Produce Clarke Farm on Bruce Road in Chesapeake will be picking a field of pink-eyed crowder peas this week. And if you ask what they are, you won't be the first, said Wayne Clarke. They look a little like black-eyed peas only the eye has a tinge of pink when the peas are fresh, and Clarke thinks they taste a little sweeter. Cook them with seasoning the way you would cook black-eyed peas or perhaps butter beans, he said.
Make a batch or two of tomato sauce for the freezer with canning tomatoes from Clarke Farm. Canning tomatoes are overripe or misshapen tomatoes that are sold for less than regular tomatoes.
You can find half a dozen or so local farmers and their crops at the Chesapeake Farmers' Market in Chesapeake City Park, 900 Greenbrier Parkway. The market is open from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. Wednesdays and Saturdays and 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sundays.
"It's the heart of the melon season," said Watson Lawrence, Chesapeake agricultural extension agent. You can find old favorites such as cantaloupes, watermelons and honeydews at the market as well as several new varieties that are "really tasty."
The market has been so popular this year that farmers usually sell out before the end of the day, Watson added.
- Believe it or not, pick-your-own blueberries are still available at some farms, including Drewry Farms at 541 Strawberry Lane in Wakefield and Pungo Blueberries, Etc. at 3477 Muddy Creek Road in Virginia Beach.
In addition to her popular tomato pies, Ashley Welton at Welton's Fresh Seafood Market on Pacific Avenue is baking blueberry and peach cobblers this summer. They come in two sizes - for four or eight people.
Seafood Richard Welton said he is getting a limited number of fresh soft-shelled crabs every week from a shedder on the Eastern Shore, and on good fishing days, he will get wahoo and mahi-mahi straight from the charter boats at Rudee Inlet.
Shopping For more ideas, read the "Good Things to Eat" ads in this newspaper's Classified Marketplace or go to www.virginiagrown.com. Call ahead to check on product availability and/or picking conditions.
Some grocery stores also are selling Virginia Grown products and fresh East Coast seafood.
Farmers Let me know if you hope to harvest any specialty crops or unusual varieties next week and commercial fishermen, let me know what unusual species you are catching now.
Mary Reid Barrow, barrow1@cox.net
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