• Fairmount_market  Leek and Cherry Tomato Clafouti
  • Photos: Fairmount_market at the playground and her Leek and Cherry Tomato Clafoutis -- it's almost in season!
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There is something fairly mysterious about our growing power user, Fairmount_market. What exactly is the "Fairmount Market"? With recipe submissions in almost every recent contest, and numerous Editors' Pick badges to go with them, we are more than curious about this creative and vegetarian-friendly cook. All the while, she's a biology professor and even helped found a farmers' market in her Eugene, Oregon neighborhood (now you see!) with a beautiful blog to accompany it.

The humble dried bean is too-oft overlooked by even the best of cooks -- but not by this bean queen. A true bulk bin MVP, tackling even the trickiest of beans, Fairmount_market knows her heirloom varieties: from the more obvious French Lentil Caviar Salad with a Poached Egg to Flageolet Bean Salad with Fennel, Orange and Tapenade Toasts ... to Best Boston Baked Beans ... to Rio Zape Beans with Toasted Chile Sauce (honestly, Rio Zape Beans?!). Rustic cooking all around the world has beans as a cornerstone -- we're relieved to have Fairmount_market in our midst keeping things down-to-earth. 

She loves a perfect paella. So do we! She's eager to eat Japanese hand-drawn noodles in Japan. So are we! It profoundly bothers her when someone dips their buttery knife into the jam jar. We too cringe. And anyone who makes tomato sauce when she's home alone is someone we'd want to come home to. (Side note: We were delighted to learn that her children like to play Amanda and Merrill at bath time.)

Shop the Story

Be sure to check out her blog, see her profile and recipes on food52, and read our Q&A with her below.

  • What do you cook when home alone?
    Tomato sauce
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  • Your most treasured kitchen possession:
    Crumpet Rings (for sentimental reasons)
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  • Your ideal meal:
    Perfect paella
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  • Something you'd like a chance to eat or cook:
    Hand-pulled noodles
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  • The number of bottles of wine you own:
    12
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  • The ideal number of guests for a dinner party is:
    6
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  • Kitchen pet peeve:
    Poor sterile technique, such as when people dip a butter covered knife into the jam.
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  • Your favorite cookbook:
    I love reading new cookbooks, but ones I return to often are The Greens Cookbook, Marcella Hazan's Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking, and Patricia Well's Bistro Cooking.

 

See what other Food52 readers are saying.

  • Nedster
    Nedster
  • ellenl
    ellenl
  • healthierkitchen
    healthierkitchen
  • aargersi
    aargersi
  • Midge
    Midge
I'm a biology professor and mother of two, and in my (limited) free time I love to cook, which is much more forgiving than laboratory science. Last year I helped start a farmers market in my neighborhood, and to promote it, I created a food blog: fairmountmarket.blogspot.com. I enjoy the challenge of coming up with recipes for local, seasonal ingredients and finding fun ways to cook with my children.

19 Comments

Nedster July 22, 2011
Thank you for featuring Karen's blog for the Fairmount Neighborhood Farmers Market. Every Sunday the Market turns Sun Automotive Parking lot into an organic festival. Not that everything is "organic", but it is a good scene.

Karen works hard on her blog, and the wonderful cooking suggestions and recipes, as well as her anecdotes about her children are great fun to read.

We hope all "Food 52", "Tasting Table" supporters will come by and see us. Last weekend we didn't open, but that is an anomaly. We plan to be there, bigger than ever for the rest of the summer and into the first part of October.

We also invite you, "Food 52" to set up a booth one Sunday if you would like, to spread the word of your very commendable efforts.

Peace
Ned Forman
Fairmount Neighborhood Sunday Farmers Market
 
ellenl June 7, 2011
And your blog!!
 
ellenl June 7, 2011
Love your recipes!!
 
healthierkitchen June 7, 2011
Love your recipes, Fairmount Market!
 
aargersi June 7, 2011
Great to see you in the spotlight - your kids are hilarious and the blog is great. I will try the clafoutis soon - we are up to our ears in cherry tomatoes!
 
Midge June 7, 2011
I'm so impressed by your recipes and your adorable tots. Your clafoutis will be made soon!
 
lorigoldsby June 7, 2011
Congrats! Inspiring good works, raising cute kids, creating yummy recipes...you are a trifecta of talent.
 
fiveandspice June 7, 2011
Great to see you spotlighted Fairmout_Market! I love Eugene and am definitely jealous of the amazing produce that grows in the soil of those ancient flood plains! Also, the fact that your kids play A&M is about the most hilarious and adorable thing I've heard in weeks!
 
Daphne June 7, 2011
Sweet story you tell of your sister so far away in Berlin and gozleme...
 
Fairmount_market June 7, 2011
What a wonderful surprise to find my profile in the spotlight. Thanks everyone! I've been so inspired by the recipes on this site.
 
mrslarkin June 6, 2011
So nice to see you in the spotlight, Fairmount_market!
 
gingerroot June 6, 2011
Hooray, Fairmount_market! Great to see you here in the spotlight and learn a little more about you. Love the side note about your two little ones...too funny!
 
Sagegreen June 6, 2011
So nice to read more about you, here. What a charming bath time! Love your recipes.
 
boulangere June 6, 2011
How wonderful to find you in the spotlight and to read more about you. Love the bathtime story! Warm congratulations.
 
hardlikearmour June 6, 2011
Yay! Love to see a fellow Oregonian in the spotlight. Cracks me up that your kids play A&M!
 
Fairmount_market June 7, 2011
Thanks hardlikearmour! Oregon has such an exciting food scene. It would be fun to have a food52 potluck in Portland sometime (I'd make the drive up).
 
hardlikearmour June 7, 2011
Boulangere is working on a PNW meet up in Seattle. Maybe we could car pool? I live near the 205.
 
Fairmount_market June 7, 2011
Yes, do keep me posted about any Seattle food52 events!
 
boulangere June 7, 2011
It's a promise!