The Farmers’ Market is Exploding
Phew. That was a waste of two days off. Except for the trip I made to the farmers’ market, I didn’t get much of anything else accomplished. The heat (80s) coupled with the humidity (80%) just sucked the ever-loving life out of me and I moved around here like a little old lady, wishing I had an oxygen tank to carry with me.
But the market trip was a wild success, so let’s just talk about that, shall we?
I decided to leave Lila at home to play with her big brother so I could bring my notebook and interview the vendors who hadn’t returned my Q & A yet. Thank goodness I did, because there were several new folks selling. We had 23 vendors and a guy playing live music! This is a whole new energy at the market, the place was positively hopping!
I filled four canvas shopping bags as I moved from table to table, chatting people up, taking notes, listening to a lot of stories. The old guy selling maple syrup and maple products? His family farm has been in business since 1825! They also do intensive pasture raised dairy and are looking into getting certified for organic production. I bought a jar of maple BBQ sauce from him and he said his wife (who writes a column about local goings on for the paper) quick-sautés summer squash and then drizzles a little of the sauce on top. Hmmm.
Several people stopped me to ask if I’m the same woman who was there a couple of years ago selling homemade pizzas and those rustic tart things with the greens (chard tarts). Why yes! Yes, I am! Will I be doing it again? Not sure, but maybe I’ll do a couple of Saturdays in the fall. Nobody’s selling anything lunch-y.
So check out my haul (sorry it’s a little out of focus):
From the left: shallots (large and small), Music garlic, whole wheat bread made with homegrown wheat, sunflower sourdough bread, zucchini bread, organic springerle cookies, ginger snaps, Costata Romanesca and regular zucchini, honey, maple BBQ sauce, yellow pattypan, onions, slicing cukes, 2 huge bunches of basil (!! I made pesto !!) yellow wax and french green beans, 2 big bunches of parsley (also for pesto), kale, 2 red leaf lettuce, 2 bunches beets with lovely greens, 2 baseball bat zuchinnis (2 varieties, for fritters, and bread), 2 tomatoes, 2 natural sodas, and in the sink out of view, 2 bunches of arugula.
We had a late dinner invite from Cheril & Greg on Saturday. I used the lettuce to make a big green salad, and whipped up some pesto for pasta and brought along the sunflower bread. They did fried perch and we pigged out and drank 2 bottles of dry rose.
So it’s Monday and I need to step away from the computer to go finish cleaning the kitchen from our late dinner last night, make lunches and then get into the shower. I may have to take one of my vacation days towards the end of the week just so I can get my fall planting done and the potatoes harvested.
Now tell me what you all knocked down this weekend!
Technorati Tags: eat local, farmers’ market, organic, farmers, weekend
"In summer we live out of doors, and have only impulses and feelings, which are all for action, and must wait commonly for the stillness and longer nights of autumn and winter before any thought will subside; we are sensible that behind the rustling leaves, and the stacks of grain, and the bare clusters of the grape, there is the field of a wholly new life, which no man has lived; that even this earth was made for more mysterious and nobler inhabitants than men and women. In the hues of October sunsets, we see the portals to other mansions than those which we occupy."
~Henry David Thoreau
July 30th, 2007 at 10:33 am
We’re eating red raspberries (u-pick), Early Prolific Straightneck summer squash, blueberries (u-pick), Tonda di Parigi carrots, De Milan Rouge turnips, raspberries, Sweetie, Mirabelle & Super Snow White cherry tomatoes, blueberries, raspberries, peaches & apricots (farmers’ market), Fukagawa bunching onions, White Lisbon bunching onions, raspberries, blueberries, Vidi bell pepper, cantaloupe (farmers’ market), raspberries…
Ain’t cha got no berries there?
July 30th, 2007 at 12:38 pm
That is an intense haul! I decided over the weekend to do a blog for my county with farm and U-pick information plus all kinds of urban homesteading stuff. I’m going to interview some of the farmer’s market folks too!
That’s great how your farmer’s market is picking up and getting festive.
Is it time to plant for fall already?
July 30th, 2007 at 3:05 pm
Saturday’s farmers market was fantastic; it was the biggest I have ever seen in our little city. I would soooo buy a swiss chard tart from you down there. It might save me from buying cookies (:
July 31st, 2007 at 8:17 am
Lovely haul! I have tons of blueberries, lots of little volunteer cherry tomatoes, a bit o’ lettuce. Cukes are starting. Summer squash is slow–I suspect the tree that grew a lot of shade since last year is the culprit. winter squash is coming along. Out little Medina market is tiny, but I went to one in the Cleveland area: wonderful bread and beautiful beans!
xox
July 31st, 2007 at 9:08 am
I’m so jealous of all of you. Everytime I think I can go to the farmer’s market, something comes up and I have to miss another Saturday. Shoot. Those vegetables look gorgeous. Great colors and so inviting.
July 31st, 2007 at 10:38 am
I just finished putting up 30lbs of tomatoes from our CSA. There is nothing better then the summer harvest! Your haul looks wonderful.
February 4th, 2008 at 6:59 pm
Whole Wheat Bread V. White Bread - Which One Will Prevail?…
Junk food addicts argue with health food nuts, asserting white bread to be the best. The health food nuts retaliate exclaiming about how much better store bought whole wheat bread is than white bread….