Farmers market news

After missing market day while I was on vacation last, I'm starving for fresh, green food this week. A word of warning: Don't get between me and the asparagus. The pantry is bare and I'm hungry.

A few bits of news:

• Grateful Growers Farm is looking for new volunteers to help with their stand at the Charlotte Regional Farmers Markets. They don't pay with money, but you do get fresh pork and other food from their farm. If you're interested, email Natalie Veres at info@ggfarm.com. The Harvest Moon truck won't be at the regional market this week. But they will have farm stands open at the regional, at Matthews and at the Bill's Freedom Farm booth at the Denver market.
• The Matthews Community Farmers Market has a clever event this week: "Bring a Friend to Market Day." If you bring a friend, neighbor, co-worker or a family member who is new to the market, you can enter a drawing for a market gift basket. Bring two friends and you can enter twice. Get details, hours and directions here.
• The Atherton Market in SouthEnd will have plenty of fresh food Saturday morning, then will host the Tony Coturri wine and chef event for Slow Food Charlotte from 6-10 p.m. Saturday night. Tickets are $50 and must be bought in advance. Go here for the details.
• If all that fresh food gets you in the mood to get out in the field yourself instead of shopping, the Brotherhood of St. Andrew is gleaning collards in Concord from 9 to 11 a.m. Saturday. Call Kristen Shaben, 704-577-0779, if you want to sign up.

And finally -- but most importantly -- we're getting ready to run our annual list of farmers markets in the region on May 18. If you manage a market and you don't want me to miss it, please email me with the details (address, hours, web sites, email or phone number) at kpurvis@charlotteobserver.com.

Photo: thegothamist.com.

A royal breakfast with the Queen

I have the best of intentions to get up to catch a little of the royal wedding. But that depends on what happens when the alarm goes off.

If you're up in the middle of the night and feeling kitcheny, the National Archive has released a recipe for the drop scones that Queen Elizabeth II made when President Dwight Eisenhower visited Balmoral Castle in 1959. The original, typewritten recipe card is featured in an upcoming exhibit, "What's Cooking Uncle Sam?"

Wave one's hand in a queenly fashion and cause them to be made. You're on your own to figure how big a tea cup is (I'm guessing roughly 1/2 cup), but you can substitute treacle or sugar syrup for caster sugar. The directions don't actually include cooking, but apparently, the batter was spooned out onto a hot griddle. Drop scones are like thicker American pancakes.

Drop Scones
4 tea cups flour
4 tablespoons caster sugar
2 tea cups milk
2 whole eggs
2 teaspoons bi-carbonate soda (baking soda)
3 teaspoons cream of tartar
2 tablespoons melted butter

Beat eggs, sugar and about half the milk together, add flour and mix well together, adding remaining milk as required, also bi-carbonate and cream of tartar. Fold in the melted butter.

Photo: Aftermath.com

The hottest food show: 'Parks and Rec'

As a fan since the very first episode, I can finally declare my favorite food show: "Parks and Recreation." I'd move to Pawnee to break bread with Ron Swanson (Nick Offerman) and Tom Haverford (Aziz Ansari). Now the online food world is catching on to them, too.

Ron had barely finished his definition of a turkey burger ("a fried turkey leg inside a grilled hamburger") when Eater.com had documented an attempt to make one. Then Ansari's rant on food names ("Zerts are what I call desserts, tres-tres are entrees . . . fried chicken is fry-fry chicky-chick, chicken Parm is chicky-chicky-parm-parm") was broken down into a Web guide: http://tomhaverfoods.com/

Remember, people: Muffins are just naked cupcakes.

Elsewhere online:

• Eater National is reporting that Paula Deen has been diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes. No confirmation. If it's true, she has my sympathy. TV ratings are a tough game. Would anyone have watched "Paula Deen's Low-Fat, Healthful Food Party"?
• Further proof that the cupcake craze is over (or should be): Cupcake Vodka. It's available in four flavors (original, chiffon, frosting and devil's food). Amazing -- they've invented a vodka that gives me a headache before I drink it.
  
• In more serious news, I was vacationing last week and almost missed an excellent story in the New York Times on the risk that foragers are destroying ramps by digging too many of them. Since ramps are one of North Carolina's food traditions, it's worth a read.
• And in today's New York Times, science-cook Harold McGee has a fascinating piece on the taste of artisan sea salts.

Product of the Week: Flat marshmallows

Kraft just announced its newest product: Jet-Puffed StackerMallows. Apparently these are flat marshsmallows, "perfectly sized to fit a graham cracker for year-round s'mores."

Remember when s'mores were simple? Remember when you could do it with any ol' marshmallow, even a half-stale one that had been in the bottom of the camping gear since that rained-out Cub Scout trip six months ago? Remember when you could just cut a marshmallow in half or squish it really hard if you needed a flat marshmallow?

If you need them, StackerMallows will be $1.69 for an 8-ounce bag and will be available in stores in June.

All farm-pickers are winners

So who won the random drawing for a copy of Diane Daniel's "Farm Fresh North Carolina"? That would be Susan Campbell. Congratulations, Susan.

If you didn't win, you can find our list of Piedmont farms with pick-your-own crops. It's up on our web site, at www.charlotteobserver.com/food.

The list lasts for a lot longer than strawberry season, of course. It covers peaches, blackberries, blueberries, scuppernongs and vegetables like tomatoes and corn, and keeps going right through pumpkin season. So we keep it posted on the Web site from April through October.

It's great to know how well-used it is. I call each and every farm on the list. And every year, farmers tell me that people show up with our list in hand.

Stay tuned: Our annual list of farmers markets will be coming in a few weeks. It's good-food season, folks. But aren't all seasons good-food season?

Ready for You-Pick -- and a giveaway?

The Observer's annual list of Pick Your Own farms goes up Wednesday. We do it as a print list in the paper and online as a searchable map that stays posted through October, so it's ready for apple and pumpkin season, too. New this year: We'll combine our map with the Raleigh News & Observer's version, giving you a big net of fresh-in-the-fields food from the coast to the mountains.

Along with the list this year, my Raleigh cohort Andrea Weigl is writing about a couple of books that fit the theme, "The New Southern Garden Cookbook," by Sheri Castle, and "Farm Fresh North Carolina," by Diane Daniel. Daniel's book is an unusually helpful guide to farmers markets, farm stands, orchards and farm-centric food and lodging all over the state.

To get everyone in the strawberry-picking mood, I've got a copy of "Farm Fresh North Carolina" to give away. To enter, send an email with "Farm Fresh" in the subject line to kpurvis@charlotteobserver.com. Deadline: 9 a.m. Wednesday.

Chewing the fat (lard) with WDAV

I was honored to be invited as the guest on WDAV's Sunday morning chat, "Biscuits and Bach," with Rachel Stewart. The online link just went up, in case you weren't listening to the radio that morning. It's a sweet show -- a five-minute interlude between all the high-cotton classical music. We managed to cover lard, emotion and Southern identity.

To replay it, go here and scroll down to April 10. And if you really want to hear an expert, drop down one more day and listen to Nathalie Dupree's recent appearance as well.

And in another link, my friend and colleague Judy Walker, the food editor of the New Orleans Times-Picayune, was apparently so taken by our recent story on kitchen cleaning that she turned it into a video. Take a look at it here.

Thanks, Rachael and Judy. I'm always honored to work with talented women.