4th Market
Oak Park Farmer's Market 6/25/05

Once again I am woefully late with my market report. And I had all sorts of things to say. Funny how a week's worth of cleaning in anticipation of the in-laws visiting takes the spark outta blogging. But now that the bungalow is absolutely sparkling, I can at last chronicle (very quickly) the news of the market.

Good News
The first berries. Skibbes Farm had tayberries, looking like mutant raspberries and tasting a bit like what bug juice was made from (but better!) and Berry's Berries from Michigan had the first blueberries I've seen. Also, lotsa cherries, including sour cherries. In fact the aforementioned Skibbes Farm was marketing cherries as sour and tart. When I asked, they said, "well some are sour, some are really sour." Nicholl's Farm winning strawberry of the week was Ovation, but the best berries came from Farmer Vicki's Genesis Farms. There was the last of the asparagus and the last of the spinach but the first of the fresh favas. It's funny, favas are considered the archetypical spring veg, but they do not show up fresh (as in local) until late June. The very hot weather was rushing to market stuff like zuchini and cabbage. On the cutesy front, Nicholl's Farm stocked carrots in five colors and varieties including fat Tom Thumb. We bargained and got one bunch of each for $6 total. They also had oh so gourmet baby zuchini with flowers attached. Still at 3 babies for $3, I passed on those.

Bad News
The donuts were pretty crappy this week, not the least bit of crust.

Best News
Well, who should just make my day? Totally un-expected, I found my favorite farm family at the market. The Wettsteins now appear once a month in Oak Park, carting coolers of organic pork, chicken, beef, lamb and eggs. We got the eggs and some chicken livers. We wanted a whole chicken, but they were sold out. Instead we got a bag of chicken backs and necks for stock making.

See ya in a few days.