Here in Delta, PA, the Farmer’s Market starts up in May and ends in October. It’s every Saturday morning, 9-1, and you can find us there every weekend. I’m like a kid in a candy store! There are maybe 5 or 6 Amish families who sell their produce and plants, and then there are a few other entrepreneurs who sell their handmade, homemade or home grown goods. We pretty much have a routine. First we go to a stand where a young couple sells their veggies and we get washed, cut and bagged spinach, washed, cut and bagged lettuce, green onions, beets, strawberries, radishes and rhubarb. Later in the season they’ll have other veggies. We also go to an older couple and get home made potato chips (small baggies) and sugar snap peas. Sometimes I will get a few plants at another stand. Plants are one of my weaknesses. I might not need them or even have room for them, but like men who have to get one more tool, or women who love shoes, I have to stop and get something.
Finally, we stop and get 2 pretzels with no butter. We are usually lucky in that there always seems to be a pan of pretzels just about to come out of the oven, so we can get them before they get buttered. We sit at one of the picnic tables and enjoy them and just being outside. It’s a nice sense of community. It’s not crowded, at least when we get there it’s not. It’s a small scale event and I like it like that.
Anyway, Saturday, when we got home, I put our veggies on the counter and looked at them thinking, ‘Now, what will I make first?’ And I thought, gee, this would be a good topic for discussion. So, here’s my pic, and here’s what I came up with.
The Sugar Snap Peas get sautéed with veggie broth, soy sauce, beans and minced garlic, and served over brown rice.
The lettuce, radishes and green onions will go in a monster salad.
The zucchini will be sautéed with sweet onions, garlic, and a touch of olive oil.
The beets will be roasted with red or white new potatoes, rosemary, black pepper, olive oil and garlic.
Of course we won’t have it all at once but I like to think of their purposes as soon as I get them so nothing withers away in the fridge. (Yes, I have to admit there are times when things don’t always make it to the table, but I am improving.)
veganforthemeateater 