It hardly seems like fall at the Santa Barbara Farmers Market. There are plenty of berries, asparagus, fresh peas, vine ripe tomatoes, every kind of herb and figs. There were bundles of Italian basil that had leaves as big as a fist. It gave me and idea to stuff it with warm barata cheese and set it on roasted tomatoes drizzled with olive oil and lemon.
Hints of fall include apples, squashes, dried peppers and legumes. I am always on the hunt for the new and unusual and sometime that arrives as a hybrid or heirloom variety of something familiar.
Tom Shephard is a familiar sight at the market. I first bought his now famous Shephard's Green from him when he farmed the Hammond Meadows in Santa Barbara. Tom was selling a variety of dried legumes including the penquito beans and the haricot rouge. I am going to prepare the haricot rouge like a chili with cippolini onions and jalapeños as a foil for a baked trout.
Dried French Red Beans "Haricot Rouge"
From Wikipedia:
"Shalawa Meadow (now most often called Hammond's Meadow) is a 3 acre seaside meadow used in ancient times as a burial site by the Chumash people, adjoining a once large Chumash community about 5 miles east of Santa Barbara, California in the Coast Village portion of the community of Montecito."
The Chinese long beans look like regular green beans that were stretched on "the rack". At a restaurant call Pacifica in the Desert in Palm Desert, CA that I helped open, we served the long beans deep fried and tossed with a fermented black bean sauce.
Heirloom Vine Ripe Tomatoes
Yellow Cherry Tomatoes
Crackling Hot Jalapeños