Farmer's Market

[lillibet]

Arlington's Farmer's Market started today. It's a cool, grey day with intermittent, misty rain, but we bundled Alice up and set out to see what we would find. It's not a huge market, but it includes a reasonable variety of stalls and products.

Into Alice's stroller went:
- freshly picked strawberries
- a big English cucumber
- a head of curly lettuce (gilesse? gitesse? something like that)
- green garlic
- green shallots
- baby spinach
- bluefish
- scallops
- garlic & cheese sausage
- hot italian sausage
- three huge, ripe, organic tomatoes
- a bunch of lovely asparagus


We also stopped at the Little Red Barn, a new produce market here in town. They didn't have much that looked exciting, but we got a tiny little watermelon that I'm excited for--I haven't had any watermelon yet this year.

Now I'm very excited for dinner!

Comments

[orbitalmechanic.livejournal.com]

Your market is bigger than ours. Fish, sausage, mm! But ours has a whole wheat bread I really love, and our farmshare starts tomorrow so it's all for the best that I don't buy veggies.

[lillibet.livejournal.com]

This one also has a Danish Pastry booth (possibly an offshoot of the store with the same/similar name in Medford?) that has bread and yummy looking treats, but we're not a big carb household, so we resisted.

[pekmez.livejournal.com]

huge, ripe organic tomatoes? are they doing some kind of serious hothouse operation? I sense a need to combine those with the fresh Somerville-made mozzarella you can buy at the Davis Square market at the same time.

Interesting that you can buy fish and sausage there, too. And our babysitter says there's usually an egg and dairy stand too - any sign of that one this time? I may have days when I go to both.

I've been meaning to check out the Little Red Barn.
But not until I see how overwhelmed we are by greens at this week's farmshare. (unlike orbitalmechanic, I bought not only veggies but actual *greens* today. stupid, stupid. But the kale was all tender and delicate, and our farm never grows kale till later in the season.)

[lillibet.livejournal.com]

When/where is the Davis Square market? I might have to hit that one sometime. I suppose they must be greenhousing their tomatoes, but they do look gorgeous. The meat place (which also does CSAs) has farm fresh eggs, but we go through eggs so slowly that we didn't get any.

I gotta say I was not blown away by the Little Red Barn, particularly after being at the market--their stuff just didn't look all that great. I'd probably head up to Wilson's, instead.

I thought about getting a farmshare this year, but our cooking rate is so erratic that I'm afraid of ending up swimming in rotting vegetation. I'm hoping that if I get really into the markets this year, I'll have more of a vegetable habit and can think about it seriously next year. Now the meat CSA, that starts to seem like a real possibility :)

[pekmez.livejournal.com]

It's at the same time as the Arlington one, apparently (Wednesday afternoons from noon-6pm.)

We occasional swim in rotting vegetables with the farmshare, but mostly their arrival gets me on the weekly project of getting them all cooked before the next week's share arrives.

[weegoddess.livejournal.com]

mmmmm....wattahmelons...one of my all-time favourite foods...

[jelazakazone.livejournal.com]

Speaking of food... Do you have any suggestions for a decent (or even good?) restaurant in Boston that is kid-friendly. I'm not sure the two are compatible. We have a friend who has Oleana in mind, but she thinks it would not be a good place for kids. I'm not sure any place (other than a house) is good for my 2 year old:P

[lillibet.livejournal.com]

I'd recommend Full Moon (http://www.fullmoonrestaurant.com/menu.html) in Cambridge. They were founded by women who had worked in gourmet restaurants and then had kids and realized you just couldn't get a fine dining menu in a kid-friendly environment. So they made one :)

[jelazakazone.livejournal.com]

Wahoo! That sounds excellent. Is it hard to get to from Harvard Square? I assume most stuff is pretty accessible from the T.

[lillibet.livejournal.com]

It's a ten minute bus ride from Harvard on the #72, which runs every 20 minutes.

[lillibet.livejournal.com]

Speaking of which, here's a listing of "kid-friendly" places not too far from your hotel, so you can think about lunch. We're really looking forward to seeing you!

[jelazakazone.livejournal.com]

I don't see a listing:( You can pick a place though. I trust you:) And we're looking forward to the visit as well!

[lillibet.livejournal.com]

Does this (http://www.theuppercrustpizzeria.com/) sound ok? The listing I mentioned is here (http://www.theuppercrustpizzeria.com/), if you want to browse a bit further.