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The Market:
Union
Square Greenmarket
17th Street and Broadway
New York City
Mon., Wed., Fri., and Sat.
8 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Market-Goer: Mark
Thompson
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It was a summery fall day in New
York City, in the 80s temperature wise.
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There were plenty of summer vegetables
still on display in the market -- corn, pole beans,
tomatoes, etc. -- but their days are numbered. I noticed
on at least one table's pile of tomatoes a little sign
announcing that this was their last week. |
Fall crops are already here to take
their place, including winter squash and, one of my favorites,
multiple varieties of fresh shell beans. |
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What I Bought:
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(left to right)
purple-hulled pinkeyed cowpeas, perigion beans, black
valentine beans, blackeyed peas and adzuki beans
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Fresh shell beans are one of my favorite buys in fall
farmers markets. A couple of weeks ago, at the farmers
market in Venice
Beach, Calif., I scored a large bundle of kidney
beans -- pods, plants, roots and all. Today, I was intrigued by
this array of bean varieties at the Union Square
market. When they're sold fresh like this,
the beans are semi-dried, and deceptively
soft to the touch. But don't expect them to cook in
minutes. Some will need to be simmered for an hour.
When they're cooked, they're noticeably more tender
than beans that have been reconstituted from a
rock-hard, fully dried state.
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Dried bean trivia buffs might like to know: the
adzuki bean, according to its Wikipedia entry,
is the second most widely consumed legume in Japan,
after the soybean. The black
valentine is excellent as a snap bean when the
pods are picked young and it also produces an
excellent soup bean, according to Seed Savers
Exchange.
Price: $5/lb. edamame
$4/lb. other beans varieties
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hairy black
edamame soybeans
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(left
to right) Cippolini onions; purple Peruvian, Red
Norland
and Carola potatoes; kohlrabi
Price: $4/lb. cippolini
onions
$3/lb. purple Peruvian potatoes
$2/lb. carola potatoes
$1.50/lb. red norland potatoes
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