Binghamton Saturday

 More on what we do in upstate NY for fun.

Got up, had some blueberries for breakfast, headed out to the Vestal farmers market.  Things were in full swing, with stalls featuring new potatoes, blueberries, cabbage, plums, apricots, lettuce, garlic, zucchinis, yellow squash, green and purple beans and those luscious (but too big for our small family) Amish Cantaloupes.  We bought some new potatoes and cucumbers.

A stall with people from Binghamton's Cybercafe West were sampling the most delicious hummus - there was enough garlic in there to make it a winner at any garlic festival.

Next, a 3 mile walk, followed by a quick stop at Sams Club.  Hadn't been there in months, was nice to see they had almost finished their remodeling, and had started up sampling again (on a much smaller scale.)  Picked up a quick item.  Wished once again that we would get a Costco.


Then we headed out to Wegmans for the big "Meet the Growers" event.  Sorry to say, yawn.

Frankly, I was disappointed.  The event was hidden somewhere out in the parking lot;  once in the tent it wasn't even clear where the growers were.  There was a clambake, with the farmed clam producer running a contest to win a weekend camping at their resort on the Chesapeake Bay in Virginia.  There was something we thought belonged to the clambake but it turned out that Wegmans was sampling salad and their sub sandwiches.  No signs telling anyone who was where doing what. We almost missed the samples, and, more importantly, the growers.

There were two growers.  That was a disappointment, although I understand this is harvest season.  I wonder how many people found them to say hi.

One was by a display of his tomatoes-they were large but, again, sorry to say, looked half ripe-like the old time supermarket tomatoes that had the gourmet taste of red Styrofoam.  Wegmans specializes in tomatoes that actually have taste, so perhaps they tasted good-but if these were in my garden, I would not have picked them, based on their looks.

The subs were very good though-not overly salty and there was a choice of white or whole wheat bread.

There was a booth sampling tart cherry juice (advertising health) and next to it the Wegmans Fizz Truck sampling...well, non-health. 

Wegmans, you can do better.  You have done better with other events.  This didn't do the growers, who I'm sure had other things to do on their farms, proper justice.

Back home, to rest, and a visit with a neighbor-but more on that later.