Today, the kids and I had plans to meet up with a friend at the Shaker Farmers’ Market. During the summer months, the market is 8AM – 12PM every Saturday.
I like to park on the north side of the square behind the CVS. Then, you just follow the sign to the square. Since we usually go to the market early, parking is not a problem.
Here’s a view from the entrance of the north side of the market.
Strawberries are in full swing. There was lots of red, especially at the Woolf Farms stand. The “mushroom” guy was busy as usual. He always has a line of people.
I tried something new with Nick today. I gave him $3 to spend on whatever he wanted. He bought 2 pickling cucumbers and a few tomatoes. Then, he talked me into sugar snap peas and I gave him money so he could practice paying for things.
We had a short list of things we wanted to get at the market today. Since both of our CSAs start next week, I wanted to buy things that we would use between today and Tuesday.
We ended up with 2 kinds of lettuce ($2.50 each), a bunch of beets with nice greens ($3.00), tomatoes ($2.50), pickling cucumbers ($1.00), garlic scapes (.50), and sugar snap peas ($3.00).
Although there are only a few peas pictured, we started with a baggie full. You can kind of see the amounts in the photo of Nick buying them. Stephen and Nick shared a tomato at dinner. I prepped the greens and plan on salad tomorrow that includes the rest of the peas and some of the cucumbers. I’ll probably cook the beets and greens too. I don’t have immediate plans for the garlic scapes, but we always like having them around this time of year. I might make a frittata with them and use some of our chipotle cheese in the dish.
We were happy to find everything we wanted to buy (and more) at the market today. Our only mistake was not walking through the south side of the market. I totally didn’t think about the other half of the market that is on the south side of the tracks until we were driving around the square to head home. I suspect we missed a few good stands, but it probably saved us a few dollars.
I’m still hoping to visit 8 different markets this year. This was number 4. It gets harder when the CSA season starts, because we don’t need to buy more at the markets. I still think they are tons of fun and good for the kids.
I go to this market all the time – love it! Have you had a crepe? They are soooo good! Lucy’s Sweet Surrender has a stand too – try the bread with carrots in it. I toast it and put herb butter on it – swoon!
I haven’t tried a crepe. I try not to buy things like that at the market since I don’t want the kids to think they get a treat every time we go to the market. I’ll definitely try one if I’m there with friends. The Baltimore market had very yummy crepes last week.