Columbus Foodie

I think that each week, our starting time at the farmer’s markets are getting earlier and earlier, because I’ve been wanting to get done with all three markets before 10am so my day isn’t shot. We were dead tired because of a late night of firework and watching Rick Springfield at the Dublin festivities last night, so we weren’t too excited about dragging our rear ends out of bed at the ass crack of dawn this morning.

First stop (as usual) - the North Market. You all know that I’ve been getting a pound of shiitakes every week, and this week was no exception. There’s definitely okonomiyaki in the works this week. We also picked up 40 pickling cucumbers for processing into pickles later tonight. We agreed we weren’t going to do as much preserving this year (since we still have so much left from last year), but pickles are one of the things we’ve been out of for months. Plus, they’re super easy to prep and process, so things should go quickly.

Comb’s Herbs had red currants again today, and I was sorely tempted (I ended up eating the jelly I made from last week’s batch on cream cheese biscuits instead of making a glaze with it), but from a cost to benefit ratio (a pint makes about 4-6 oz. of jelly, and costs $5 not counting sugar), it was just a little too rich for my blood since Paul has me on the budget plan for farmer’s markets now. Still beautiful to look at.

We also saw the first of the apples for the year, some sweet corn (2 ears for $1, way more than I’m willing to spend), lots of other veggies that I haven’t seen regularly yet, including these adorable baby zucchini (that would cost about $6 at Whole Foods) from Toad Hill Organics.

We were done at the North Market just as it was officially opening (at 8am), and headed off to Worthington, which when we got there at 8:15, was already in full swing. I picked up a couple of cucumbers at Wish Well Farms (I’ve been making a lot of things with cucumber lately for some reason), but other than getting fresh fruit, I’ve been controlling myself as far as regular produce goes as I still have some left to use up from last week. Although I didn’t pick them up today, there were tons of sour cherries available for pie/jam making at Pop and Judy’s. I opted instead for the dark sweet cherries at Gillogly Orchard

I was mostly berried out after last week’s berry bonanza, but I could resist these beautiful apricots. Yay to the beginning of stone fruit season!

I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention (although I hate to do it, because it means less for me) all the tasty new cheese additions from Blue Jacket Creamery. I already told you guys about last week’s lemon quark - this week they had garlic as well (it’s awesome!), plus excellent chevre and a tropical chevre whose flavor rocks my world. I think I blew the bulk of my budget here.

It was off to Clintonville before 9am. What we saw here was pretty much the same things we found elsewhere, but I did see some really nice looking rainbow chard at Just This Farm. I’ve never cooked with chard before, can anyone clue me in on what it tastes like/what you use it for? I love the color.

After picking up my eggs at 2Silos, we headed over to the snowville Creamery stand to get some whole milk and heavy cream. How cool is it that we can get local milk and cream right at the farmer’s market, and can talk production methods directly with the producer? The reason I love their milk so much is that because it is non-homogenized (which my lactose intolerant self can process without any issues), at a fraction of the cost of Hartzler’s milk.

So, that was my morning at the markets. Where did YOU go and what did you get?