If you're at a moment in time where you find yourself saying, "Tell me something good," I'm delighted to come through. Because, hot diggety, folks, the Market opens tomorrow, Thursday, May 17th!
[Photo by Luca Upper on Unsplash
If you're on the mailing list, you've gotten all excited by the "vendor reveal," full of old friends and new:
A thrilling combo of favorites and new temptations!
I always kick off the season with a personal shopping list, so feel free to print this out if you find yourself craving the same things:
- Greens, greens, greens! Spinach, beet greens, chard, what-have-you. It's hard to think of a food that's more universally recommended as good for you, and I've landed on the ways all members of my family will eat them. In smoothies. In salads with very flavored dressings. Sauteed into a potato-onion hash.
- Jam. Now that my mother-in-law can no longer make her homemade strawberry freezer jam and we've run through the jars of jam other jammers have bestowed on us, we are desperate for some Market jam. Made with that good Washington fruit. You might have noticed that, just as storebought fruit pies are terrible--almost all crust and goo-- storebought jams never taste anything like summer in a jar. We love Growing Washington's raspberry jam, so this year I'll stock up and give some other flavors a go.
- Asparagus. You haven't had asparagus till you've had local. Nutty, fresh.
- Meat and tuna. We're down to one can of Fishing Vessel St. Jude's, and it's not even my new favorite, Jalapeno. And, as for meat, it'll be nice to have more cuts and offerings of pastured meat available than I can find in the grocery store.
- Plant starts? Can't remember if these are around the first week, but my youngest, who is our little farmer, has promised to plant and tend an herb garden for me again this summer, if I buy her the starts.
- Peas. Nothing says spring like peas! Raw or steamed or in a stir-fry. Never met a pea I didn't like.
[Photo by Jessica Ruscello on Unsplash
And while we gather these goodies, I'm sure we'll be grabbing a snack. Always so hard to choose at the beginning of the season! An old favorite, like Veraci Pizza or a bao from The Box? Will it be warm enough for ice cream? Or should we try something altogether new?
See everyone this Thursday! Same Bat time (3-7pm), same Bat place (parking lot of Bellevue Presbyterian Church)!
