Tailgating at 9 AM (a post by Josh)

At the Davidson Farmer's Market (Eat Me. Drink Me.)

From my limited understanding about tailgating, what you do at a tailgate is stand around the back of a truck, grill, drink, and stand in a parking lot. How American. That’s not what I ended up doing at 9 am yesterday, but I did tailgate. What? Stop confusing me.

What Davidson has stated to do in the winter months, when the crops are few and far between, is have its weekly Farmer’s Market become a bi-weekly tailgate Farmer’s Market. What that means is every other Saturday, farmers will bring their produce, baked goods, jams, ostrich meat, and flowers to the back parking lot of the local coffee shop, Summit.

Vendor selling lettuce (Eat Me. Drink Me.)
The market board (Eat Me. Drink Me.)
Fresh bread (Eat Me. Drink Me.)

Yesterday was a Saturday that the market was happening, and how thankful was I. It was the first beautiful day in North Carolina since the November heat wave – a comfortable 60 degrees, blue skies, and crisp.

Lettuces (Eat Me. Drink Me.) Homemade dips (Eat Me. Drink Me.)

Although there were a bunch of appetizing vegetables, I only had my eyes set on Brussels sprouts.

Um, why?

Well, it turns out that yesterday was not only a good day because of the Farmer’s market, and beautiful day, but also because there was to be a potluck that night. With potlucks, I always try to bring that food that everyone thinks they hate – see: cabbage, mushrooms, etc – and make them try my version. For me, it’s the ultimate test: can I make someone like something that they used to hate? So this time, I tried Brussels sprouts.

Beautiful brussels (Eat Me. Drink Me.)

Once I got home with the two packages of sprouts, I realized that I actually didn’t know how to exactly cook these miniature cabbage-like things. Looking in a few cook books, I figured that boiling them, then sautéing them would be a legitimate option.

So after washing and halving them, I boiled them for about four minutes.

Split brussels (Eat Me. Drink Me.) Boiling brussels (Eat Me. Drink Me.)

In that four minutes, I chopped some onion and garlic and brought all of that to a simmer in a pan with some oil, salt, and pepper.

After draining the Brussels sprouts, I added them to the carmelizing onions, garlic, salt, pepper, and oil. I wanted to get the nice pseudo-burnt taste to the sprouts, so I added what every good southern cook adds: butter!

Chopped onion (Eat Me. Drink Me.) Butter! (Eat Me. Drink Me.) Sauteeing the Brussels (Eat Me. Drink Me.)

I let this cook for about ten minutes on medium-high heat. Transferred to a bowl and walked fifteen minutes to the potluck.

I think it was worth it all. One: I got to tailgate. Two: I got to be outside on a beautiful day. Three: I got to cook. Four: I was told “Josh, these are great. I used to… gag…. at the smell of brussel sprouts. These are amazing. Oh my god…” Thanks Catherine. You’re a good friend.

Comments

  1. Sunny says:

    my good ol’ boy friends at home start tailgating as early as 7 am sometimes.

  2. Joan says:

    Love the farmer’s market and the brussel sprouts. Remember “Just a taste”? Very jealous of the weather by the way.

  3. katie says:

    Hey guys, I just wanted to say that the blog is looking so fantastic these days. Really well put together and the articles are awesome!

  4. I’m so glad you enjoyed the Brussels Sprouts…Our goal is for people to love eating our produce as much as we love growing it! (the dish looks wonderful) Thanks for the purchase!

    Patsy and Bobby Houston – Houston Produce

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