Patch Picks For The Farmers Market: September 13

Golden raspberries come and go briefy so get them while they are available at Hayton Farms. They are a little milder and sweeter according to growers and make a beautiful presentation onto top of a mixed berry fruit tart. Use all three varieties of berries they have available — black, red, and golden and the dessert will be a masterpiece.

La Pasta has oodles of noodles, and Farmers Market regular, Pat Auten, from Fairwood stopped to tell me how she cooked them up last week. She raved over the lemon oregano fettucine which she cooked with shrimp, white wine and garlic. “The pasta was so good,” she said, “I came back to try the cabernet noodles with my lamb chops tonight.” She’ll keep us posted.

Sweet Coconut Bakery has been appearing at the Renton Farmers Market at Valley Medical Center and has now joined the Tuesday market for its last four weeks. Owner Hazel Lee is also the baker. She offers sweet Filipino cookies and candies. Last week, the offerings included broken brittle — yum! — coconut almond cookies, pumpkin sesame chews (so appropriate for fall!) and chocolate peanut butter sandwich cookies.

The cookies are all small, inexpensively priced ($2.50) and perfect to tuck in your lunch box. Sweet Coconut Bakery also offers polvorones (a shortbread type of cookie) in chocolate chunk.

Most families who are watching their pennies and want to stretch a buck have some kind of stuffed pepper recipe. They are so versatile, and relatively inexpensive to make. The market will be overflowing with beautiful stacks of yellow, orange, green, and red peppers until the end of the market.

Peppers can be stuffed with ground beef, turkey, sausage or pork. Most recipes call to mix the meat mixture with rice, cheese, tomatoes, garlic, and the liquid of your choice to moisten the rice. I use a combination of wine and water or broth. It’s a nice way to use the bounty of the season to feed your family relatively inexpensively.

I am hooked on the green goddess dip that I purchased last week from . The ingredients are simple: olive and soybean oil, eggs, sour cream, basil, lemon juice, parmesan cheese, roasted garlic, anchovy, salt & pepper.

The dip is divine with fresh veggies like carrots or peppers.

Enjoy the market – there are only two more weeks! Next up on September 20 will be the fantastic kids from culinary program. They will be showcasing their talents between 4:30-5 p.m.