DFM News

Every year the Durham Farmer's Market seems to get more popular. When I first started going seven years ago it was inhabited by progressive, food-centric types and a handful of casual shoppers. Now it's quite an affair.

Parents bring lunch and watch their kids run around the lawn, chomping on fresh carrots, tomatoes and breads and chasing enormous bubbles.

Activists hand out flyers. Graduate students offer free coffee and cash in exchange for surveys. Musicians perform in every green space.

New vendors set up shop outside the market pavilion hoping to cash in on the pedestrian traffic. Local sports teams raise money for travel and tournaments. Chefs perform cooking demonstrations and hand out free samples. 

Chef Shane Ingram of Four Square

Arts and crafts markets line the nearby blocks. Food trucks line nearby Hunt Street, offering everything from breakfast pizza to slow-cooked Italian pork sandwiches.

The market itself now boasts an ATM machine on-site, a weekly donation station and venders that accept SNAP and EBT. It's also extending the Wednesday market through October 9 and holding its 5th annual chef challenge on Saturday, October 5.

The vendors remain consistently awesome, and this is a great time of year to catch both the late summer and early fall crops.

To learn more, check out the official site and get down to Foster Street next Wednesday or Saturday morning.

The Grandpa Dom Special

The first time I visited India I noticed strings of hot peppers hanging in doorways and taxicab mirrors. They were hung, often accompanied by limes, to ward off evil. Back home in my Italian-American grandparents' house, strings of peppers had the opposite effect.

Every year my Grandpa Dom grew "hot banana" peppers, also known as Hungarian wax peppers. He'd eat them fresh, then dry the rest on strings on the back porch. Rather than drive away evil, these peppers encouraged bad behavior. Whenever he felt the urge, be it four o' clock in the afternoon or eleven-thirty at night, he'd pull peppers from the string, fry them in a boatload of oil and eat them between pieces of buttered bread. If he needed to make a meal of it, he'd eat them with sausage, eggs or both.

"The longer you cook the peppers," he used to say, "the better they get."

We paid homage to Grandpa Dom this week and fried up our own hot peppers. Here's how we did it:

The Grandpa Dom Special

8 Hungarian wax peppers
1/4-1/2 cup olive oil - enough to fill 1/4-inch of the pan
4 eggs
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
salt and pepper

1. heat the oil in a skillet until it's nearly smoking
2. add the peppers whole and turn frequently. Allow them to wilt and remember - the longer you cook them, the better they get.
3. When you can't wait any longer, transfer them to the serving plates.
4. Add the eggs to the pan and fry to the desired consistency. Runny yolks work best.
5. Transfer the eggs to the plates, top everything with salt, pepper and cheese, and serve immediately with roasted potatoes or bread.