Edible Paradise celebrates the year-round abundance of the highest quality, freshest food grown on the Central Coast by our family farmers at the Monterey Bay Certified Farmers Markets. If you enjoy preparing and eating locally grown food, this blog is for you!

RECIPES:   Microgreens with Curry Vinaigrette, New Native's Bean Dip, Spicy Asian Pea Shoot Stir-Fry, and Seared Ahi and Microgreens Salad with Lemon Infused Daikon Red Onion Slaw, Stacked Beet, Avocado, and Mixed Microgreens Salad

Here's an easy way to improve your diet – add microgreens.

Ounce for ounce, microgreens provide more nutrients than any other natural food known. Microgreens are seedlings (young plants) between seven and ten days old that have sprouted from seed, but don't yet have true leaves.

These super-food seedlings are naturally high in quality protein, vitamins, minerals, trace elements, enzymes, and anti-oxidants, and have few calories and no cholesterol.

We are fortunate to have New Natives at the Aptos Farmers Market year-round, selling a wide variety of organic microgreens – a true living food.

RECIPES: Balsamic Roasted Portobello Mushrooms, Cheese and Spinach Stuffed Portobellos, Basic Balsamic Marinated Mushrooms, Roasted Cremini Muhsrooms and Asparagus, Braised Boy Choy with Shiitake Mushrooms, Braised Greens with Shiitake Mushrooms topped with Baked Fennel and Parmesan

Did you know the Monterey Bay area is the second largest producer of mushrooms in the US and third in the world? Pennsylvania, where mushroom farming was pioneered, ranks first in the US for mushroom production. The Chinese learned mushroom farming in Pennsylvania for shiitake production and are the number one producer in the world.

What were once exotic are now commonplace — shiitakes, oysters, cremini, and Portobellos. And they can all be found at the Aptos Farmer’s Market. New Natives offers shiitake and oyster mushrooms, and Blanca at Global Mushroom carries Portobello, cremini and white button mushrooms.

What’s in a name? Cremini, button, white, Portobello—these are all types of button mushrooms, or Agaricus bisporus – the domesticated version of Agaricus campestris, the “field” mushroom. Although there are some differences in texture and depth of flavor, they all have the same flavor profile. And regardless of the names, creminis, the coffee colored button, given the right conditions, grow into Portobellos.