Rhubarb at the Farmer's Market
Last week was a pretty easy cooking week for me. I didn’t go to the farmer’s market because I had plenty of fresh produce from my last trip and I ended up cooking enough over the weekend to last until Saturday. But a week without cooking and without the farmer’s market had me really itching to go this morning. I arrived as soon as it opened.
What a great week it was to go! There were wonderful cheeses, baked breads, several grass fed/pastured/organic meat stalls, and of course, the vegetables. I walked in and rhubarb immediately caught my eye. My dad used to grow this in his garden in Alaska when I was growing up. I ate rhubarb cobblers, pies, crisps, and sometimes, I’d just go into the garden, pick a stalk and eat it raw, dipping the stalk into a bowl of sugar with each bite, to offset the tartness. How wonderful is rhubarb! I could hardly contain my excitement and bought 2 lbs. Now, what to do with it all? This is the kind of problem I like to have!
Then the asparagus. Waves and waves of asparagus, all bundled up. Every stall had a huge selection. I had to get some of that. I also got some sweet potatoes, inspired by Delicious by Nature, some radishes, and some apples. I got enough greens for a couple of salads, so I grabbed a cucumber to help round out the salad.
On my way out, I spied another section of the Farmer’s Market I hadn’t seen before. There were never this many stalls before, so there was one section set a bit apart from the others. There was the mushroom stall. I love mushrooms, and I try to eat some regularly. The man there was very friendly and helpful. I got a bunch of portobellos.
Then it was off to my farmer’s pickup, where in addition to some beautiful fresh eggs, and dairy, I got a pint of wild morels he foraged on his farm land! How amazing is that?
What a fantastic morning, and all of this by 10am. But still, by the time I got back home, I still had an ache in my heart. Fiddlehead Ferns -I wanted some. Desperately. And the farmer’s market I went to failed to have any. A huge disappointment. No matter, I put my food away and set out again, this time for the biggest and best farmer’s market the NYC area has to offer – Union Square.