Saturday, March 15, 2008

Today's forage and challenge meal

What a luxurious life I lead; today I had to chose between two farmer's markets. The CitySeed Year-Round Market in New Haven is on once a month and today was it's day. And of course, the Westport Indoor Market (in Fairfield) is still going strong.

With lots more to choose from, I took home:
- herbed soft cheese and a quart of lamb Bolognese from Sankow's Beaver Brook Farm, Lyme CT
- spuds and parsnips from Riverbank Farm, Roxbury, CT
- littleneck clams from Westport Aquaculture, Westport, CT

I went a few doors down to The Pantry for my loaf of Wave Hill French Country Bread. The Wave Hill folks missed this week, but are expected to be back next week.

We went on to New Morning in Woodbury and rounded out our shopping there:
- lettuce from Two Guys From Woodbridge
- eggs from Stoneridge Farm, Bethlehem, CT
and some other items of organic but unknown origins

And the Winter Dark Days challenge meal was, of course, spaghetti and white clam sauce. The Westport Aquaculture clams were outstanding!

NOTES:
- The next and final CitySeed Year-Round Market date is Saturday, April 19, 2008. In May, they begin their regular weekly season.
- The Westport Indoor Market (in Fairfield) continues every Saturday through April.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey Sophie,

Thanks for supporting the winter markets in our state, they're the next big leap in making locavorism viable in the East. This year, the markets won't see a lot of produce other than potatoes and salad greens but rest assured, farmers have taken notice of the crowds and demand. Expect your support to encourage more planting of cabbage, winter squash and carrots for sale at next year's winter markets. If we're lucky, farmers will also bring to market canned local tomatoes, harvested at their peak.

Kudos to you!

Katherine
Director, Wholesome Wave Farmers Markets
Westport | Fairfield (winter)| Norwalk ('08)
www.wholesomewavefarmmarkets.com

Sophie said...

Hi Katherine,

Thanks back for having the markets in the first place! I want to eat local, sustainable food and I can't count on the supermarkets to carry the good stuff, or even to know that there is good stuff.

I hope you're right--that there will be additional items as well as local canned/preserved goods next winter because I really never intended to build a food-processing facility in my kitchen! I will if I have to, but my first choice is to get my goods directly from the farmers.