farm market walkabout

~ jama

June is National Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Month!

Have you been to your local farmer’s market yet?

Here’s what we saw on a recent trip to Reston Farm Market:

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A Few Take-aways:

  • Flower vendors are kind and seem to smile more. Bunches of lavender = a dream of Provence.
  • Giant zucchini prove that bigger is not always better.
  • Clowns making balloon animals do not like to be photographed when they are coughing.
  • Eek, leeks!
  • My love is like a red, red raspberry.
  • 100 Bowls of Soup! Ginger carrot is quite refreshing.
  • Squash multiply like rabbits. It is highly likely they will take over the world.
  • Hooray for samples: salsa, cherries, cucumber, strawberries, tomatoes!
  • I don’t care what you say. Cucumbers standing up are obscene.
  • Rubbery green beans. Boing!
  • Mmmm, whoopie pies! Pause to worship at the altar of baked goods.
  • Lettuce entertain you.

So what did we buy? Basil, rosemary and parsley plants. Ravishing raspberries. Cranberry orange scones, apricot linzer cookies, triple chocolate rockies. Vine ripened tomatoes, blushing with vibrant color and oozing summer flavor.

Embrace me, my sweet embraceable you.

Brought home these babies and had a little Insalata Caprese for lunch. So easy to prepare, wholly satisfying, and quintessentially summer: sliced tomatoes at their peak ripeness, fresh mozzarella and basil leaves seasoned with Fleur de sel and freshly ground black pepper, extra virgin olive oil drizzled over the top. Magnificent in its simplicity, laid back and luscious, with each unadorned flavor taking center stage without an ounce of competition. Ti amo! Ti desidero!

*kisses bunched fingertips*

Delizioso! Squisito!

What summer fruits and veggies are you most looking forward to eating?

Buon Appetito!

*swoons and dreams of tooling around Capri on a Vespa with Al Pacino.*

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This post is linked to Beth Fish Read’s Weekend Cooking, where all are invited to share food-related posts (fiction/nonfiction/cookbook/movie reviews, recipes, musings, photos). Put on your bibs and join the fun!

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Copyright © 2012 Jama Rattigan of Jama’s Alphabet Soup. All rights reserved.

39 thoughts on “farm market walkabout”

    1. What a charming market you have! Thanks for telling me about your post. I hope you get some strawberries soon — and that local honey sounds wonderful.

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  2. As someone who grew up on a small truck farm, and who knows when vegetables are planted and harvested, I’m still not sure about how today’s farmers are doing it. All this stuff in May? We go every Saturday to our market–I buy green beans, new potatoes, English peas, squash, zucchini, candy onions, spring onions, lettuce, beets, then the REAL stuff: cookies, chocolate cream mini-pies, croissants, bar cookies…

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    1. I marvel too at all the produce! I think for the Fairfax County Park Authority markets, the definition of “local” is a farm within a 125 mile radius — so there was a vendor from PA as well as Colonial Beach, VA, etc. Always interesting to see who’s there. Our first time at this particular Reston market.

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  3. I think I’m with Candice. Some of our local growers tell me they get up about 3am to prepare & then get to market for us. What a long summer for them. Your market looks like ours. It’s like one of the old time fairs without the merry-go-round. Your photos are luscious, Jama. I usually buy the salad fixings, & then go for the bread. There is one little farm that sells their homemade jams-wonderful. Thanks!

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    1. There was a salad fixin’s table here too, which I’ll have to sample next time, along with the breads. I was, predictably, distracted by the cookies and scones :).

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  4. Ohhhhhh. Cannot. Wait. To. Go. Home.
    I shall take pics of our (multiple) markets.
    Summer in California – a glorious thing indeed. And in Virginia too – I’ll never forget taking the Orange Line from your house to meet Charlotte, and picking up blueberries, strawberries, and loaves of fresh bread at the stop. How convenient and wonderful and tasty!

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    1. So happy you’re going to be back in CA for an extended stay. Looking forward to seeing your markets and following your adventures!

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  5. Our CSA deliveries have started, and so far we’ve enjoyed asparagus, radishes, salad greens of all kinds, strawberries, chard, mushrooms, and some things I’m surely forgetting.

    I most look forward to home-grown tomatoes. Although home-grown green beans, local potatoes, and local lettuce are pretty amazing, too. (I can never get over how much more tender the lettuce is, and how much better everything tastes.)

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  6. Wow, that’s quite the variety of produce for so early in the season!

    I went to the teeny farmer’s market near me last week and got some eggs; I think I’ll have to venture to the somewhat-further-but-larger markets in order to get more than baked goods, preserves of various sorts, lettuce and a few strawberries.

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    1. I’m looking forward to the late summer peaches! Of course I’m really loving the strawberries and cherries now. 🙂

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  9. The Caprese salad looks beyond-amazing!

    We have a farmers’ market at the bottom of out hill every Tuesday. My 13yo daughter walks down by herself. When she comes back, we gather round and she unveils her finds one by one. Olive bread. Strawberries. Great summer memories 🙂

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    1. There are many farmer’s markets in our county and I hope to visit a few more this summer. Each is different in size and personality. Enjoy your caprese salad!

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  13. i went to the market on thursday and they had the first of the local strawberries. Rather expensive, but I bought them for my dad who has lost his appetite due to medical treatment. Also bought him some locally baked raspberry tarts. At a local bakery, I bought the most wonderful pumpkin whoopee pie, It was so much better than the chocolate one daughter selected.

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    1. Love all your purchases — includes my favorite things — strawberries, raspberries and whoopie pies! Those tarts sound divine.

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    1. This Saturday market did indeed have a clown as well as several craft tables set up. Food was more interesting, since the crafts for sale were mostly ho-hum.

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  16. I love our farmers’ markets and your photos really capture the bounty. I go to two markets a week in the summer and hardly ever go the grocery for 6 months out of the year.

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    1. We’re fortunate to have FMs available to us, and it’s always a good feeling to know you’re supporting local farmers.

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  17. I adore this post! What gorgeous pictures and a nice reminder as to why fresh fruits and veggies are so important. How can you turn your nose up at veggies with pictures like that?

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  19. I really enjoyed your mouthwatering slideshow. I‘d be weighed down with purchases if I’d visited for real. We have a couple of farmers’ markets here in Lanzarote in the Canary Islands, but our island is so small that we can get from here in the south to the one in the north, at Mancha Blanca, in about thirty-five minutes. It only has a few stalls too, but we do buy from them, especially the goats cheese!

    Thank you for commenting on my blog too.

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    1. Oh, the Canary Islands! Nice to meet another island girl :). Nice to hear you enjoy visiting your farmer’s markets too.

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