Farm Fresh and Local Produce - 8/4/07
Author: swampkitty05 // Category: Columbus, Eating Local, Farmer's Market, ProduceWe have family in from out of town this weekend, so we got a little bit of a late start this morning. Even by 9am, it was already unbearably hot and humid. I really, really hate the dog days of summer, hate this heat wave, and wish we could catch a break with the weather. Even with air conditioning on full blast, I can’t get it below 74 in here. ::pant pant::. This coming from someone who doesn’t like the temperature to get above 68, ever.
But I digress. Even though it’s been unbearably hot, there is so much to be had at the market this time of year. We started out in Clintonville, where we picked up our usual selection of eggs from 2Silos (and a heads up folks - Denise will be at the Whole Foods farmers market next week). I’ve finally spied some watermelon at the market, but I ended up going with canteloupe instead.
I saw some pretty purple peppers, too - but the farmer told me that they turn green when cooked, so I figured what’s the point of picking them up? I’m not doing a veggie platter…
And for this week’s bright splash of color - these beautiful snapdragons.
Off to Worthington, where the sun was beating down on me mercilessly, to pick up a few staples, along with red and green leaf lettuce, some bacon from OMC Farms, and a huge 2 pound heirloom tomato (not the one pictured below) to make my first BLT of the year for dinner. Needless to say, there were tons of heirloom tomatoes everywhere today.
And the most suprising thing of all - strawberries at Crum’s! Yes, I waited in line, and got 4 quarts - 2 for local strawberry shortcake tonight, and 2 to make another small batch of strawberry-blackberry jam. Also got a half of peck of peaches as well.
Look at all that basil! I got so many fresh herbs today it’s not even funny - parsley, chives, thyme…absolutely amazing!
Glad to be home back in the (relatively) cool, but also glad that I took the time to go out this morning despite the heat. Hopefully it will cool down a little in the next few days, so I can hit the Dublin Irish Festival and the Ohio State Fair.
August 4th, 2007 at 4:20 pm
you have to come to the irish festival on sunday in the morning so you can catch my mum as pipe major of the Cincinnati Caledonian Pipes and Drums!! I mean come on, it isn’t an irish festival if you don’t hear some bagpipes!
August 4th, 2007 at 7:56 pm
I noticed that there were a ton of tomatoes around town, too! I went to Delaware’s market and saw an abundance of tomatoes and corn.
I bought some of the purple peppers and actually cooked with them tonight. They still stay slightly purple of the outside. They do, however, turn translucent and almost look like a purple onion when they are cooked. But, they were the same price as the green peppers, so I figured “what the heck?”
August 5th, 2007 at 3:30 am
I love those purple peppers! And the watermelon! We’re in the peak of melon season here, but the gold and green canteloupe-types. They are wonderful, but, having grown up in the middle of watermelon country I do miss them in the heat of summer!
August 6th, 2007 at 8:39 am
Purple peppers? Do you know if they were a naturally purple variety or has someone been fiddling with their genetics? Then again we get purple potatoes and spring onions, so why not!