September’s New Thing #3
One of my 3 new things to try in September was to buy all my produce from farmer’s markets! It’s one of the best new things I’ve decided to do. For the past five years of my life, I would just buy all my produce from the grocery store because it was easier (which isn’t necessarily true). I was only in town for two weekends in September but hit the local Grandview Farmer’s Market each Saturday morning. Not only did it encourage me to wake up a little earlier but I was able to get a nice little walk in + grab a cup of coffee from a local shop.
Here’s what I bought:
We eat dinner at home about 3-4 times a week. I made sure to get green beans, garlic and zucchini both weekends. The tomatoes and the peppers were always the first to get too ripe. I’m excited to continue into October and then I’m going to probably subscribe to a service like Green Bean Delivery during the winter months. My favorite buys were the local, fresh flowers and the unsweetened apple butter.
What do you do during the colder months? Do you have a year-round market? Do you grow your own/preserve?
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Comments (17)
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I agree! I love the energy at the markets. I haven’t tried canning yet but can see doing something like that once we have more room and a bigger kitchen area. Nice to hear from you, Juliette!
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i used to help run the worthington farmer’s market and i can’t speak highly enough of it. it is my favorite in columbus, and it is year round. the indoor market is wonderful and has late season produce and hydroponic produce…as well as speckled hen farm goods – my must-buy items!
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It’s my favorite too. I didn’t go this summer only because I’d rather walk vs drive but can see going in the winter.
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We have so many farmer’s markets here it’s amazing and I’m completely head over heels about it!
I’ve found that if I keep the green peppers in a plastic bag and in the veggie drawer they’ll last a little longer (same with greenbeans).
This year I’ve been working on keeping stuff in the freezer. I made a bunch of sauce from tomatoes and froze that. Not enough to get me through an entire winter but it’s a start. I also froze greenbeans. I blanched them and portioned them out into freezer bags.
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That’s awesome, Andrea!! Good to know about the peppers and beans. I need to consider freezing produce more!!
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Since I live in Florida, we have two growing seasons and there are only a couple months (december-february) when produce can be a bit less then stellar. There are tons of farmers markets and roadside stands so fresh produce and market goods are always close by! I wish I could can and preserve fresh veggies but I have a serious lack of storage space in my current apartment:(
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I’m so jealous!! But totally can relate to not having enough space. We’re moving next weekend and it looks like there MIGHT be more room :) Here’s to hoping!
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Unfortunately where I live we don’t have the greatest “farmers markets” unlike downtown Vancouver or Victoria (Victoria, BC has a fabulous one, I’m incredibly jealous!) But we get our veggies through a CSA during the summer and offset the rest either at the grocery store for smoothie items or at a local veggie stall.
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Yum yum yum!
I love farmer’s markets and used to try to find the local ones each weekend, but I have been slack with that in the last few months – which is a shame, since there’s some lovely local produce during the summer here in the UK. I will just have to double my efforts in winter!
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I’m disappointed in myself that it’s taken me so long to get into the FM groove!! Hope you find some new gems!
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You really notice the difference in quality of the market food compared the supermarket food.
I’ve got to admit we’re big soup people as soon as it gets chilly, sadly we don’t have anything home grown to help us there, but we’ve got plenty of fruit trees!-
Ah I totally agree. The beans and juicier. The zucchini is bigger. Since we were gone two weekends in a row I resorted to Whole Foods and even theirs isn’t as good.
I would love to make more soups this winter! Any favorite recipes?
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I love how eating local makes me more in tune with what’s in season. We have a great local veg shop that also buys up surplus veg from the local allotments. And we have an allotment but, first year, not much more than runner beans (which I get fed up with quick!) I crave stews and other comfort food in the autumn and find that the seasonal produce suits this well. But it’s still all too easy to just grab a pizza instead!
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Ah yes it’s too easy to order pizza. I really need to work on making soups! Any favorite recipes?
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Juliette Gold
Farmer Markets are so lovely! They always have such a vibrant atmosphere and the produce smells so fresh!
It never really gets too cold around here, so we have produce year-round.
Back when I was living is Russia though, we used to prepare canned veggies every fall.