{"id":643,"date":"2009-08-22T13:09:38","date_gmt":"2009-08-22T18:09:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/staging.communify.me\/newvinegrowing\/?p=643"},"modified":"2019-06-07T13:43:05","modified_gmt":"2019-06-07T17:43:05","slug":"i-heart-farmers-markets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging.communify.me\/newvinegrowing\/i-heart-farmers-markets\/","title":{"rendered":"I heart farmers' markets — or how a kid raised on canned veggies loaded with butter learned to love the real thing"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"John<\/a>
John got inspired by a NY Times slide show on people who dress up for farmers' market, so we got dolled up and went to Union Square. Click here for the wonderful narrated slide show.<\/figcaption><\/figure>
\nI grew up in an agricultural state. Michigan grows cherries, apples and sugar beets, among other things, and to live in Michigan is to know the mantra “knee high by the Fourth of July” is a growth measure for the huge expanses of corn fields all over the state.
\nBut I don’t think I’d even heard the phrase “farmers’ market” until I was out of college. We sometimes bought produce from roadside farm stands — there’s a guy by my old church that sells sweet corn my aunt swears by — but those were more ad hoc, one product or one farmer at a time operations.
\nI grew up very much a child of the ’70s. My working mom loved convenience foods so although she tried to get a lot of vegetables into our diet, mostly they came from a can and were served swimming in butter or covered in Velvetta. I bought fresh spinach for the first time when I was about 20 and I had no idea what to do to it. I had always loved spinach but only knew it in its canned form. I laugh when I think of my bewilderment the first time I encountered a fresh head of garlic.
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\"NYC<\/a>
In New York, many residents can find a farmers market just a few blocks from their home.<\/figcaption><\/figure>
\nIronically, it’s in super urban New York City where farmers’ markets have transformed both how we shop and how we eat, in both cases for the better.
\nNew York’s Greenmarket program<\/a> organizes nearly 50 markets around the city, many of them operating all year. The big kahuna in New York is at Union Square. Dozens of vendors sell everything from flowers and bread to local wine, beeswax candles, artisanal sauerkraut and wool made from the sheep on a farm that also makes feta.
\nWe shopped at the Ann Arbor farmers’ market but typically bought a pretty routine selection: fresh tomatoes to supplement my own meager crop, sweet corn, berries. At Union Square, I saw so many things I’d never cooked before — some I’d never even seen — and discovered the real magic of a farmers’ market.
\nFarmers want you to eat what they produce. It’s how they pay the mortgage. So if you pick up a weird, bumpy looking root and ask what it is, the farmer will tell you it’s celeriac — celery root. At the booths I gravitate toward, the farmers will give you some ideas about how to cook the unfamiliar thing you’re inspecting.
\nI’m sure I’d seen celery root, turnips and parsnips at the grocery store before, but having a produce tour guide give me ideas of what to do with them turned me into a root fanatic. I had never cooked beets, only opened them out of jars or cans, and now John loves my roasted beets with balsamic vinegar and honey. I’ve learned to love all manner of greens — mustard, turnip and collard among them. When I buy beets, I make sure they still have the greens on them, so I can cook them, too.
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\"During<\/a>
During the summer, Stokes Farm from New Jersey sells tomatoes, cukes and herbs across the street from our old apartment. As it gets colder, they sell beautiful herb wreaths.<\/figcaption><\/figure>
\nWe don’t always feel like traveling to Union Square, or like dealing with the crowds at the big market. At our old apartment we had a market directly across the street every Saturday, and now we have one a few blocks away on Saturdays and a different one a few blocks the other way on Sunday. The smaller markets are fun, too, because you have more of a chance to get to know the vendors, like our friends from Stokes Farm<\/a>.
\nIf you’re still shopping at a chain grocery store and haven’t made farmers’ markets part of your routine, here are a few reasons to give it a try:<\/p>\n