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Gardening

Tom Spicer Has Bounty of Farm-Fresh Produce for Sale

By Nancy Nichols |
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Tom Spicer.

Our favorite forager, Tom Spicer has lots for sale at FM 1410. Here’s his latest update on inventory.

Okay, enough with the links already. Here’s what I need you to buy…and if you can’t buy anything then just come sit out on my back deck and take in the fertile scenery yields of my blood, sweat and tears. Arugula, Sweet, lemon, thai and cinnamon basils, “Spicer Greens”, Wolf Creek Okra and 8 Ball zucchini,  Marfa, Tx. Tomatoes, Wild and Cultivated Exotic Mushrooms, Sea Beans, Squash Blossoms, Fresh Pinto Beans (purple hulls and black eyed peas by monday). Wolf Creek Farm pickles and preserves (real, local farm mom n’ pop put up goods as opposed to all the high fructose corn syrup stuff made in mass quantities with what ever label you want on it) Send me out to the mkt. in the wee hours to get the freshest pick of sweet corn, tomatoes, spinach, melons/cantaloupes, squash or whatever…kale and collards included though my garden is flush with Rainbow Beet tops and Chards”. That’s all for now. let me know what you’re looking for.

Jump for Tom Spicer’s (unedited) vegetable report.

Amaranths…this link contains images of the numerous types of amranth greens along with cultural information. I grow 7 varieties of these and harvest them as micro greens, petite greens, baby greens and braising greens through out the hot summer months. I discovered this beautiful family of edible plants in my Vietnamese workers garden over 20 years ago and have been cultivating it in large quantities ever since.

Green amaranth, in Jamaca is called “Calaloo” which, essentially… is their spinach. There are various types of red and variegated bi-color varieties like  “Merah” (round coleous type leaf) , Red Garnet (narrow pointed crimson leaves) “All Red” (round, all red like Merah and Calaloo) and “Josephs Coat” a tri-color pointed leaf. I continue to find other, wild varieties in my quest for new-tritious salad components.

Purslanes/aka Verdolagas…another heat resistant, drought tolerant (drought loving) nutritious salad and cooking green that is extremely high in tri-omega amino acid. I discovered my Hispanic farm workers harvesting this weed into laundry baskets before they would punch the clock at 6:am. I inquired “what the hell”? I ate some for lunch that day. They quickly braised it off in the fond of their skillet that had just seared up a batch of “cicina”, a thin, marinaded beef. This discovery was within a few weeks of amaranths.

Lambs Quarter (not lambs ear nor lambs tongue…those are completely different plant families) lambs quarters come in three colors. Two of which are most commonly found wild, green and magenta. The dark purple lambs quarters are not commom here in the belly of the dragon we call Texas. I purvey all of these greens through out the summer either as independant components to or mixed in what has come to be the summer version of “SPICER GREENS”. One of my best chefs put it on his menu as “Wild Spinach”

Sorrels, this and all the salad/pot herbs above have one element in common that groups them into an international “Spinach” category and that element is oxalic acid. They may not have the same percentage of oxalic acid but they contain quite a bit which needs to be studied both in how best to prepare them so you get the best side of oxalic acid instead of it acting as a ligand that robs you of and bonds calcium with an insoluable salt often resulting in kidney stones. Lemon juice and the correct metal pans/pots can prevent this it is said. There’s common sorrel, red veined sorrel, sheeps sorrel and wild arrow head sorrel (my favorite). Sheeps sorrel is another name for the plant “Oxalis” and looks like a Shamrock (red and green varieities). Look up and read about cunsumtion of oxates. Sorrel, because of it’s oxalic acid content is used to clean the fond from the pan then pureed with cream that makes a killer sauce for trout and salmon but don’t leave out the lemon juice.

Calabasas, Winter squashes and edible gourds...Vegan Turkies (are blue, orange or grey Hubbard squashes) all washing up on the market schoals. There’s one in particular that I’d never seen and goes by the name of “One Too Many” it’s a knock out of a beautiful winter squash. The story goes that a farmer had planted 12 varieties and this was the thirteenth variety, hence…one too many.

Okay, enough with the links already. Here’s what I need you to buy…and if you can’t buy anything then just come sit out on my back deck and take in the fertile scenery yields of my blood, sweat and tears.

Our retail hours are from 10:am to 5:pm mon thru sat, sundays by appointment only.

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