Brunswick, ME Farmers Market - Still Life in Vegetable

Although I don't have an official/scheduled "blog about Farmers Markets and Local Food" day, I usually end up making those posts on Saturday.  That's because of my normal living schedule.  But I am on vacation this week, and took in a Tuesday morning Farmers Market in the midcoast college town of Brunswick, ME.

It rained all night, and was still dripping when we got there early in the morning. This park is called "The Mall" and is a very pretty location in the center of town.

(the soil was sandy, fortunately, because there was a lot of bare ground down the middle.)

Some of the produce was similar to what the upstate NY farmers markets of the Binghamton, NY area are offering:  cukes, summer squash, onions, kale, lettuce, green and red cabbage, tomatoes, apples, flowers.  But unlike upstate, the root crops here are stunning.

And the farmers take advantage of the beauty, making displays that were photo-worthy.

No one seemed to mind as I went from booth to booth with my camera.  This farmer had a display of golden and red beets.  They looked so good.  I don't know if these farmers went to art school or not, but an art class could have used these booths for still life inspiration.

This farmer featured celeriac and turnips (see the brown and white bulbs to the right of the green and purple cabbage spilling out of the wood basket), two crops you don't see much of in our area.  We are seeing what happens due to increased sunlight.  Not quite midnight sun, but more daylight than we enjoy in Binghamton, New York.

This farmer displays huge red radishes with kale in the background.

This same farmer's display of chard.

There wasn't that much corn.  But corn is a staple of where I live, so I wasn't too concerned. 

Potatoes?  Of course!  We bought several varieties, including Satina (yellow skin and flesh), Peter Wilcox (purple skin and yellow flesh), Red Gold (red skin, yellow flesh) Purple Viking (purple skin, white flesh - and an heirloom!).  One vendor had a unnamed russett baking potato and Superior (white flesh).  Another farmer was selling Yellow Finn fingerling and a rose fingerling.

Not everyone was selling produce.  This farmer was selling plants of stevia, ginger, strawberries, and (pictured) red peppers.

There was a booth, Big Barn Coffee, selling freshly roasted coffee (roasted in their barn).

The King and I Angus sold homemade whoopie pies, which is a specialty of both New England and the Pennsylvania Dutch.

I still hope to be here Friday. There are supposed to be a couple of cheese vendors and a lobster booth.  I can't wait!