Sequim Farmers Market

June 13, June 20

Open Saturdays 9 a.m.-3 p.m. through October

Downtown Sequim at Sequim Avenue, Washington Street

Contacts: www.sequimmarket.com;  manager@sequimmarket.com; 460-2668

What’s new at the market is The Cajun Kitchen. We are lucky to have tapped into a Cajun enclave here on the peninsula. Curtis Harper and his partner Cathy Maxwell recently have moved to Sequim from Alexandria, La. Curtis told me there are just two things he misses from the South, the cooking and the fishing — the cooking they have covered.

Curtis tells me he started cooking about 55 years ago, when he was about 20, though not professionally until recent years when he was cooking at a farmers market in Louisiana. Then there also were the recent years he spent as a cook in the Bear Tooth Mountain range in Montana. There he would go into the back country on pack mules and cook for groups in the wilderness.

Cathy has been been cooking some 60 years, since she was about 9. Both grew up in Louisiana and she says, “We have both loved to cook all our lives.”

So I asked Curtis how he would describe Cajun food and he says, “It is a misconception that Cajun food is hot, though you can heat it up.”

He says even some folks in the South don’t like their food spicy, but Cajun food is “well seasoned” and you always start with the roux.

Cathy nods in agreement. “You always start with the roux.”

The roux at its minimum is sautéed onions and garlic. “There is a saying, if you take away a Cajun’s garlic and onions, he can’t cook,” Curtis explains.

At the market Curtis and Cathy are cooking up crawfish étouffée and muffaletta. The étouffée is a savory, Cajun-seasoned crawfish stew that is served over rice. Curtis assures me it is not spicy, but is “well seasoned.” He has tasting cups out for you to give it a try before ordering your first bowl.

The muffaletta is a large family style sandwich, as in a large bread round which is hollowed out and then filled with a wonderful succulent spread and layers of meats and cheeses. You can buy the whole round or individual pieces. That is just the beginning of a menu that we will see evolving as the season goes along.

While I was interviewing them, a customer came by asking if they would be serving gator dishes. Cathy explained, “We will just as soon as I catch me a gator but I haven’t seen any around here yet,” with a good chuckle. She added that it will be coming onto the menu in the future. So come to the market and get a taste of Louisiana.

The Sunbonnet Sue Club will be in our Suzanne Arnold Community Booth on June 20 selling raffle tickets to win their gorgeous quilt.