Columbus Foodie

The thing I’ll remember most about today is that it started out hot, got much hotter during the morning, and ended up sweltering by mid-afternoon. It started out at 72 at 8:30, but with the humidity, it already felt like 90. By the time we finally got done our last errand, I was ready to pass out from the heat. I *love* summer, but when it’s even hot in the shade, it’s time to go inside.

We decided to sleep in an extra half hour and hit Worthington first this morning (well, I also had an ulterior motive – I didn’t want to get to the North Market too early for the pretzel rolls at Omega, which is my new favorite at the moment). Tons of vendors today – I rushed over to Gillogly Orchard first, wanting to make sure that I got blueberries before they ran out this week, but he told me I didn’t have anything to worry about, that blueberries are plentiful now, and that there are plenty to go around. He had blackberries too, but I passed on those – I want to wait until they’re more plentiful (and thus a touch cheaper) and then I’ll make a whole big batch of jam (my favorite jam is boysenberry, which tastes kind of like blackberry – boysenberry is impossible to find around here for some reason, though).

The flowers, of course, are absolutely gorgeous this time of year – take a look at these Corn Cockels and Black Eyed Susans and you’ll see what I mean.

There was squash aplently to be had, from zuchinni the size of a baby’s arm, to these lovely curved zephyr squash. I can never have too much squash, it’s so versatile.

Meanwhile, my husband was dashing over to Stephens Bakery and Orchard for another one of those excellent Tollhouse Pies (and then can you believe, actually asked me if one was enough? Eyes bigger than one’s stomach, anyone?)

I got the last of the pink potatoes from Arbor Hill (yes, literally the last basket of them), plus 4 other varieties a little further down, and am planning on making a multi-colored potato salad later this week. Herbs are also now plentiful, fortunately I have a container herb garden growing on my back deck, so I didn’t need to pick up any of these:

And I also picked up quite a few “candy” onions from Two Crows Farms, which are going to be used in a variety of local dishes this week.

Not knowing if Toby Run would be out of mushrooms by the time I hit the North Market, I picked up a nice big box of pink oyster/yellow oyster/white oyster/shiitake mix, for a song in Worthington.

After picking up a bunch of these multi-colored carrots, and my meat for the week, I was off to Clintonville.

I got my weekly 4 dozen eggs from 2Silos (she won’t be there next week, she’ll be at the Whole Foods farmers market), and she’s bringing Sweetie with her, so I can get some more visitation time in. BTW, if you haven’t gone to the farmers market at Whole Foods, it rocks! Seriously. Local cheese from Buckeye Valley in configurations you don’t usually find locally (Ementhall or French Munster, anyone?), and the best goat’s milk fudge and caramel ever. Just a hop skip and a jump from the Worthington Market, and worth the detour – it has much improved since last year. Not huge on the produce, but lots of local artisanal products.

But I digress. Back to Clintonville. Guess what they had this week? Sweet corn! Yay! I picked up a dozen ears so I can make some macque choux this week.

I took a few minutes to talk to the people in charge of the Clintonville Market about local foods, and was shocked to find out that Libby’s, Marzetti’s, V8 juice and a few other supermarket ingredients were local. This knowledge will make it *much* easier to make totally local meals for the One Local Summer project. They got so many requests for the list, that they’re thinking about putting it up on their website. I’ll link to it from here if they do.

A couple other items, and then I was off to the North Market, making a pitstop at Pistachio to pick up some caneles, which are like crack to me since they started using the bigger canele mold which it allows it to have a chewy outside, and custardy inside. I cleaned Spencer out of the 7 he had left.

We were pretty much in and out of the North Market. I didn’t pick up anything outside (had gotten everything we needed at the other two markets), but went inside and got a half dozen pretzel rolls at Omega, and some chocolate that melted into a gooey pile (even though it was in the freezer bag) by the time we got home.

Krystyna’s Deli foiled my plans for a local supper by having the nerve to be on vacation (I joke, I joke!) – so the ‘rogies will have to wait until Monday, I suppose.

And a quick stop to Thurn’s to get some landjaeger and Cincy brats, along with more schinken.

And then for the long drive up to Mi Mi Cafe for a Banh Mi sandwich and some pho. I had the opportunity to try one earlier this week after a doctor’s appointment, and Lisa and Rosie weren’t kidding – these really ARE the best Vietnamese sandwiches in town. Run, don’t walk. They are *that* good. So good I dragged my husband all the way across town so he could find out for himself. I still like Lac Viet for the Bahn Mi Thit Bo (beef) sandwiches, but this place is my new source for the traditional sandwiches with pate.

Got home, ate, took a nice nap, and now it’s off to make supper. What a day!