Living From Scratch: Farmers Market Challenge: Week 3B

Last week, my friend Jennifer sent me to see if I could pick up a few things for her at the farmers market. Her schedule just had too many things in it and the farmers market had to go. She wanted a head of french garlic, an heirloom tomato and a basket of romas all from "The Hydroponics Lady".

I arrived at the farmers market 15 minutes before closing time and was instantly flustered. I had a big list of my own plus Jennifer's list and the vendors were starting to pack up already! Guess that's what I get for always going at the end of the day. I set out looking for the hydroponics lady. Found her pretty quickly, asked for a head of French garlic, an heirloom tomato (she was out), some romas and 2 jalapenos for my salsa and grabbed everything else from one of the big stands and was on my way to the local high school to eat my dinner in the car before yoga.

As I was finishing my dinner, Jennifer pulled up beside me (she's the yoga instructor). I hopped out to get her her stuff and she was so excited. She said she talked to the hydroponics lady about what she was looking for and she lovingly handed her a beautiful heirloom tomato like it was her child. She liked to buy from her because it was so obvious that she cared about the food she had grown. I felt kinda sheepish, I had been in such a hurry to get from A to B with all the items checked off my list that I really hadn't noticed her and I hadn't bought food from her in the past because, being the obsessed canner I am, her small table with much smaller amounts of veggies never seemed significant to me.

This week, I arrived a full half hour before closing. Bought my enormous amounts of tomatoes and apples and lugged them to the car. Then I grabbed my camera and $5 and sent out to actually enjoy the market for once. I browsed a table full of herb plants (which I really could use, but were a little above my $5 limit), some local honey, grabbed some kettle korn, then I remembered Jennifer raving about the french garlic and decided to head over and get a head or two.

I have no Idea why this picture insists on loading sideways, but I'm tired of trying to get it to flip.

This time, I got to talking to "the hydroponics lady", who is actually Beth of Oak Hill Farm. I recognized the name immediately when I read the sign. Just last week, I had been looing into CSA and they're one of our closest farms. I'm not sure that CSA is really the thing for us, we grow quite a bit of our own produce but if I were, I'd seriously consider these guys. It's just so incredibly obvious that they care about how their food is grown.