It’s pretty sad that I live only a block away from a farmer’s market but have only made it there twice (and the first time without buying anything because I didn’t have cash). Today I made it part of our errand run to stop there – I had to back-track to the bank because wouldn’t you know, I forgot to ask the teller for cash back.
It’s a rather small market, in the parking lot of a strip mall, and now that the growing season is underway they actually have a fair amount of produce. They also have a great little kid stand where an obliging high-schooler will make a animal balloon or paint a face. Seth chose an animal balloon – a red elephant (is not pictured here because it’s napping, along with Seth). Here is what I splurged $22 on:
Bunch of spinach: $1
Flat of raspberries: $13 (the stand across had them at $16)
Pint of boysenberries: $2.50 (I had never seen them raw, only know that my father loves boysenberry jam, so I had to get some)
Handful of green beans: $1.00
Bag of shelled walnuts: $4.50
It appeared that raspberries and cherries are at the height of their season…and now I’m hitting my forehead for not getting some cherries as well. I’m planning on making some raspberry jam tonight (with honey instead of white sugar). I don’t have canning equipment, so we’ll have to go through the jam quickly – although I know of some people to whom I can pawn off my experiments.
Our patio garden hasn’t yielded vegetables yet, but is growing nicely. The tomato plant is taller than Seth, and has some buds getting ready to bloom, so hopefully we’ll have lots of tomatoes in a few weeks. One of the neighborhood dogs trampled the cilantro – I moved it to a place where it will be safer. In the meantime, we’re getting our produce delivered to us by Organics To You, and I really like the surprises they include, which generally illicit a “what the heck is this?” response from one of us. The curly garlic was a surprise, and it makes me smile when I look at it.
5 Comments
July 12, 2008 at 9:16 pm
We have been getting scapes, ie: curley garlic
from our CSA too and I really enjoy them!! Never heard of them before, but love them now 
Aileah
July 13, 2008 at 2:53 pm
So, that’s what they’re called/what scapes are! I put them in everything now…and they keep pretty well on the counter.
July 13, 2008 at 6:45 pm
how many pounds of strawberries in a flat? at the pick you own place they were 1.20/lb.
July 14, 2008 at 5:17 am
Our neighbour had a boysenberry tree in her yard but it hung over into our yard so we could easily share in the wealth of the berries. Unfortunately we just found out that it was a boysenberry tree last summer and now she has had to cut it down to put up a fence. I guess we’ll just have to be content plucking our raspberries for yummy treats. As for the jam, my mother-in-law always supplies our jam, she makes the freezer kind so it doesn’t require the hassle of canning to preserve. It’s yummy! I don’t know if there is a type that uses honey instead of sugar though you probably have more shelf space than freezer space anyway.
July 14, 2008 at 10:26 am
Mercedes: I’m not sure how many pounds of raspberries there were, I never thought to measure. I have to admit that I’m a little lazy – there are plenty of farms around here that offer U-pick produce. One of these days though….
Amy: It’s too bad your neighbor cut down the boysenberry tree. I’ve never heard of freezer jam, it sounds interesting. We do have more shelf space than freezer space, which is what motivated me to learn how to can. According to the blog I mentioned above, you can replace honey for sugar, cup for cup, as long as you use pectin.