It's almost July, and we are hitting the main part of our growing season. Items in season include lettuce, snap and sugar peas, zucchini, and fresh herbs. Fruits include strawberries and sweet bing cherries.
One booth even had broccoli and cauliflower.
These lettuces were from earlier in June. We are more into the main, full grown lettuces now.
I noticed that a number of vendors had signs indicating where in New York or Pennsylvania (we are near the Pennsylvania border so Northern Tier Pennsylvania growers in our Southern Tier New York market are considered local) their fruit came from. A far cry from downtown Binghamton's Friday market and the suspect produce I blogged about yesterday.
Later, we spent some much needed time in our community garden plots, which are a few hundred feet from the market. Rain and soggy soil has kept us out. While spouse planted swiss chard and yellow beets for the fall, I weeded and weeded and surveyed the garden. Our beans are flowering, our summer squashes don't have squash bugs (yet), and the Godzilla sunflowers (photo above) are doing just fine.
And what about Bob, the heirloom paste tomato we bought on a whim after our main tomatoes were already planted? It's growing nicely, and flowering although the plant still isn't as big as those tomatoes planted before it. If we get good seed from it, a blogger from Nebraska has offered to swap tomato seeds with me. We'll have to see. Unfortunately, our spring and summer rains don't bode well for late blight, which ruined our entire tomato crop in 2009. (My spouse even got into the newspaper with a picture of him standing by some of the dead tomato plants before he ripped them up).
What local foods are selling in your markets this weekend?
We need to go to a farmers market i think! We tried to grow veggies in spring here Melbourne Australia but the weather is utterly not trusted scorching hot one day ,pelting rain the next no win win at all ~ We did get maybe just a kilo of tomatoes,3 green capsicum 3 cucumbers. better than nothing i guess x
ReplyDeleteThank you for visiting Growing Up Madison. As a former NYer I miss our farmers market and would go to them every summer. I miss the fresh fruits and veggies. Those pictures brings back sweet memories for me. :)
ReplyDeleteOh my gosh! We had a tomato plant named Bob once too. We loved Bob, he gave us the most amazing tomatoes all season long one year...great minds must think alike, lol. I love gardening, it's such an awesome pastime.
ReplyDeleteI love farmers markets! I try to always buy my fruits and vegetables there...I also grab so many homemade breads and jams there...I am lucky enough to have one set-up on my street every Saturday morning in the Spring...makes for a nice morning walk to pick up some great, all-natural foods...thanks for sharing your experience. :)
ReplyDeleteInteresting reading, but what I really got out of this is how incredibly lucky we left-coasters are! Our farmer's markets run pretty much year round and run the gamut of tomatoes, squash of all kinds, oranges, grapefruits, apples, peaches, pears, broccoli, cauliflower, cucumbers, artichokes and, of course, strawberries by the bushel! Thank you for reminding me just how lucky we are to have such an agreeable climate out here!
ReplyDeleteI haven't been to a farmer's market for ages. You make me wish I had. The local supermarkets sell produce from the UK and abroad. I have to look carefully to find something grown close to home. I use the supermarkets because of the flat floor which allows me to push my rollator with ease and get exercise at the same time as I'm shopping with my husband.
ReplyDeleteWe are getting peas, lots of salad, asparagus, radish, new potatoes, garlic, beans, chillis, lots and lots. I love this time of year there is so much to chose from!
ReplyDeleteWhat a lovely selection of local produce! I love farmers markets (even though I don't go often) You can't beat home grown, local produce!
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