This bright Saturday morning marked the fourth consecutive week of the Midtown Farmers Market 2011 season. May is a month of many market openings, but it never quite feels like real farmers market season since the crops aren’t quite growing and the weather is inconsistent, even for Minnesota. May 7th, opening weekend, was beautiful: sunny and warm, and, thanks to the magic of Peter and Carmen’s greenhouse we even took home some very early spinach. The next two weeks were not so inviting: week two featured cold drizzle and wind (we missed that week, as Martha mentioned) and week three was also wet. Owners of full rain suits such as Martha and myself were rewarded with our first taste of the celebrated stalks of springtime, asparagus and rhubarb.

In light of the dreary last two weekends, this morning’s sun was a bright beacon calling us to the intersection of Lake Street and Hiawatha — it’s starting to feel like the season is really upon us. Once again we were rewarded with abundant rhubarb and asparagus — abundant at 8:30 am, at least; the early season can be brutal to the late risers out there.

I was pleasantly surprised by the produce available from market newcomers Pig’s Eye Urban Farm of Saint Paul. Besides rhubarb, which they had last week, they had the first spring onions I’ve seen this year, brilliantly-marketed bundles of herbs including thyme, sage and chives and, most interesting, garlic mustard greens.

These last are not actually a cultivated product but were found growing wild on one of the plots cultivated by Pig’s Eye in the capitol. It is always nice to find foraged food at the market; urban-foraged food even more so. The greens, which I got to taste before buying, have a really strong, hot garlicky flavor. I think they’ll pair nicely with arugula (not seen at a farmers market yet this year, but grown in WI and sold in my year-round farmers market, the Wedge) in a salad with whole mustard vinaigrette. And they were definitely a steal at $1 for a good-sized bunch.

Besides the Pig’s Eye produce I also bought another three pounds of asparagus, bringing my total to 7 pounds for the season so far. Not bad for two weeks! I hope to get the chance to share with you some of the things I’m doing with it, but at the moment I’m too busy cooking and eating it all.

Having missed last week, I was determined to get to Midtown Farmers Market with Tom despite this morning’s stay-in-bed weather. We suited up in rain pants and rain coats and made our way into the downpour. In exchange for soggy feet Tom found eggs, asparagus, and rhubarb. I picked up a zeppolo for my mom, who’d seen a picture of Rebecca’s doughnuts in our last post.

As I photographed the first asparagus of the season, I felt as if I were in the woods after a storm. I enjoyed the droplets of water on each asparagus crown, and I can’t wait to see what creations Tom brings to the table with these slender green beauties.

Tom made sure we’d arrive at Midtown Farmers Market right at 8 a.m. on its Opening Day on May 7. He promised to head straight for the produce—be it spinach, asparagus, or even last year’s apples. He swore he wouldn’t talk to anyone or even buy a coffee before making sure we had some of the season’s first veggies in hand. That was the plan. As Tom fell into conversation with friends from Gardens of Eagan upon our arrival, I started wandering the market stalls, exploring the newest vendors at Midtown Farmers Market.

Near where Gardens of Eagan had set up their tent I found Midtown’s newest bread vendor, Black Paws, who’ll be selling breads from a collective of makers working together to bring their bounty to market. As a group, Black Paws’ bakers create a nice variety of breads. We picked a focaccia, thinking sandwiches. A word of advice: if you’d like to get your paws on one of these breads, arrive early! I remember hearing they sold out around 10 a.m. on Opening Day.

Maybe you’re not into bread, though. Maybe you don’t even care about vegetables. Maybe you’re more of an Italian-American doughnut lover. If that’s the case, Rebecca’s Bakery has you covered:

As I was talking to the vendors from Rebecca’s (Rebecca herself wasn’t there), I noticed they also had a few coolers on hand, so expect to find chilled dessert options (tiramisu!) as well as fresh eat-while-you-shop zeppolle.

We didn’t get a chance to try it, but Food by Greg is another new breakfast option at Midtown. Greg specializes in kabomelettes, $3 for Kabobs and $3 for Omelettes according to the May 7 signs. Instead, per our usual, Tom and I shared a La Loma’s Oaxacan tamal and a couple of coffees from Lisa & Dave at Fireroast Mountain Café. Finally, we had our coffee.

What did we take home? This sandwich sums it up. Focaccia, picked-that-morning Spinach from Peter & Carmen, and over-wintered apples from Havlicek’s. With a little cheese from a non-market source, it was a perfect spring farmer’s sandwich:

Tomorrow, Saturday, May 20, Midtown is hosting market #3 of the year at its usual location on Lake & 22nd Ave S from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. Unfortunately, we missed week 2, but we hope to make it early tomorrow morning to pick up that conversation right where we left off.

Today Tom and I were fortunate to receive an early morning visit from my parents, here on a long layover at the MSP airport. With my photography class still fresh, I’ve been struck by the beauty of daylight upon others’ faces of late and have wanted to take just about everyone’s picture. Thus far I’ve avoided approaching strangers, so having Mom and Papá visit was a great opportunity to get in a little more practice.

My mom was lovely today as you can see above and below. The picture at left is one I took last May, before I had any understanding of white balance. I include this one because it gives me hope that the buds (below) will very soon be sprouting into bloom. Papá, who was cold and a little less cooperative than Mom, only appears in the background in the picture above along with his walking partner Tom. Despite the cold, I was thankful for this morning’s cloudy skies—it was perfect light for taking pictures. Tom and I were glad to be able to enjoy the morning away from a desk and wish my parents off to the south of France while living vicariously through the plans (or lack thereof) for their travels. They’ll be renting a cottage and generally enjoying themselves—eating and exploring the villages within short driving distance from their living quarters—not to mention practicing their French. Bon Voyage, papa et maman!

As I was biking through downtown Minneapolis on my way home from work yesterday, I noticed the new exterior at Solera, a tapas restaurant that I have enjoyed many times. I didn’t enjoy the new look. I find the Spanish flag awnings are a bit garish — not to mention nationalistic — compared with the formerly quiet, Gaudí inspired blue and tile. Far more offensive, however, are the new banners hanging vertically down the side of the building that proudly proclaim Solera to be the “Cucina de España”. If you’re not shaking your head incredulously right now, I should explain that “cucina” is the Italian word for kitchen; the word in Spanish is “cocina”. In addition to “kitchen”, cocina refers to cuisine, home cooking and cookery — all things to which Solera would presumably like to refer.

When I first saw this I was sure it was just a printer error. Maybe nobody at the sign company spoke Spanish and maybe the sign was hung in a hurry without checking with anyone at the restaurant. An expensive error, to be sure, but one that would be corrected quickly. I even pulled off the road to try to take a photo of the banners, so sure was I that they would be taken down and replaced with corrected versions before anyone noticed (my iPhone camera, unfortunately, failed to work — but that’s another post).

But then I checked Solera’s website. Here’ a screenshot from the top of the page:

And the page footer:

Apparently, Solera is embracing the “cucina” thing wholeheartedly.

At this point I started to question my own knowledge of Spanish. Maybe this was just a word I wasn’t familiar with — I checked dictionaries and the incomparable wordreference.com, but I couldn’t find anything. Maybe it was Catalan? No — that would be “cuina”. I even called a Spanish professor, but she just confirmed that cucina was not a Spanish word.

Was Solera going for some kind of Italian-Spanish fusion concept, and expressing this through the fusion of the languages in their tagline? Not according to the first sentence on their homepage:

Featuring an evocative menu, authentically embracing the cuisine of Spain, Solera offers an unparalleled experience for social dining in a vibrant, Spanish-influenced atmosphere.

Embracing the cuisine of Spain, sure, but not the language. The menu is pure Spain.

This is even more confusing since the new chef at Solera, Jorge Guzman, is a native of Mexico City, and I doubt he’s the only member of the kitchen staff who speaks Spanish. If the marketing people had bothered to check with Guzman one would think this error might have been avoided.

The idea of marketing raises the possibility that this is all just a cynical ploy for attention, for nitpicking blog coverage like you’re currently reading. They say there’s no such thing as bad publicity, and seeing these banners certainly made me stop, and here I am writing this post, playing into their manipulative hands. Mission accomplished. But does this lead me to take Solera seriously as a place to celebrate and enjoy the culture of Spain? Pues, no.

I’m not sure why I’ve become so obsessed, but I’ve been thinking about it since last night and I just can’t make sense of it. If it’s an error, it’s a huge and repeated error that speaks badly of the organization, especially after its recent management change. If it’s intentional, I have yet to come up with a plausible theory for what they were going for. Am I just linguistically ignorant? Can you help me out here?