Your Farmer's Market Reports for 2011

[rlibkind]

From today's visit to Tower Grove Park Farmers' Market, St. Louis:

My purchases: a pound of bratwurst, four fresh spring onions, half-pint new red potatoes, half-pint sungold tomatoes (hoop house grown), half-pint blackberries, one musk melon (cantaloupe). The only price I recall is $3 for the blackberries. The tomatoes are deliciously sweet and real. I sauteed the onions and potatoes to go with the brats this evening, all were yummy.

This was my first trip to this particular market, since I'm visiting St. Louis for the first time in about six or seven years. It's located in the middle of a pleasant urban park, near this city's renowned "The Hill" district, home to Yogi Berra, Joe Gargiola, Volpe's Italian cold cuts, lots of Italian restaurzants serving toasted ravioli (which is really deep fried), and bakeries selling both Italian breads and pastries and St. Louis's version of German butter cake, which has a variety of available extra sweet toppings and is therefore known locally as Gooey Butter Cake.

The market had about a dozen and a half vendors, very little in the way of artsy-craftsy stuff (thankfully), a couple of dairy/cheese vendors, a couple of pork and beef vendors, a few bakers, four or five produce vendors, a chocalatier, and a handful of prepared food stalls (breakfast tacos, grilled cheeserie, lemonade, etc.). All-in-all, a well-rounded market, though it could use poultry and egg vendors (unless I missed them).

[Katie Meadow]

Last week and again today I purchased a kind of avocado totally new to me. The avocado people at the Berkeley Farmers' market always have terrific fruit: the stand-by Hass, and in season Pinkertons and Gwens (I love these!) But this year there's a new one called the Gillogly. I looked it up and officially it is named the Don Gillogly. Shaped like a gourd, with a sort of neck and dark skin that peels off easily, it's not quite as dense as a Hass, but it's very creamy and really fabulous. Anyone else seeing these?

[David A. Goldfarb]

Today on Moloka'i: sweet onions, small Philippine-style mangos, alogbati.

[haresfur]

Our small farmers market is the first Saturday of the month, year round. I still haven't gotten used to the cycle of life in Australia. Oranges seem to be in. I bought bread, a cauli, and a bouquet of different coloured carrots. Made purple-carrot ginger soup with olive sourdough bread last night (actually used other carrots, too but the purple took over). Nice change from the orange coloured pumpkin soup I've been making.

[David A. Goldfarb]

Market day is Saturday on Moloka'i, but Keawa Nui Shrimp Farms has their truck out on Sunday morning.

[David A. Goldfarb]

Apple-bananas, fresh eggs, passionfruit, onions, soursop, mochi fire roasted in banana leaves, and purple yam all from today's market on Moloka'i, except for the passionfruit, which came from Purdy's Macadamia Nut farm a couple of days ago, though the farmers also had them in the market today, and I could pick up a few from the parking lot outside our condo for that matter.

[Holly Moore]

Incredible produce from Culton Organics at Philadelphia's Sunday Headhouse Square Market.

Farmer Tom Culton

Tom and Shola

Squash Wrangling

Best Asparagus Ever

[Tri2Cook]

Hit the local market Friday (only runs 2x/month, July - September). I grabbed red and gold beets (with their greens, gotta have those), corn, a couple cheeses from a semi-local (about 5 hours away) producer and a few things from the lady from the elk farm. I also placed my annual order with her for a fairly large quantity of both fresh and smoked elk bones for stocks. She'll bring them with her next month. I took a peek at assorted pickled veggies including some tiny pickled green tomatoes that I think might make a nice cocktail garnish... but passed on them this trip. Hopefully the veggies will be better next time, the pickin's were a bit slim this time for some reason.

[kalypso]

The year-round farmer's market here is at its winter high-point (zillions of vendors). The year-round standbys (broccoli, cauliflower, napa cabbage, other cabbages, carrots, red beefsteak tomatoes, seda bananas, oritos, gold pineapples, black-skin watermelon, coconuts, altitude blackberries, cape gooseberries etc. etc.) are all in but in higher quantities, and the winter-specifics (romanesco, white pineapples, carambola, red guava, local apples and pears, and a couple of types of passionfruit) are starting to make themselves known.

I find myself pining for the blueberries that will be in later this month, as well as mangoes, for which I'll have to wait until October, at least.

I missed your post the first time around, but it caught my eye today. I'm familiar with most of the items you've listed, but what are oritos and white pineapples. A Wiki search didn't turn up much on the oritos, in fact, it turned up nada and it's something I'm totally not familiar with. Thx

[rooftop1000]

The email from my local market said my preferred vendor's fields are still under water so I didn't bother going. They are such nice people I hope they can salvage something of the season.

...Orange County NY Black Dirt region

tracey