growyourwings | Farmer's Market Photos

Emily and I went to our local farmer's market yesterday morning. Came home with a bunch of locally grown, fresh vegetables and some farm fresh eggs and some grass-fed beef. Last night's dinner, this morning's breakfast and today's dinner have/will be featuring the produce.

I also signed us up for a local organic produce delivery service recommended by a friend of mine. It's like a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) program, except there is no obligation for a whole year. Plus it's all organic. Some of it does come from non-local sources, but when items are in season, they come from local farmers.

This is a bug-a-boo I've been on for a while - what the USA commercial food industry has devolved into. Have you ever watched Food, Inc? You should. It's usually available in segments on YouTube. It's scary. Bob and I watched it a few years ago.

Edit: Food Inc trailer on YouTube:

Side note: On the night of the SPN finale (or was it the episode before the finale?), Guy Bee randomly posted a sentence like, "Corn syrup, that stuff will kill you." At least it was random to me since I had not yet seen the episode. And it started me on my rant with my family again - commenting to them about the tweet and how, yeah - it sure will. Seems like everything is SPN - even my one main soapbox issue.

I don't know if I've mentioned on LJ that we've also started our own garden. We now have fresh herbs and hopefully our other produce will flourish.

I'm trying a recipe out tonight that my personal trainer dreamed up. Ground beef flattened out like a pizza (except rectangular), layer with fresh spinach leaves, sprinkle on gorgonzola (I used blue cheese since the market I was in didn't have gorgonzola). Roll it up (like making cinnamon rolls). Wrap with saran wrap and place in freezer for a couple of hours to firm it up. Slice burgers off the roll and grill. Can't wait to try it. Sounds yummy. My trainer, Mike, hadn't tried it himself yet. It was a brainstorm of his which he plans on making for a Memorial Day BBQ.

Here are some photos from our trip to the farmer's market yesterday. For the US folks - hope your Memorial Day is sunnier than ours is going to be.

above :: I played around a bit in Photoshop with one of the flower shots. This also has my new photography logo on it.

above :: isn't this an interesting looking flower? It's a tree (see below). Can't recall the name.

above :: I hadn't been to our local farmer's market for a few years. I was very pleasantly surprised to see how it has grown. There were several cut flower vendors set up very much like Seattle's Pike Place market. The bundles were gorgeous, huge and relatively inexpensive ($15). Needless to say I bought one.

above :: Another different looking plant. I fail at looking for and/or remembering names.

above :: a lot of farmer's markets do not allow dogs. But so far ours does with some stringent short lease rules. There were a lot of doggies at the market. It was fun to watch.

above :: we bought carrots, potatoes, asparagus, cilantro, spinach, lettuce, fresh bread, fresh guacamole, radishes, and onions. I used my large, black supernatural bag we got as a Creation gift at one of the cons (one of the LA's I think). It's so big - it worked perfectly for this.