sweetness of the squash blossoms. Now I am desperate to get my hands on more squash blossoms to make this again!

Created with Admarket’s flickrSLiDR.
Food miles: Squash blossoms, Sand Hill Farm, Greensboro, Md. (84 mi.)

The first CSA tomatoes of the season arrived in our bag yesterday, which means a quick stop at Cheesetique for pasta and cheese is all that’s needed to put together a fast, fresh pasta dish.

This week, I used red pepper pappardelle. I had orange Roma tomatoes, which I quick roasted in my cast iron skillet until they were just beginning to burst. I sauteed a chopped sweet onion in olive oil, added a handful of green beans broken into 1 inch pieces, then quartered the roasted tomatoes and returned them to the pan. Simmered a few minutes longer, added salt, pepper and fresh basil, then tossed it all with the papardelle and fresh goat cheese. (I used 4 oz. goat cheese which was a little much for 4 servings of pasta – but the toddler and I love our goat cheese.)

Typically I would use garlic, but the sweet onions from our CSA have just been incredible this summer, so I thought I’d give them a turn to star.

Toddler verdict: He slurped the noodles with glee, laughing “bye bye noo-noo” after each one. But when he discovered the green beans at the bottom of his bowl, he promptly requested ketchup. When we said no, he asked for a cup of frozen peas for dessert. Such an odd little kid.

Shared with Presto Pasta Nights, created by Once Upon a Feast and hosted this week by Thyme for Cooking.