Fruit, vegetable lovers brave downpour, go Grill Crazy

Susan Bosch
Phoenix Correspondent

June 24, 2007 01:50 am

— Lightning crackled and sparked. Thunder rumbled. But those veggie lovers showed up anyway.
Completely ignoring a sometimes-driving, often-pouring rain, Doug Walton and his all-volunteer crew fired up a massive charcoal grill Saturday morning for this year’s Grill Crazy, part of the Muskogee Farmers Market.
“It’s really just a chance to show people how easy it is to grill vegetables and fruit, too,” he said.
The guys worked assembly-line fashion, some washing vegetables, then cutting, marinating and eventually handing them off to Walton and the other grill masters, who seared and smoked to perfection a variety of vegetables. Squash, onions, corn, green beans and even one fruit — tomatoes — were on the menu.
A festive spirit enveloped the entire market, which takes place at 8 a.m. every Wednesday and Saturday in the north parking lot of the Muskogee Civic Assembly Center.
Shaking off umbrellas and fluffing hair, person after person walked up to the serving table, helping themselves to the delectable fare, a veritable rainbow of veggies, from green tomatoes to green beans, yellow squash to corn.
Deloris Church, a Fort Gibson resident, loved all the veggies, she said.
“I don’t really have a preference,” she said. “They’re all good.”
An occasional griller, she buys fruits and vegetables at the market rather than trying to grow them, she said.
All items grilled Saturday were donated by market vendors, Walton said, adding that doing so drives their business, making such donations a good investment.
Kendall Coppin, a Webbers Falls grower, said he told Walton and crew to take all the corn they wanted.
“Everyone in the market works together,” he said. “You make a lot of friends here at the market.”
Besides corn, Coppin and his wife, Marla, along with other family members, also grow watermelon and cantaloupe, he said. Friday night, in preparation for the market, he and his family were up past midnight picking corn.
Marla Coppin said there is money to be made in the business, but every penny is hard-earned, as the work begins in March and doesn’t stop until October.
She, too, likes to grill vegetables, recently doing so with corn, onions and new potatoes, she said.
Her process? “I just usually throw ’em on,” she said, smiling.
Grilling vegetables and fruits is easy, said Walton, who is in charge of Grill Crazy and the local farmers market.
This is how it works: First, pick out your vegetable or fruit, most anything you like, from squash and green beans to tomatoes and grapes, can be grilled. When the peaches are ripe, those are great, too, but be sure to put those in foil, as they are delicate and will fall apart, Walton said. No marinade is needed for the peaches, he added.
Next, wash and cut your food, keeping the fruits and veggies even in thickness so as to keep the cooking time the same, he said.
Marinade comes next. Any ingredients can be used, as this is a choice of personal taste, but olive oil as a base is a common first step. At Grill Crazy, one marinade of choice included olive oil, vinegar, water, sugar, cumin, paprika and garlic.
Joel Everett, who coordinates special projects for Muskogee Parks and Recreation, volunteered to help marinate, among other duties. He said honey is good in marinade as it helps the other ingredients stick to the vegetables or fruits.
Knowing when to stop marinating is simple: If the juices start pooling, you’re done, he said.
“There’s only so much you can put on there,” Everett said.
Corn, grilled in the husk, needs no marinade, but it does need to be soaked in water for 20 to 30 minutes so it can steam itself on the grill, Walton said. From corn, which is quite large, to grapes, which are much smaller, most anything can be grilled, he said.
Come July, Jerome Karasek will be selling grapes he grows on his farm in Stone Bluff, a small town north of Haskell, he said. Saturday, he helped marinate vegetables, saying grapes can be grilled, too, and are especially good when piled around pork chops, marinating the meat as it cooks.
Deb and K.J. Marshall, who live in Leonard, said they like eating grilled vegetables, especially enjoying Saturday’s event because it’s not something they do often.
“It’s kind of a unique way to eat,” Deb Marshall said.

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