I have a new obsession: lentils. For so long, the ancient legume intimidated me, because I had no idea how to cook it. Finally, I started off with the easiest recipe possible: lentil soup. I'm a huge fan of soups and stews, as they only require one pot, and I usually make enough to feed myself for several days (or several friends at once). Plus they're a great way to finish off all the veggies that are about to go bad from my last trip to the Green City Market or from the most recent box from King's Hill Farm CSA.

Over the last month of so, I have augmented my lentil soup recipe to include another new favorite ingredient: wild rice. The wild rice kick was started by a visit to Peck's, on the way back from a campout party in Wisconsin. We took back roads most of the way home to Chicago, which I love to do, not just for scenery but because of the abundance of roadside farm stands along them.

We passed several, but the place that got me to stop was Peck's, and I'm really glad we did. Peck's Farm Market is a family stand on steroids (in a good way): it's a permanent structure that carries a ton of local food; the farthest anything I saw there seemed to travel was from Door County, which is still in Wisconsin. Actually, there were a few things from Minnesota, but I appreciate the focus on local producers. Keep those food miles down (ironic, since I was 2 hours from home on a road trip).

And since we were in Wisconsin they had plenty of cheese curds. I didn't buy any, but Atom bought two packages: one white cheese with garlic and dill, and one cheddar. I can't eat too many of them, but I love the squeaking sounds they make when chewed.

Back to the wild rice: it was one of the things I bought at Peck's. They had several types, but I bought the organic brand. When given the choice, I will always pay extra for organic. Avoiding nasty pesticides is always worth it. The other things I bought there were:

- a HUGE jar of corn salsa, 32 oz. made in Wisconsin
- a jug of cherry cider
- garlic stuffed olives
- a big jar of cherry pie filling from Door County
- pumpkin butter
- organic wild rice (already mentioned)
- white string beans
- grape tomatoes

Total: $30 and some cents

Peck's did a nice job of providing a balance of local produce, gourmet items, and staples. They have two locations along Highway 14 near Spring Green, and seem to do seasonal things like pumpkin patches, apple cider, and firewood.

And now for my lentil soup recipe, which changes every time I make it. Today's batch began by sauteeing onions and garlic in olive oil. I added nine cups of water, and brought it to a boil before adding one cup of wild rice, 3/4 cup brown lentils, and 3/4 cup red lentils. I then chopped up three carrots, a sweet potato, some red cabbage, and threw that all in.

Half an hour later I made about 3/4 cup TVP and added it as well - this is a protein-tastic soup. That's when I threw in some spices: sea salt, El Yucateco hot sauce, some Ras el Hanout from The Spice House (thanks, Paul, for getting me hooked on this stuff a few years ago), some Bragg's, a little pepper, whatever else is on hand.

After about an hour, when the lentils and rice are done, I chopped up some collard greens and kale, as well as some broccoli, and threw them in. I'm really picky about not overcooking my greens, so about two minutes after I threw them in I turned off the heat. Let it cool for a minute. Because I'm into the hot and sour combo, I serve it with a little balsamic vinegar and some lime squeezed into it. So tasty.

P.S. To the people who found this site via TimeOut: Hello! This is a blog in which I discuss the independent markets that I explore, though I don't update it as much as I used to. The archives are kind of broken, but four years' worth of writing is accessible, you just have to navigate back through older entries. Sorry if comments or anything else has been broken for a couple days, or if you were redirected to Alicia's site; last week my friend's server where this site is hosted was down, so I mirrored it on another server without the complete MT installation. Everything is back to normal now, and should be fixed.