A visit to my local Farmers Market today
Every Tuesday just a short trip from my home they have a wonderful farmers market on main street. The baker's stand is from my local 'Belen Artisan Bakery' If you stop by the bakery they have delicious sandwiches and pizza's, behind the bakery is a hugh wood fired oven house.
These strawberries were picked today in Carlsbad, CA
Some wonderful Greens - many varieties to choose from - I bought some curly leaf Kale of coarse : ) to try David's 'dmsnyder' Kale - Sausage - Pasta recipe! Yummm!
That Swiss Chard looks very good!
My local Bakery
Sylvia
Before our farmer's markets start up, so I won't drool too much over the bounty available to you, Sylvia.
It all looks wonderful and the prices seem pretty reasonable.
I love having this FM. It runs all year around.
We're so lucky in California to have fresh local fruit and produce year around. The biggest farmers' market in Fresno is right on my way from the office to home, and, unless I get stuck exceptionally late, I visit it twice a week.
It's fun to visit with the farmers and meet the better local chefs who do their shopping there, often in their "work" clothes. It's wonderful to watch the chefs' working relationship with the farmers at the market.
We are in the transition from citrus to berries now, and the legumes and Summer squashes are starting to appear. And the short local asparagus and cherry season is on. I'm looking forward to tomatoes and eggplant, peaches and plums, then figs and corn and melons and grapes.
Besides the kale, we've had asparagus, baby lettuces and snow peas this week. Strawberries and fresh orange juicy, daily. All organic and all local. Often, there are heirloom varieties of fruits that, because they are so fragile, don't ship far out of the area.
Life is good here for the home cook.
David
What a treat to meet the chefs. I was watching the Emeril Lagasse show and there he was out in a field of a very popular produce stand just a few blocks away from family. The soil is so rich there and the owner produces the best for the locals, resturants and also ships to resturants around the US. This is home cook heaven! We are so very fortunate!
Sylvia
We are surrounded by peanut, cattle, and horse farms here in north-central Florida, but, sadly, must drive seventy miles round-trip to visit a decent farmer's market.
We have a vegetable garden in the summer, and enjoy a summer's worth of tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, yellow and zuchinni squash, and musk melon. This year I'm also trying beets and fennel. However, toward the end of winter the freezer is bare, and we have only high-priced, almost tasteless supermarket veggies.
Had our first meal from the garden Friday: roasted yellow squash, zuchinni, eggplant, garlic and onion on pasta.
David G
A summer garden of your own sounds beautiful. What a lovely harvest you have already eaten. I spent all but the last 10-11 years mostly growing up in the desert...so I know about tasteless supermarket veggies too! I'm in fresh food heaven, with FM in all the near buy towns each day of the week and fruit/veg stands on my corner and down the road everywhere and being able to plant something in my yard and it actually grows still amazes me.
Sylvia
but they face competition in your creations! Really nice looking produce, Sylvia. Here in Virginia we're a month or so away, although this is strawberry season here.
Larry
I'm sure it's a lot of work they put in and they have plenty of customers that rave about their bread. I just couldn't find a loaf that intrigued me this time. I 'd rather have a couple of bags of flour :) this day. In their bakery store you see many vary dark european roast breads..I did not see any loaves that looked to me to be from their wfo.
I am boggled that I can't sell bread and baked products, that come out of a very hot, sanitizing oven, because of health department regulations at the farmers markets here that are controlled and regulated by state law. Commercial kitchen or similar requirements, ect. And yet all the "lovely produce" is unwashed and grows in manure.