Columbus Foodie

It was a beautiful spring day for marketing this Saturday, and I watched the sun rise this morning as I didn’t get any sleep last night in preparation for getting an early start this morning. And early we were, arriving at the market before 8am while the farmers were still setting up. After taking a spin around the market inside and picking up a still piping hot cinnamon roll from Omega, we headed back outside into the still chilly and damp morning.

Wish Well Farms was back this week with morels, but I passed. Through my experimentations with cooking with morels over the past couple of weeks, I’ve found that my favorites are the small black ones. These huge white ones are also good, but I’ve kind of already hit my morel budget for the season (for the most part). Still, at $39/lb. they’re the best deal on morels in town.

But I was excited to see that my main mushroom man from Toby Run was there, and I stocked up and bought a pound (!!) of shiitakes that I hope to use as a centerpiece of some dishes in the next couple of days.

Other than that, there wasn’t too much going on at the North Market – your usual spring greens and asparagus, which I still have far too much of. I was sad to see that Freshwater Farms wasn’t there this week, looks like a trip to Urbana will be in order in the upcoming week for some more of that delicious rainbow trout and Picallilly sauce.

We got through there fairly quickly, and made our way to Worthington, where we arrived right around 9am, as soon as they opened. Today was also the annual plant sale, so it was already fairly crowded when we arrived. H-W Organics had rhubarb, my first sighting of the season, although it’s not something I need this week (next week is a different story). Instead, I picked up some more of their delicious red potatoes.

Not a bad turnout of farmers at Worthington, although as I explained to my mother, only a fraction of what you’ll see one the growing season picks up. It was really nice to see some of my favorite vendors who I haven’t seen for months, and generally, everyone (vendors and customers alike) seemed to be as excited as I was about being back. And pretty tulips like these late bloomers from Eye Stone Flower Farm definitely helped elevate my mood.

A couple of standouts for me this week at Worthington. First, there’s a new cheese source, Blue Jacket Dairy out of Bellfontaine. They have this amazing halloumi-style grilling cheese that’s out of this world. I picked some up to go with the Greek meal we’re planning tomorrow.

And over at Pop and Judy’s Patch, they had something I rarely see locally – dried beans! I stocked up on a pint of each type.

Generally, it was a good take this morning, and I’m really looking forward to things picking up as the season gets further along. It’s so nice being back into my normal Saturday morning routine. And it’s even nicer to feel inspired again. So where did you go this morning and what did YOU get?