Columbus Foodie

We got another super-early start to our Saturday market crawl, but I was a bit more cranky than usual, in part due to lack of sleep, but also because it was pretty darn warm and humid even at 8am. First stop was the North Market, where I didn’t have to stand in line to get strawberries from Rhoads (the early bird gets the 4 quarts for $17 worm, natch). Can I just say that I had made my way through last week’s 2 quarts in a matter of days, and have been craving these strawberries all week? I made a beeline as soon as we got there. Aren’t they lovely?

I ran into Lisa and also a reader who recognized me (I’m so sorry I seemed rushed and didn’t have time to chat – we were trying to get in and out of there before 8:30am; I’m really a nice person, I swear, even though I know I didn’t come across that way this morning – please leave a comment and introduce yourself, I’d love to talk to you and get to know you better in a lot less chaotic atmosphere. )

Wishwell Farms had some asparagus (to be honest, I’m asparagus’d out at the moment) and these pretty greenhouse grown tomatoes, or as my husband noted, “tomatoes that taste like tomatoes”.

We picked up some of the eggs that Lisa recommended from Toad Hill, plus a whole pound of shiitakes (oh, how I love these!) from Toby Run. Just This Farm had some really pretty baby turnips, which I plan on roasting with a chicken this evening.

It was then off to Worthington, where when we arrived there 15 minutes early at 8:45, was already in full swing, including a 50+ person line for strawberries at Crum’s. Now, I’ve had both Crum’s and Rhoad’s, and truthfully, they both taste about the same to me and are about the same price. Me? I think I’ll skip the ginormous line and get them at the North Market this season. For some reason, people were a bit pushy and rude this morning, much more so than usual. I guess I’m not the only one who woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning. We didn’t buy much at Worthington (some beer brats and beef sticks from OMC Farms, some cheese curds and fresh mozzarella from Blue Jacket Cheese, and some hand pies and lovely Easter Egg radishes from Two Crows Farms. These are delicious when sliced thin, and sprinkled with coarse sea salt on a dark heavy bread like pumpernickel that’s been slathered with cultured butter. Yum, I’m drooling just thinking about it.

So we zipped out of there fairly quickly, and got to the Clintonville Farmer’s Market around 9:30 this morning. I finally got to meet Alan of Alan’s Bread face to face (hi, Alan! It was nice meeting you, and I’ll be sure to check out the Clintonville Community Market soon). Let me tell you, that market was hoppin’ today! It’s exciting to see more and more selection now that we’re getting out of spring and heading into summer. I picked up some beautiful carrots (also going into the roast chicken tonight) from Sippel Family Farm.

Naomi’s Garden, as usual, had several different types of lettuce, but it looked especially stunning today.

And Frijolito Farms had cups of mulberries (I picked one up to put in a trifle tonight), a taste of which immediately brought back a sensory memory of being 5 years old and foraging these, eating my fill, and coming home stained from head to toe by the berry juice. Amazing how a single taste of something can just bring memories flooding back.

I won’t be doing Saturday markets next week, as I’ll be at 2Silos in Mt. Gilead Meeting My Meat. We’re thinking of hitting one of the Sunday markets near Cincinnati before making a trip to Jungle Jim’s.

So that was my weekend at the market – what did you get?