Farmers' Market

[plonq]

Today was the last day for the St Norbert Farmers' Market, and I finally remembered to bring my camera along for the trip. I wasn't sure how the pictures would turn out since the weather today is rather grey and blustery, but a little nudge to the saturation made a big difference, and brought out the colours in their original glory. While I wish I had managed to get a few pictures of the market in the spring, and mid-summer, Autumn is arguably the best time for shots anyway when that's when the colours are at their most vivid.

Obviously pumpkins were a running theme at today's market. As far as I know we will not be carving pumpkins for Halloween this year, but we picked up another sugar pumpkin for pies.


I love Brussels sprouts; they are one of those veggies that are sorely lacking in my diet.


Earlier this year they also had cauliflower in purple, yellow and green. atara made a very good salad from roasted yellow cauliflower earlier this year. I regret now that I did not buy any this time out.


This pillar of radishes is a signature for this particular vegetable stall. I have never been sure if these are for sale, or just decoration.


This crusty old farmer in the corner has become a favourite of ours. His veggies are not as clean as the others, but once you knock away the caked on dirt and was them, they are just as good as everyone else's. He is very old-school, weighing all of the produce on an old balance scale and adding up the totals in his head.


Aesthetics are very important when setting up a produce table. This lady spent much of the time that we were there rearranging her array of tomatoes.


I have always found bunches of hanging vegetables to be very appealing in a rustic, old-school kind of way. It calls up mental images of old European markets.


No Thanksgiving table is complete without an assortment of dried corn and colourful gourds.


I have no idea what I would do with celery root if I bought it, but it intrigues me. I don't even know if this is celery root, but I still have no idea what I would do with it, and I still find it intriguing.


Sometimes I feel a little guilty that I live in a society of such plenty that we can expend resources and energy to grow food crops simply for their ornamental properties.


So this is what happens to the flowers that they don't manage to sell in the spring.


Here is another typical autumn spread at the market.


This guy sells delicious little Icelandic cakes. Here is atara stowing away the last Crab Apple and Rhubarb cake he had available this year. If they didn't look so fiddly, I'd be tempted to try making one of my own.


Our last stop on the way out was to pick up another sugar pumpkin for pies. The last pies I made did not turn out well. No, scratch that, they were a disaster. =( I am going back to the old tried and true recipe that I used for the last ones.

Comments

[kamiten.livejournal.com]

Farmers markets like this are one of those things I miss. My father is an organic farmer (and probably as of writing this is just starting to pack up his truck after a morning selling at the farmers market) and I have many memories of waking up before the sun rose, helping him pack the truck and riding into the "city" (now I know it's actually a small town) to sell on a saturday. My dad does his business the same way as the "crusty old farmer" - he has a scale he hangs from his truck and calculates everything off the top of his head; he just keeps a cash box on hand for change.

This post makes me very sad that I work saturdays, when most markets are active.

[frith]

It has been a while, but I seem to remember that celery root makes a great salad. The root is grated and the dressing is mayonnaise based.

The funny thing is that while the big city 50 miles away has at least two 'farmer's markets', there are none in the little town surrounded by crop-land near me.

[plonq.livejournal.com]

We only discovered this market in the last couple of years, but we've become converts.

One of these days I'm going to have to break down and buy a celery root so that I can try it. It is probably one of those foods that I have eaten in past and didn't know what it was.

[mwalimu.livejournal.com]

While viewing your post, my subconscious mind invented a new word: veggiegasm.

[aerofox.livejournal.com]

When I saw the picture of pumpkins, for some reason I was expecting to see a red fox trying to hide amongst them *giggles*

[rrwolf.livejournal.com]

That's a nice farmer's market you have there. Lots of options available. Nice use of the colors in the pictures of the produce.

[dronon.livejournal.com]

Gourd heavens!