Last weekend my daughter and I visited the Edmonds Summer Market. No grocery cart at the market. No checkout stands. Just fresh produce, crafts, music, and a festive atmosphere. This bakery table had some yummy looking cupcakes for sale, don’t you think?
Who knew you could bring your own portable pizza oven and bake pizza in the middle of the street. It looked delicious, but I wasn’t hungry yet. Farther down, the tantalizing smells of freshly popped popcorn and then little donuts, deep fried while you watched, tempted me. But I resisted.
Finally, while I was browsing at a table filled with handmade jewelry, the hunger pangs hit, and I made a beeline for a stand that sold tamales. My daughter opted for a blackberry-ginger popsicle.
One of the veggie stands had pea vines for sale. I bought some to stir fry with garlic.
Summer fruit. Ahh!
Blueberries have the added benefit of being super healthy.
The market isn’t all about food, though. Raggedy Ann dolls anyone?
A bird house?
This young man playing classical music on his string bass is collecting money to help pay for college. His chosen major: music.
A day at the market isn’t complete without flowers.
And babies. This little guy seems to have stashed something in his cup holder.
Outdoor markets have existed since ancient times, but they went out of style for a while in the United States. When I was growing up, farmers’ markets were nowhere to be found. Finally in the 1990s they made a comeback. According to Wikipedia, farmers’ markets in the United States grew from 1775 in 1994 to 8144 in 2013. A welcome improvement. Who said things were better in the good old days?
Do you shop at a nearby farmers’ market?
That’s a nice looking farmers market you’ve got there. Now I want real pizza and cupcakes. And the cherries – oh they look nice. Washington cherries are SO expensive here in China. Something like $10 a pound. Too rich for my blood.
I do miss the farmers market vibe. They’re a such wonderful way to spend a lazy Saturday morning. When I was young, I was a baker and one of my favorite assignments was getting shipped out to a farmers market one town over. I love getting paid to talk to people and shoot the breeze after making the bread all morning, even if it did make for a long day (2:00am until about 4:00pm).
Here’s a great link to a story uncovering the darker aspects of some of the shadier farmers market practices (http://www.tampabay.com/projects/2016/food/farm-to-fable/farmers-markets/). Y’all over on the West Coast probably don’t see nearly as much of this kind of stuff but we in the Midwest and South certainly do. I used to laugh when I’d see avocado at a Michigan farmers market. The whole series is great and VERY true – especially on the mislabeling of food in restaurants. I went to culinary school long ago and have worked in my fair share of kitchens. The average consumer needs to understand what it is they’re buying but, sadly, laws in most states don’t cover claims of origin or many of the buzz words that hipsters love to use when talking about food (like fresh, local, homemade, non-GMO, etc). The only word that is real is organic.
Thanks, Zhou. It is a nice farmers market. It’s also fun for the shoppers to “shoot the breeze” with the vendors.
That article is an eye-opener. Last week I listened to something on National Public Radio about non-GMO and how useless the label is. The people they interviewed had no idea. You’re probably right that we don’t see as many of those shady practices on the West Coast–although I’ll keep my eyes open. Most of the vendors sell only a few things, and from magazine articles and road trips, I’m pretty familiar with where things are grown. The apples, peaches, and cherries are usually grown on the other side of the mountains, a two- or three-hour trip away. I just returned from a trip to Eastern Washington to visit my daughter. I took a few pictures of the crops there. I wish I’d had time to take more. The fields (mostly irrigated) or beautiful.
This old post has some photos of Eastern Washington. http://nickichenwrites.com/wordpress/uncategorized/crossing-the-mountains-to-visit-daughter-number-two/
Looks like a market with good quality products. I always visit markets on weekends away, but rarely in my own city, Sydney, which has some amazing markets.
When we lived in Vanuatu, we visited Sydney for a few days. It’s one of the most beautiful cities in the world. It must have amazing markets.
Beautiful photos, Nicki. I still get as excited about going to a market as I did when I was a child.
I notice that some people go to the market for practical reasons: to buy fresh fruit, vegetables, grass-fed meat, etc. But lots of people go to the market for fun as much as anything. They bring their kids and their dogs. They talk to the vendors and admire what they have to sell. And after walking up and down the aisles, they come home with a big bouquet of flowers and maybe another thing or two.
I enjoy people watching, so for me, that is better than finding something to buy.
I do love a Farmers Market. One of the great things about Oregon. Portland and Eugene had great ones. Even my hometown, Mililani in Hawaii, has one. Love it!
Those must be great places for a farmers’ market.
Ah! Fresh produce: beautiful to view, delicious to eat, lots of hard work to grow.
Your local farmers market is a foodie’s paradise??. USD 5 for a bunch of flowers is very good value. Organic grass fed beef! You’re spoilt.
The farmers market that I frequented when I was in Turkey sell seasonal produce, farmed trout and carp, eggs, dairy, olives and a bit of snacks and small household stuff. The fruits are so tasty. So are the dairy and olives. Samples are permitted. Prices are competitive. Spring flowers are available too.
The Turk farmers come from the surrounding areas. Peaches however come from the North. At this time of the year, they are at its best.
In South London, we have two farmers markets where I lived; Saturday and Sunday. In the former, it sells meat (incl salt marsh beef and lamb), fish, seasonal produce, herbs, artisan coffee and bread, sausages (freshly grilled), preserves, World food eg
Guadeloupe (South Caribbean),
jewellery and handicrafts.
The Sunday market runs along the same line as the Saturday market apart from the flowers, unusual salad leaves, organic meat, raw goats milk, biodynamic seasonal produce and vegan sweet treats.
Many of the flower growers in the area are Hmong. They fought with the CIA during the Vietnam War and then spent years in Thai refugee camps. When they came here, the small farms program of Washington State University helped them acquire land and start growing and selling flowers. Next week I’ll visit the market again to buy flowers to decorate the tables for our neighborhood party.
Reading here the comments about all the markets near our homes, I’m reminded how lucky we are. Doubly so since I’m currently reading The Storyteller by Jodi Picoult, a novel partially set during WWII, a time when too many people were starving.
We do take food for granted.
When I lived in London, I subscribed to a forum where people would advertise their surplus food, glass jars with lids (good for preserves etc), unwanted gifts, etc they had. I got a stainless steel coffee stove (used once again). One lady was supposed to cook a Christmas dinner for her family but they couldn’t make it due to the snow. Yes, she donated it away.
If you are ever in London, do visit the Columbia flower market in East London. They do shrubs, plants etc (so cheap) and food.
That is a lot of blueberries, and they looked all packed very well in those boxes all ready to go. A blackberry-ginger popsicle for your daughter. Now that is a unique cool treat for a summer’s day. I hope she enjoyed it 🙂
We have a lot of farmer’s markets like these in Australia, and there is always one nearby. Fruits are a fixture of these markets. Pizza and anything fried, probably not all of the markets unless it is a big one like the Queen Victoria Market (QVM) in the city that attracts a hoard of tourists every day of the week. In a way, the QVM can be said to be commericialised – a lot of the goods are sold cheap, and not necessarily good quality. The gems are hard to pick out.
My daughter did comment on how good her popsicle was.
I’ve never been to Melbourne, but I’ve visited Sydney, and I was amazed at the variety of plants that grew there. What kind of crops are grown in the area near Melbourne? Do they have lots of cattle and sheep ranches?
I live in the city area, so around me there aren’t too many crops. There are quite a few sheep and cows out in the country areas where I’ve visited. Also, lots of fresh berries in farms further out and you can pick them yourself – and if you want to take them home you have to pay but it’s fresh fruit.
Farmer’s Markets are the absolute best!
I agree, Suzicate. We’re lucky to have them.
We don’t have a farmers’ market, but we have a superb, reasonably priced farm shop
My daughter lives in Eastern Washington state: farming country. The area is know for growing apples, cherries, pears, asparagus, potatoes, and grapes for wine. They also have a wonderful store out of town, between the fields, that sells not only fresh produce but also a variety of preserves. It’s another place I like to visit.
We have multiple farmer’s markets nearby! The biggest one is on Saturday in Torrance, California. It’s got everything from citrus to malasadas to free range bison. Andy goes there every weekend. The heirloom tomatoes there are incredible.
California! The country’s cornucopia. You must have everything at your farmers’ markets. I’d never heard of malasadas, but I see we have them around here too. According to Yelp reviews, General Porpoise on E. Union in Seattle has “these little puffs of airy dough” filled with lemon curd, vanilla custard, huckleberry cream, chocolate marshmallow, and other fun flavors. Tempting!
According to Andy, malasadas are Portuguese donuts from Hawaii. sssoooo good.
And yes, we do have just about every type of produce imaginable. completely spoiled.
What a lovely market! Your food descriptions made me hungry. Like you I favor farmers’ markets to other stores, given the opportunity. I grew up close enough to a bi-weekly farmers’ market back in France and it fostered a taste for fresh and local products.
BTW your daughter’s popsicle would be one of my choices too!
I’ve only been to Europe twice. Both times I was impressed with the farmers’ markets there. I’m guessing that even when they were out of style in the United States, you still had farmers’ markets in France.
We have some good ones here in Illinois. My sister-in-law frequents them. We had shopped for tomatoes at the supermarket. None of them looked as good as the ones we eventually found at a nearby farmers’ market.
When we lived in the South Pacific, my husband planted a bunch of cherry tomato bushes. That’s when I learned how good tomatoes fresh off the vine are. Who knows how long it’s been since the supermarket tomatoes were picked.
We enjoy the Farmer’s Market in Bradenton on Saturday mornings from October to May, but it closes from June to September. The one in Sarasota is year round, but we’ve been infrequently. I love all the fresh produce.
Our market is the opposite of the one in Bradenton–May to October. There a few markets in the Seattle area that are open year round, but it’s just not the same on a cold, rainy day.
We have several farmers’ markets in the summer. I can’t believe you walked by the cupcakes and the pizza and the donuts…..Hope you bought those cherries. As you can see I have no control at these markets. It all looks so good!
I know, Kate. Now, looking at the photo, I wish I had one of those cupcakes. My daughter was interested in apricots and peaches that day. In the afternoon, we went to a barbecue, and fortunately my sister brought cherries and watermelon.
What a nice looking farmer’s market. We have twice a week in the city center such market as well but a bit different. You can get there all fresh fruits, vegetables and so on but there are also butchers and many stands with fish (my city is just 40min away to the west and east from the North Sea/ Baltic Sea). Oh and one thing which many people from other countries find disturbing fis the horse butcher offering horse meat and sausages! (never tried that though).
Except being able to buy some grilled sausages to eat and some bakery stuff there is nothing else as in your market such as the pizza for example.
Thanks, Timo. I always enjoy a trip to our market, even when I don’t have much shopping to do. The Edmonds Market also has meat and fish but only the more specialized types, for example, organic grass-fed meat and troll-caught fish.
I love our local farmer’s market, although we don’t have the Raggedy Ann dolls. I’d be all over those blue berries, Nicki. Love them!
The blueberries are so fresh and sweet this time of year. And … the price is right. We grow blueberries on both sides of the mountains in Washington state. The farmers in Eastern Washington are newer to the game but moving up fast.