A Winter's Market Stroll

Cheese, meat, eggs, fish, root vegetables, apples, pears, frozen seasonal vegetables, sheep skin rugs, Ostrich meat dog treats, hyrdoponic organic greens and so much more.  It may be the dead of Winter, but that is no excuse not to be shopping at the farmers market which is filled with everything you need to make a delicious, local repast. 

Come take a stroll with me...

  

Cayuga Organics not only sells a wonderful selection of stone ground local organic flours they also make awesome bread and sell things like Oat groats so you can make your own digestive biscuits at home!

Hot Bread Kitchen not only makes a dizzying array of delicious baked goods they do so as a non-profit dedicated to creating better lives for low-income women and their families.  They do this by paying women while they learn the skills necessary to launch food businesses and achieve management track positions in food manufacturing.  And we benefit by being able to eat all their delicious goods while feeling good about supporting such a fine company.

 

Rick's Picks pickles are a perennial favorite which are also sold at Whole Foods and other fine grocery stores around town.

 Good to know for when you are setting up your roof top bee hive!

 Two Guys from Woodbridge hydroponics:

Hawthorne Valley Farm, the best yogurt, quark and lacto-fermented pickles, they also have a great selection of cheeses (the aged Alpine is my favorite!) some green house greens, baked goods and bread!

 Wine to have with your meat, cheese and bread from the Finger Lakes

Not only does 3 Corner Field Farm sell some of the best cheese at the market (you have to try their Shushan Snow OMG it is so good) they also sell Lamb and Sheep meat and rugs - nothing is wasted, as it is suppose to be.

Two Guys From Woodbridge: Red Orach?

The new kids at the market this year are actually not kids, they are 2 Guys From Woodbridge and they sell beautiful, organic, hydroponically grown greens. I was particularly taken by the Red Orach something I had never seen before, also know as French spinach or mountain spinach. I used it in a salad and found it to have a very mild flavor. I think it would be best used as an accent with other greens, for example as part of a mesclun mix. Speaking of which 2 Guys sell a wonderful bouquet like bunch of mesclun, all with there root stems intact, almost like a bouquet of flowers. It doesn't get fresher than this! I'm also interested in steaming Red Orach and treating it like cooked spinach, adding some butter, garlic and lemon juice to it. What could be bad? It also is suggested that the Orach is good mixed with my favorite green sorrel to add balance. I have to try it again as everything I read about it says it is salty, but I don't recall it being so salty? Anyway something new for your plate.