Farmers Market

The leaves are turning yellow and we have traded the 90 degree weather for 60 degrees and freak snow flurries. Fall is here and it is my favorite time of year. But there are still a lot of things that I love about summer (that I haven’t blogged about yet).

For the last 2 years I have been going to the local Farmers Market on Monday mornings. I get on my bike, put the kids in the bike trailer and head out. Really it’s only 4 blocks away, but it sounds more romantic if I can say we went on a bike excursion.

There are lots of booths, and it is fun to walk around and see what people are offering. One of our (i.e. the Blobster’s) favorite stops is for kettle corn. The man who makes it is legit – he has the biggest copper kettle I’ve ever seen.

After I bribe my son to be good with kettle corn, I chase after him as I try to make my way to the european artisan bread, and then I tug on him to follow me to get some fruit, and after excusing myself for grabbing my son who is running between people’s legs, we finish up at the veggie stand. It is great to pick out fresh veggies that are locally grown. It is so easy to go overboard and get way too much. (Really… they want me to buy a whole basket of onions?? What would I do with that many onions in a week? My husband doesn’t even like onions. But they are cheap. Humm)

Then once we have all our purchases we head over to the playground so the Blobster can let out some energy. It’s hard work for the boy to listen to mama, and stand in lines, and not touch things.

Then I get to decide what to make with what I bring home. This summer I feel like I made a wide range of dishes with fresh vegetables that I have never tried before and they all turned out really well. The Blobster even ate everything without complaint. I didn’t have a ton of leftover veggies that got thrown out either. So that’s a success, right?

One time this summer we were ‘blessed’ with a huge box of beets. It’s kind-of a long story, but in a round about way we got this box that someone didn’t pick up from their CSA share. I like beets, so I was excited at first, so I made beet puree baby food for the Sweet Pea, a ton of Borscht, beet salad, beet cole slaw, etc.  I started to give beets to my friends, my family, slipping them in people’s pockets if they got too close to me. We still had quite a few beets left when they started going bad and we had to throw some away. I think they were multiplying and having beet babies in the box while we weren’t looking.