Saturday morning, we all got up around the same time so we headed out for breakfast and then to the farmer’s market. Omaha has a huge farmer’s market downtown, with a ton of stalls with veggies, plants, crafts and snacks. We’ve been to that one, but it is so big and busy and parking is usually a nightmare so we tend to visit the smaller one closer to home more often. At the outdoor shopping mall near our house, about 20-30 stalls set up with fresh veggies, plants, cheeses, meats, etc. Because it is in the parking lot of a big shopping mall and starts before the mall is open, parking is never much of an issue. It is such a great place to take O when the weather is nice!
If you have a local farmer’s market, I’d definitely recommend you check it out. Not only can you support local farmers, it is more environmentally friendly to buy produce that comes from your local area as opposed to things that have been shipped all of the country or even the world. The food you get is also fresher for the same reason. Yes, you may not be able to buy everything on your shopping list, but the things you can pick up will be at the peak of freshness. The mushrooms I got this weekend had been gathered on Friday!
I’ve also gotten great advice on how to prepare the foods I buy from the vendors at the farmer’s market. Being a lot of small local farming operations, these are families who are frequently eating the same foods they’re selling to you at the market and thus they can have great insights into the best way to prepare whatever produce you pick up. This weekend, we got some beats, asparagus and morel mushrooms. In chatting with people at the market on previous visits, I knew I would want to saute my beet greens that day and then roast the beets themselves later in the week. We considered the morel mushrooms because they were so cute and I’d heard they were a Midwestern delicacy of sorts but I had no idea how to prepare them. We chatted with the farmer selling them and he waxed poetic about cooking them in just enough butter over low heat. He was right – they were great!
I had dinner that night of a great farmer’s market saute of veggies: beet greens, with the tomato from my CSA bag and asparagus from the market, plus the morel mushrooms on the side (plus beans from the crock pot). It was delicious and really sort of cool to realize that 2/3 of my plate were things that had been picked in the last 36 hours. 🙂
Our Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) bag started this week too and I’m looking forward to the challenge of learning how to use the new foods we get each week. I’m still looking for a way to like radishes!
A Little More Each Day 
Wow, I love Farmer’s Markets and great, great dinner!!! YUUUM!!!
I love this time of year! It always forces me to try new things thanks to the gorgeous things I pick up there.
That’s wonderful and so true!!!
I’m so envious! My farm share and the local farmers market doesn’t start here until mid June!
Ours is always pretty blah for the first couple of weeks (hot house tomatoes and lettuce, etc) but in June things start to get fun!
farmers markets are always so relaxing and fun for the kids, too! always find neat treats there.
One of our favorite things we found last year were dehydrated tomatoes – yum! I hope they start coming back soon.
How fun!! We have a Sprout’s here in Houston which is kind of like a Farmer’s Market/grocery store. Not sure if farmer’s markets are around here though, but definitely gonna Google it to see! :0)
I’ve heard great things about Sprouts!
I love farmer’s markets, and the best thing is that we eat so healthy the days after we go to one!
It’s so great! I love opening the fridge and seeing a bunch of produce we need to eat before it goes to waste. It definitely pushes us to up the veggies for a few days.
On Tue, May 20, 2014 at 5:23 AM, A Little More Each Day wrote:
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Yum! What a great, and delicious, post! Such a win-win situation at the farmers market; supporting local farmers and getting delicious, healthy food! We have one near my office on Thursday’s and I need to remember it! There is a stall with the most amazing goat cheese I’ve ever had! A few years ago, a co-worker and I made a lunch out of goat cheese and challah bread. So good! Such a great suggestion, too, asking the vendors for preparation ideas!
Our vendors always seem excited to talk more about the food, so it makes things more fun for all of us!
On Wed, May 21, 2014 at 11:29 PM, A Little More Each Day wrote:
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[…] Find new recipes for fresh fruits & veggies: We did great with our morels from the farmer’s market, but so far have been getting pretty basic salad fair in the CSA bag. Things should liven up a bit […]