I love this time of year best!! All winter long I have lived without sunshine and fresh, local produce. Parden the whine, but I neeeeed the sun. I neeeed a fresh tomato. That’s all there is to it.
This week, our local farmer’s market had its opening night! Selection is limited at this point, because the growing season in Nebraska is just beginning. But lookie what I got…
Cost for everything…$7.
Value to me right now to fulfill my desparate need to eat fresh food…priceless.
Right out of our garden (for free), we’re enjoying all kinds of salads!
Joy of joys…my friends with a huge strawberry patch
invited me over for some strawberry picking fun!!!!
Oh yes…I did have fun.
I then proceeded to trade my friend some strawberries for some fresh eggs. What a deal!
And well…while he isn’t produce or eggs…this little fella does happen to be locally grown too. After our travels over the weekend and a busy day playing hard in the sun yesterday, he just laid down on the floor and fell asleep. On the floor. Now that’s one tired kid.
Great food…cute kids. Isn’t summertime the best?
Have you scored any great deals on local food lately?
What’s in season where you live?
I was just given some sweet cherries that my sister in law picked off of her tree… YUM!
And my aunt went away for a long weekend and said I could pick her strawberries while she was gone.
What a blessing!
We just planted our first garden (and so did my mom), so we haven’t anything from it yet. But I look forward to it, those strawberries look so good. I hate store bought strawberries, they always smell sooo good, but then you eat them and they are anything but sweet. Thats one thing I loved about going to visit the in-laws in mexico, fresh strawberries….and chicken!! YUM!! Found this site yesterday and I am glued to it…all your recipes look so great!!
We have Farmer’s Markets all over the place here (Western WA) but they are so DARN EXPENSIVE!!!! I have found I can go to the co-op and buy the from the same farm and pay 2/3 of the price. I LOVE the novelty of the farmer’s market and I would go almost daily. I have one within 20 minutes of me 6 days out of the week. I just wish it wasn’t so expensive. :(
what part of WA are you in? I live in Lynnwood. I would be interested to learn from you the co-ops and such that we have around snohomish (or even parts of King) counties.
:) Woodinville
I only know of PCC here in Redmond.
I wish I could help more!
Oh, my hubby works in woodinville, how funny. what is the PCC?
I haven’t heard of that.
In season where I live? Wind. Maybe some early lettuce. My strawberries are blooming, but won’t be ready for a few more weeks.
Our farmers’ market opened about a week ago; I’m going for the first time tomorrow morning. I’m looking forward to blackberries, peaches, plums, and honey (it’s mostly orchards that populate the market). I fear that they may be on the pricey side – I wish I lived in an area where local was less expensive – but I’m going to check anyway.
Our strawberries are about done, but the raspberries are in full swing, I just picked a quart. I would assume that raspberries are not in yet in Nebraska as we have kin folk in Cheyenne and they seemed surprised that we already had them. BTW, we drive through York at least once a year on the way from SW MO to Cheyenne, WY. My kids don’t like Nebraska. =) We always joke, look out the window, NOTHING! But at least summer is better than winter for driving through there. We came through Kansas in March instead, not much better. =)
Our Farmer’s Markets are really expensive, too. This year we found a local farm from which we bought a “farm share.” But better than just getting a box of whatever they decide you get that week, it runs by a points system, and you can just shop their farm, buying everything with your points. It’s about 2/3 of the cost I would spend in the store, and all local (hard to get up here in Canada!)
That all looks wonderful. Only another month or so and we can pick our own. Isn’t it wonderful? What are you going to do with your strawberries?
We’ve picked about 11 quarts so far but there is at least that many more left in our patch. We’ve given some away, homemade strawberry shortcake and strawberry crepes and homemade yogurt with strawberry and now I’m starting to sound like that guy on Forest Gump…
We harvested all of our broccoli today because it was just about to flower. Someone told me to get it in early so i did….. and now we have lots of broccoli (yum). Maybe we will get more from the side shoots?
Awww… what a super sweet boy! :) So cute!
and asleep on a HARD floor, not even carpet or piles of laundry to cushion that sweet face! Bless.
Strawberries are already over and done in Arkansas. It’s too hot for them now. Looking forward to peaches soon. Our tomato plants are loaded down but aren’t ready to begin picking yet! But our hens are laying well.
I belong to a CSA and they told us we can expect the spring harvest soon. Right now we are getting lots of lettuce, onions, swiss chard, beets, some fennel but it’s trickling off (thank goodness), and cilantro. I could be wrong (in fact I’m probably wrong) but I think those are still winter’s crop? CAN’T wait for fresh tomatoes.
Our tailgate markets have been up and running since mid-April here in the south. I go twice a week. Today I plan on making some garlic scape pesto and a jar of garlic scape pickles. Our local beef/chicken/pork farm comes to the tailgate market too. They are having a 10% off sale today-I plan on stocking up for the freezer.
First off, I love your site! We’ve made tons of your recipes and even my husband is getting in on the action. He LOVES everything I’ve made off of here (and he was raised on Hamburger Helper and Mountain Dew). We’re still fairly new to eating un-processed foods and this has been a great resource to use in our adventure. We get local milk (raw), have started making our own butter and made mozzarella last night,we get chicken/pork/eggs from the same local farm. I’m saving for my grain mill, but I’ve been making my own bread for about 6 weeks now. I love the pictures you post and can’t wait to share some of my goodies from my garden (it’s my first one this year). Right now I can get strawberries, zucchini, squash, onions, collards and broccoli locally.
oooh lots of pretty colours! thats alot of strawberries.. i am seriously craving them now. yummy!
I’m excited! I was talking w/a friend last night.. about our quest to more healthier eating. And I mentioned wanting to change to a better sugar, such as Succanut. And she told me she saw it at a LOCAL market. It’s basically market run by the Amish.
So, soon I’ll be checking out this market, again. I was there before, and knew nothing about succanut! Now I want to see what else they have. I know their chicken is AWESOME!
We got about half of that many strawberries today (from the same place you picked them :)
I think we are going to keep picking a bunch and freezing them till we leave Thursday! TONS of amazing strawberries!
I went to our market this morning for the first time this year. There was a LOT more variety than I remember from years past which was nice, but my $30 went VERY quickly. I got about a pint and a half of blackberries, a pint of grape tomatoes, a pint of small plums, maybe 1 1/2 pints of new potatoes, a smallish watermelon, a just-shy-of-a-pint jar of honey, and a pint jar of blackberry jelly. The blackberries alone were $8 and the watermelon $5. I’m sure it’s all excellent, and I am happy to support the local farms and orchards, but dang. To get enough for our family for a full week’s produce would be close to $100.
Our season is just barely starting. I went to the Farmer’s Market this morning and it was mostly just greens… spinach, chard, lettuce. I saw one bunch of green onions and a couple of radishes. And a little rhubarb. It’ll be mid-July before we see tomatoes and zucchini! I’m a little jealous. ;-)
our farmers market doesn’t have much more than veggie plants and salad greens, eggs, beef, cheese and some local crafters right now, but last week we picked up the 1/4 free range grass fed beef we ordered. Never ordered a cow ( or 1/4 of one ) before but where else can you get get t-bone steaks for $3.59/lb????
I had planned on going to a farmer’s market today but we were sidetracked. Hopefully one will be open tomorrow after church. If not, I’m out of luck for a few weeks, boo. However, we did pick up some fresh papaya to try at the local whole foods market.
Now what are you going to do with all those strawberries? They look soooo good! I’m dreaming of whipped cream these days.
If people are having trouble finding local food. Check out http://www.localdirt.com... it allows you to find farmer’s markets, coops and other places to buy local food. You can also look up local farms and order directly from them…good luck!