Sunflowers at the North Market
It still felt like summer at the North market yesterday, despite it being the second football game of the season. Every week I think it must be the end of the raspberries but I was delighted to find more this week. Sadly no more white peaches but you can’t have everything. At the risk of sounding like the childhood memory game, this week at the market I bought: ground cherries, watermelon, the aforementioned raspberries, peaches, baby red potatoes, yellow copia tomatoes, corn, cippolini onions, green beans, a bunch of garlic, cilantro, edamame, lima beans, jalapenos (2 for 15c!) and more the the superlative reliance grapes, my favorite of the four varieties on offer. Can you tell I was trying to be restrained?
Fuzzy edamame
Reliance grapes
Two ‘novelty’ items I found were the first of the white carrots at Wayward seed farm and lamb’s quarters (fat hen) at Toad Hill. Poor Tim was lamenting that it has been so dry that even the weeds aren’t doing well.
White carrots and lamb
I had a warm greetings from the Rhoads’s and an interesting lesson on pumpkins and squash from Brent, who told me that canned pumpkin can either be pumpkin or squash and is often a high proportion of squash. He recommended trying kabocha and hubbard. I can’t wait for pumpkin season and this year I am going to try and make it to the Circleville festival.
As a child I spent many hours shelling limas with my grandparents so I was embarrassed that I needed help to identify the lima beans. I guess it has been too long since I’ve seen them. My grandfather’s lima beans were pale green – not as pretty as these heirloom christmas lima beans.
Beautiful beans
I visited seven stalls at the farmers market and also stopped at Omega for some warm french country bread, loaded my bike up and still made it home within an hour. I find it so much more gratifying to shop at the market where you can interact with the producers than the sterile anonymity supermarket. I also love the variety and the seasonality, something new every week and never quite knowing what you will find. It is much harder to get stuck in a rut buying the same things and it keeps you more in touch with the seasons, unlike the grocery store which varies to little month to month.
Here is a photo of my home grown lettuce. Today will be my first garden green salad.
Baby lettuce
September 7, 2008
Beautiful account of your bounty from the market, BUT beware that herb or green lamb’s quarters or fat hen or whatever. Someone got into trouble for serving it to patients or clients who could have been poisoned. It may be a question of it fighting with drugs or supplements or other foods. Remember the slogan for the ‘Grant loaf’, etc.: ‘Don’t mix foods that fight!’