Our family hit the farmer's market today. I was going every week when they first started up, picking up plants and greens and what not. We haven't been in at least a month and a half, however, and wanted to take the family and see what we could find. Since it coincided with Kerry's carnival, I thought I'd do a write up. I forgot to take pictures of the family while we were there, but I did take pictures of what we bought.

We have a nice, though small, farmer's market here. Considering it is a semi-rural fishing village, I've always wished it were larger, but this year it had to become a little smaller, because the field where it normally is held was taken for some other purpose. So, now it is held in the parking area of a bus stop/park and ride.

Even still, it is a lovely place, with great people, beautiful produce, glassware, wood and metal work, artwork and photography, knits, homemade soaps and beauty products, honey and bee related products, pony rides and activities for children, great food to eat and music. Also, the salmon man! I love buying fish from him. He and a friend have a business. The friend does the fishing up in Alaska for salmon, freezes it and flies it down here. The salmon man smokes some, fillets and vacuum packs some and sells it, with recipes and samples for all who stop by his booth. There is a booth where you can buy sauces and dips, a master gardener booth where you can bring your gardening problems and questions, tons of plants for sale, a coffee roasting company, and a bakery booth. Not to mention the cut flowers. Later this year (ours runs through October), there will be figs, antique apples and pears as well. I think some of the farm stands sell eggs as well, but since we get our own, I don't pay as much attention to it. This is just in our little town. If you go up the highway a bit, you'll find a local produce stand, and several farms where you can buy right off the farm, as well.

This week, we found a lot to take home. I passed on the Russian Red Kale, as we have lovely Nero di Toscano growing here quite well. I may pick up some garlic next week when we have used what we have here. We brought home two bunches of beets, 10 anaheim peppers, four yellow zucchini, two large bunches of multi-colored swiss chard, nearly three pounds of the aforementioned salmon and a wonderful established long type eggplant in a pot. There were beautiful carrots there, but we had just bought about 10 pounds of them last week and we aren't close to being through with them yet.



We have a hard time growing eggplant here, but this one has plenty of flowers and a couple eggplants already growing on the plant.



We're hoping that by putting the pot out in our garden where the water will get to it and it will have full sun, we might get a few more. Rich said that even if we only get four or five eggplants off this plant, it would have paid for itself, and it will certainly be fresher and of higher quality than the battered globe eggplants we find at the grocery store.



So, how much did we pay for our haul? $46.65 for the whole lot, fish and plant included. We were able to pay the people who do the real work with this food, get our things much fresher and more locally, most of it organic, and those that weren't certified organic were still raised that way (they just didn't pay to have the certification process which is a pain in the rear to get). While we are working toward growing more of our own food, and we have some things doing well in our garden this year, this is a great way to supplement it and learn more about how and what to grow in our area. We're heading back next week.

Labels: Family, Homemaking, Homesteading, Tales from the Kitchen