Have you heard the great news here in Boston? We're getting a year-round public market! I'll let you read all about it in this Globe article, but just one highlight is that the market will be modeled after the Ferry Building Marketplace in San Francisco and the Reading Terminal Market in Philly. I've never been to San Francisco, but Christine from Fresh Local and Best posted the most gorgeous pictures from her trips to the Ferry Building Marketplace. And I absolutely love the Reading Terminal Market. I'm really looking forward to following the progress of the market's development, and I'm so happy Boston was able to get funding for it.
And one more piece of local news before I get into this week's roundup: Loving Local is promoting a blogathon to celebrate Massachusetts Farmers Market Week that you'll want to be a part of. The blogathon will be hosted by In Our Grandmothers’ Kitchens with a little help from the Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources and Mass Farmers Markets.
If you'd like to participate, post anything about locally grown food during the week of August 22-28.
There are lots of ideas as to what you can write about even if you aren't a food blogger: "Gardeners can write about herb or vegetable growing. Architects can write about the design of barns or farm stands. Watchers of the statehouse or even the federal Capitol can discuss the politics of agriculture and/or local food. And so forth."
And you don't even have to live here to participate: "Please think about writing a post that week if you live or work in Massachusetts. Or if you used to live or work in Massachusetts. Or if you once spent a weekend on Cape Cod. Or if you have a particular fondness for New England clam chowder, Hadley asparagus, or Boston baked beans."
"Please make sure your post mentions the blogathon, includes a link to In Our Grandmothers’ Kitchens, and encourages readers to donate to Mass Farmers Markets. The organization’s donation link is http://www.massfarmersmarkets.org/FMFM_Main.aspx."
Loving Local is on Facebook, where you can find regular updates about the blogathon.
On a side note: While gathering information about the blogathon to share with you, I stumbled across a new site within the Mass Farmers Markets site called Savor Massachusetts. It's a conglomeration of culinary tours and events in Massachusetts. It looks pretty cool, and I know I'll be visiting that site often.
And onto the roundup...
Michelle from Fun and Fearless in Beantown got some hot, spicy sausages from Stillman's Farm and made a tasty dinner of sausage and peppers.
Joan from Grandma's Recipe Box shared pictures from the farmers' market in Elk Grove, California, and a few shots of what she did with the goods she found there.
Last Saturday evening I went to Allandale Farm and picked up some corn, tomatoes, baby golden beets, and plums.
We had the corn with dinner that same night, and it was tender and crisp -- definitely the best corn I've had so far this season!
I used the tomatoes in salads.
And I made some fried green tomatoes the other night.
This morning I finally made it back to my usual farmers' market in Union Square and loaded up on more corn and heirloom tomatoes.
I found Sweet 100 cherry tomatoes at one of the stands (maybe it was Parker Farm).
Then I got a whole bunch of heirloom tomatoes and some butter and sugar corn at Kimball's.
I wanted to get corn from one other farm in case we were disappointed in the ears I picked up at Kimball's, so I stopped at Drumlin Farm's stand and was delighted to reveal white kernels when I peeled back a corn husk! Silver Queen corn, a white kernel corn, is my favorite. I inquired as to what kind of corn this was and found out that it's called whiteout corn. It's supposed to be delicious raw, so I'm probably going to add some to a salad. Maybe Silver Queen will have some competition.
What did you find at the farmers' market this week?
What do you think of the year-round public market we're getting?
Want to be included in the roundup? Email me.