Each Saturday morning at the Alpharetta Farmers Market you’ll find Robert Paradies of Paradise Landscaping in Canton offering potted herbs for sale. Basil, lavender, rosemary, oregano: His offerings vary by the season. But one herb he generally has for sale is chives.
Paradies was growing annuals and shrubs when his customers began asking for herbs for their containers and gardens. He also took a little direction from his wife. “I love growing stuff and she’s the cook," he said. "Whatever she wants grown, I’ll do it for her.”
Once herbs became a part of his inventory, the next step was to bring them to those who shop at the Alpharetta market.
While his customers might not be familiar with every herb under his tent, he finds chives are pretty universally recognized. “Most everybody knows what chives are,” he told me. What they might not know is that chives are perennial plants that soon form large clumps. They’ll die back in the winter, but as soon as the weather begins to warm, the plants will send out slender green shoots. One pot of chives now will provide cuttings for years to come.
It can be easy to dismiss chives as only good as a garnish for baked potatoes, but if you have access to chives regularly, you’ll want to incorporate them into many more dishes. They’re tiny onions and they pack a lot of flavor into their slender stems. The flowers are also edible and are delicious in salads or as a garnish to dishes containing chopped chives.
A popular dish in the 1990s had chefs using chive stems as ties for steamed dumplings. Chopped chives are delicious in salads and omelets. They’re best appreciated in recipes where they won’t be overwhelmed by stronger flavors.
Paradies finds he spends much of his mornings at the farmers market advising his customers on how to grow his herbs at home whether in a container or in the ground.
“If you’re growing your herbs in a container, make sure the pot is big enough, use a well-drained organic mixture and add a little mushroom compost," he said. "Don’t overwater. Let the plant tell you when it needs watering.”
For those who grow their herbs in their garden, he recommends raised beds to be sure the herbs are in a situation that drains well.
At local farmers markets
Cooking demos:
- 6 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 1. Chef Seth Freedman, Ruby Root Connections. East Atlanta Village Farmer's Market, Atlanta. www.farmeav.com
- 9:30 a.m. Saturday, Sept. 3. Chef Carvel Gould of Canoe will be working with potatoes. Morningside Farmers Market, Atlanta. www.morningsidemarket.com
- 10 a.m. Saturday, Sept. 3. Chef Zeb Stevenson of Livingston. Peachtree Road Farmers Market, Atlanta. www.peachtreeroadfarmersmarket.com
- 11:30 a.m. Sunday, Sept. 4. Gail Henry of Grant Park Provisions. Grant Park Farmers Market, Atlanta. www.grantparkmarket.org
For sale
Vegetables and fruit: arugula, beans, beets, butternut squash, cabbage, cantaloupe, carrots, cucumbers, edamame, eggplant, field peas, figs, garlic, herbs, lettuce, mizuna, muscadines, okra, onions, pea shoots, pears, peppers, potatoes, radishes, spaghetti squash, summer squash, sweet potato greens, tomatillos, tomatoes, watermelon and specialty melons
From local reports
Chive Biscuits
Hands on: 10 minutes
Total time: 30 minutes
Makes: 24
I love this tip for cutting up chives: Bunch the chives in your fist and use your kitchen scissors to cut them into fine pieces. Works perfectly with parsley as well.
4 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for rolling out
1/2 cup finely cut chives
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 sticks cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
1 cup low-fat buttermilk, more if needed
2 tablespoons half-and-half or buttermilk, to brush tops of biscuits
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper.
In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, chives, baking powder, sugar, baking soda and salt. Cut in butter with a pastry cutter or rub in with your fingers until mixture resembles coarse crumbs with a few large pieces remaining. Stir in buttermilk. Dough should just hold together. Do not overmix and don’t add more buttermilk than needed.
Turn out dough onto a lightly floured surface, and pat into a 1 1/2-inch-thick round. Using a floured 2-inch cutter, cut out biscuits. Lightly push scraps together and continue to cut out biscuits until all dough is used.
Arrange biscuits on prepared baking sheet, sides just touching. Brush with half-and-half or buttermilk if desired. Bake until golden, about 20 minutes. Serve hot.
Adapted from a recipe at www.marthastewart.com.
Per biscuit: 151 calories (percent of calories from fat, 48), 3 grams protein, 17 grams carbohydrates, 1 gram fiber, 8 grams fat (5 grams saturated), 22 milligrams cholesterol, 144 milligrams sodium.
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