The morning started out cool - I spent the 10 minutes before leaving the house searching in vain for a scarf - but it ended up being quite a lovely day. I got to Worthington by 8:30 and there was not a crowd to be seen; it was a little sad, no one was enjoying breakfast on the patio of La Chatelaine, I had to begin to ask the farmers how much longer they thought they would be coming to market; the season is coming to a close. Just for the record, the Worthington Market will continue until October 28th; many of the farmers I spoke with intended to stay until the end as long as the weather was nice. The North Market may continue another week longer, with several farmers I spoke with remaining only a few more weeks; for a few farmers, this past week was it.
That isn't to say there was nothing to buy! The nice thing about things which grow this time of year is they tend to last awhile - hardy squash, garlic and onions, potatoes - it's time to think about stocking up for the winter. At Garden Patch Produce, I bought a few staples - onions, lots and lots of garlic, and some nice Italian sweet peppers (in our house, this means pasta for lunch every day):
I could hardly pass up the display of cauliflower (pictured at the top of the post) at Wishwell Farms, they were beautiful. They also supplied some nice redskin potatoes:
I stopped by Zemnicki for some apple cider (the very taste of Fall), broccoli and leeks; they also had lovely tiny little cauliflower heads but a girl can only eat so much in a week. I bought a quart of the fleeting and delicious Fall season strawberries from Crum's Strawberry farm. They are unbelievably sweet and tiny:
My CSA box this week contained carrots, potatoes, onions, garlic, squash, eggs, red bell peppers, lettuces, and greens (mustard/Swiss chard mix); I also bought a few more of those lovely carnival squash and some scallions.
I stopped by Toby Run Growers to have one of my last boxes of shitake mushrooms for the winter, and breezed through Dearsman farms for some more Brussels Sprouts - and yes, they were selling them either on the stalk or in a box, $2.50 either way. There's still time to convince yourself they're delicious!
I have so many things on the slate to cook this week I don't know how we'll find the time to enjoy everything! I still have a few things from last week I haven't told you about, and I am in the process of reviewing a great Columbus restaurant (last week it was great, we'll see how it goes tomorrow night); I have new beer to tell you about, and we're about to get back into baking season!
Get out there and enjoy the fall color!
