A bag of goodies!!!!!Saturdays some mom's look forward to weekend cleaning around the house, I look forward to hitting the local farmer's markets! What better place to pick you produce, dairy, and even meats. No middle man hands in my pockets - charging me extra. Plus you get to bring home the freshest groceries for you and your families to benefit from taste wise as well as health. Many of the farmers who vend at farmer's markets may not be certified organic farms but that doesn't mean they don't grow and treat their crops organically. Its always good to ask if their certified organic - most will say no. Then your next question should be if they "spray," meaning do they use any type of pesticide, fungicide, herbicide, or any other kind of cide to treat their crop. Some will say we don't spray and some may say they spray very lightly. At that point the choice is yours. But the ones who don't spray and who are not certified organic basically grow organically, but just don't have the certification to place on their produce. To become certified is a tedious process that is also costly. With me saying all of this, I just wanted to share with those who weren't aware.
Back to the beautiful treasure I was able to stumble across at the farmers market this past weekend:
(bottom) heirloom tomatoes(san marzano, and oxheart), (next row from r-l) lemon balm*, anise hyssop*, red okra*, baby bok choy*, and 3 buttery croisssnts. (next row r-l) patty pan squash, 8 ball squash (the little green one), summer squash, poblano peppers, and spaghetti squash, (next row) cremini mushrooms*, italian eggplant, string beans, and bags of fresh herbs -a beautiful large bouquet of basil with the roots, lavender*, rosemary*, tarragon*, and chives*. Whats not in the picture that I also purchase was raw goats milk and a slice of spinach & gruyere ( my fav cheese!) quiche. All these produce were under $50.00. All of these fresh produce will last my family through the week (I plan on drying some of my herbs). All Produce were certified organic and no spray. Go to your local market (especially health food markets) and you'll pay double if not more for the amount of produce I purchased (especially certified organic).So take advantage of your local farmers market and support our farmers. Click here to find your local farms and farmers markets.
