Cooking With Washington’s Most Popular Produce

If you’ve been in Seattle even just a little while, you’ve likely eaten at some great restaurants and been to some magnificent farmers markets. And that’s with good reason! 

Washington State has a thriving agricultural industry that spans everything from cranberries to blueberries to apples to wheat and more! With so much fresh produce available all year ‘round, there’s always an opportunity to make some delicious meals using the local produce that Washington farmers put so much care and attention into.

Cooking with Washington’s most popular produce

Red delicious apples

Check under ‘A’ in any children’s alphabet book and you’ll probably find a picture of a red delicious apple. 

Washington’s climate is perfect for growing apples because of the dry summers and cold winters around the Columbia River. They are known for their uniform shape, size and color, and although consumers tend to prefer sweeter apples, the red delicious variety is still the largest variety here in the state. 

So grab a bag of those local red delicious apples and make something like this red delicious apple crisp to show your appreciation for our local Washington farmers!

Fresh asparagus

Washington is one of the largest asparagus growers in the nation, thanks to the mineral-rich soil, abundance of water and gorgeous summer weather. Asparagus varieties grown in Washington include fresh, white and purple asparagus, but fresh asparagus is the most popular in the state. 

Sure, it looks like a weird vegetable, but with the right asparagus recipes you can make asparagus a delicious entrée, snack or appetizer!

Blueberries

Washington produces the most blueberries in the nation, and the United States also produces the most blueberries in the world!

Each blueberry bush produces about 500 blueberries, and the berries must be hand-picked to make sure they don’t burst or bruise. 

Here are some blueberry recipes you can make at home to celebrate this PNW berry!

Cherries

Washington produces more cherries than the next two leading states combined. The cherry industry is a leading agricultural export for the state, so thank a Washington farmer next time you top your ice cream sundae with one of those delicious Rainier Cherries!

Fun fact, cherries are native to Turkey and are named after the town of Cerasus, and it’s believed that the practice of cultivating cherries dates back to before recorded history! 

Here is a Rainier cherry almond tart you can make with some good old Washington cherries!

Sweet corn

Sweet corn was bred by farmers to be naturally sweeter than regular corn, meaning farmers and producers didn’t have to add any sweeteners to the product before selling it. Sweet corn is therefore cheaper, tastier and produces more yield per acre than regular corn. 

Sweet corn is one of the only crops that’s grown in every one of the 50 states, and Washington’s Columbia River basin is the ideal spot to grow it here. Scientists are constantly working on newer and sweeter variants of sweet corn, and Washington farmers continue to grow and sell the a-maize-ing crop! 

Here are some great recipes to make with sweet corn, so run to the farmer’s market this summer and snag some of those delicious corn on the cob fresh from the fields!

Cranberries

Cranberries are a type of wild berry that people have managed to commercialize all over the world, but nowhere is it more popularly grown than in the United States and Canada. 

Cranberries are one of the only crops native to Washington state, and have been cultivated in the state’s bogs and marshes since the late 19th century. Today, Washington is the 5th largest producer of cranberries in the nation. 

While most cranberries go toward making cranberry sauce, cranberry jelly and dried cranberries, fresh cranberries are a popular product in the winter months and around the holidays. 

Here are some great recipes you can make with cranberries grown right here in Washington!

Wine grapes

Washington ranks second in the country in number of wineries and wine production after California, which accounts for about 85% of the nation’s wine. However, Washington’s wines have been praised for their high quality and rich flavors, and that’s all thanks to the ancient floods that shaped Washington’s landscapes.

The Missoula floods that scoured the land over ten thousand years ago left rich deposits in the soil, creating the perfect environment to grow high-quality grapes. 

Here are the different kinds of Washington wines that you can find to add to your next wine night!

Walla Walla sweet onion

The soil around Walla Walla is perfect for growing sweet onions, and that’s exactly what makes the Walla Walla sweet onion so popular in the state. This onion variety was originally bred by Italian immigrants who arrived in Walla Walla in the late 19th century, and it was made the official state vegetable in 2007.

Oysters

Before Washington was a state, the people who called this area home farmed oysters for both personal and commercial use. Today, oysters are a massive part of Washington’s shellfish industry, which is the largest in the nation and accounts for over three-quarters of the West Coast’s shellfish production.

Wheat

Humans have been eating and cooking with wheat since the dawn of mankind, so it’s no wonder that Washington’s great farming environment boasts a grand selection of wheat, too! 

The rolling hills of the Palouse make for perfect wheat-growing conditions, and Whitman County in Eastern Washington produces the most wheat out of any county in the United States. 

If you live in our luxury Seattle apartments, then take advantage of all this great produce that was grown right in our own backyard!

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Featured photo courtesy Pixabay/klimkin