I love the start of spring because it means the return of the Baltimore Farmers Market. This year, Dan and I have tried to get up early on Sunday mornings so that we can walk down to the Market. It’s a really nice walk along Baltimore St.: through Butcher’s Hill with its gorgeous brick rowhomes and full, lush trees shading the road and sidewalk; past Broadway and onto a block that may be the lowest edge of the Washington Hill neighborhood, where all the houses look like old storefronts with brightly colored facades and large picture windows; and down toward President St., past local shelters and missions, immediately followed by a quaint little gift shop and a french bakery that I’d love to try, but is closed on Sundays.
The Market sits beneath the highway. It opened earlier than usually this year, and through much of April it was mostly greens, herbs and flowers, but there are lots of different vendors selling things like honey and jams, cheeses, baked goods, and even seafood. We love the seafood guys.
A couple of weeks ago, we went to the Market and got a bunch of fresh asparagus and a nice piece of salmon from the seafood guys. We wanted to eat the food while it was really fresh, so we decided to make dinner that night of grilled salmon and asparagus, and to round out the meal and add a bit of sweetness, we made some grilled pineapple, and topped the salmon with a mixture of fruit.
The actual cooking ended up being like our own Top Chef: Home Edition, but instead of racing against a clock, we were racing against massive storm clouds moving in our direction. At one point, Dan had to pull the fish off the grill (it only had a few minutes of cook time left) and run back inside to wait for a downpour to finish and clear out. It was actually pretty fun standing at the grill and nervously watching the sky as the clouds rolled in.
In the end, it all worked out and the food was absolutely delicious.
If you’d like to try this yourself, this is the recipe we used for the salmon and fruit salsa. It is meant for way more food than we were making, so we had to adjust the measurements quite a bit, but since it’s an Emeril recipe, it did afford us the opportunity to yell Bam! over and over again.
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