Eating local while on the road can be challenging, but visiting the local farmers market is one of my favorite things to do while traveling. As mentioned below, we stopped at the Port Washington Farmers Market on a recent trip to New York, on our way out to some wineries on Long Island’s North Fork.

A Local(ish) (NY) Picnic Lunch: After some terrific wines at Roanoke Vineyards (recently mentioned in the NY Times), it was on to my in-laws’ pick, Palmer Vineyards, where we enjoyed a mostly-local picnic lunch of fresh goat cheese on organic baguette, procured from the market that morning, dried fruit from home, and North Fork potato chips (sweet potato and sour cream & onion). The toddler danced to the live music while we took in the vineyard views from the porch. A lovely summer afternoon!

A Local (NY) Breakfast: On the way back to Queens, we stopped at an organic farmstand, with lovely strawberries and some actual Long Island goat cheese, which we ate for breakfast the next morning. These little berries have a firmer texture than our Virginia berries, and the goat cheese was some of the creamiest I’ve ever tasted. Delicious!

A Local (VA) Dinner: Back at home, we again had garlic scapes in our weekly CSA bag. My new favorite preparation is to toss them with a touch of olive oil and kosher salt, then throw them on the grill. The grilling mellows the flavor, resulting in the perfect complement to some fresh (Fauquier County VA) beef burgers on locally-baked, garlic-rubbed Italian bread. (Then I put non-local organic ketchup on it…homemade ketchup is on my to-do list this summer!)

This was an easy pasta dish made easier with a few Trader Joe’s favorites – cooked, peeled frozen shrimp and Ginger Soy Broth, plus my own prepped and frozen broccoli and garlic scape pesto from last week. I also used TJ’s flax seed pasta to fulfill my Whole Grains Challenge quota for the day. (OK, so it was 1 of 3 meals, but every small step counts, right?)

Ingredients:

• 1/2 bag flax seed fusili
• 3 c ginger soy broth (added to water to boil pasta)
• 1 c frozen broccoli
• 1 bag shrimp, thawed and tails removed
• 2 T garlic scape pesto* (or whatever kind you have on hand)
• 1/2 T olive oil
• 1 t roasted sesame oil
• 1/3 c cashews

Instructions: I added the 3 c of ginger soy broth to the pasta water. Cook pasta as instructed, adding broccoli for final 2 minutes. Reserve cooking water for later. Heat pesto and oils in skillet over medium heat. Add shrimp and cook just a couple minutes, about 3-4, adding cashews for final minute. Toss with cooked pasta, broccoli, and about 1/4 c of the pasta water. Enjoy!

* Recipe: Garlic Scape Pesto

Take one bunch of garlic scapes (3-4) and chop into 1 inch pieces. Add to food processor with 1/4 c olive oil, 1/4 c nuts of your choice (I used cashews, pecans and pistachios are also great), and 1/4 c parmiaggano cheese. Chop till fine. This is pretty potent, so use with care!

Toddler Notes: I believe this was the first time we really served shrimp to the toddler. He wasn’t interested the first night, but ate one bite the second. He ate all his broccoli first and then stole every last piece off the husband’s plate, before getting to the noodles. Hooray for broccoli!

Submitted to Presto Pasta Nights, created by Once Upon a Feast and hosted this week by Closet Cooking.