Saturday, August 3, 2013

Sustainable Saturday - Are We Ready for a Local Food Taste Off?

Today's offerings at a local farmers market in the Binghamton, New York area led us in an unexpected direction.
Local honey - we sampled their basswood honey.  Yum!

It's the height of summer, and we are getting bountiful green/yellow beans and summer squash from our garden.  But we bought a chicken, lettuce, eggplant, and garlic at the market.  This shows some of the other produce for sale - finally, we have local cantaloupes, local watermelon and Pennsylvania peaches have arrived.  Local blueberries were also for sale - we are at the height of blueberry season.

Speaking of garlic -
Our area has an excellent garlic crop this year.  This "Special Idaho" garlic was a new one to us.  We talked to the grower, who explained he had bought some a couple of years ago at a garlic festival near Cooperstown, NY.  We bought a trial head of Special Idaho, which appears to be an heirloom variety, hot and spicy, good for baking, along with my spouse's favorite - Music.

We asked if he was going to our upcoming garlic festival next week.  No, but he was attending a local food tasting on Wednesday at one of my favorite Binghamton places, Cutler Botanic Gardens.

Quoting from the event website:

Using local ingredients, area chefs will create delicious dishes and compete to win the coveted “Best Taste of Broome Award.” Food will be paired with beverages provided by: Americana Vineyards Winery, Water Street Brewing Company, Black Bear Winery, Dr. Frank’s Vinifera Wine Cellar, Pleasant Valley Wine Company, and Red Tail Ridge Winery. Cheeses provided by Engelbert Farm and Dutch Hill Creamery. Desserts will be prepared by Rainbow’s End Desserts and Underground Baker.
Sounds good, but it is $50. per couple.

Whether we go or not, we are grateful to live in an area of food bounty - veggies, cheese, honey, beer, wine, and, best of all - dessert.

Is it the height of growing season where you live?  What are your markets featuring?
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7 comments:

  1. UnknownAugust 3, 2013 at 2:53 PM

    Everything looks awesome. Love visiting food marts. Thanks for sharing.

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  2. AnonymousAugust 3, 2013 at 3:18 PM

    I love Farmer's Markets and organic foods. Great photos and I'l bet that basswood honey was awesome!

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  3. Lee WiseAugust 3, 2013 at 7:20 PM

    Yes, there's some good lookin' stuff there. We've been gathering some things from the local health food store, etc. We do have some stores that feature local corn, etc.

    Have a super weekend,

    Lee

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  4. Francene StanleyAugust 4, 2013 at 5:02 AM

    I'm still waiting for English pears to hit the shops. To my mind, pears are the best fruit produced in our climate. I especially love Conference pears. You need to peel the hard brown skin off to reveal the succulent fruit.

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  5. Sophie BownsAugust 4, 2013 at 7:36 AM

    You simply cannot beat local food. It's worth the extra cost. I love living in the country side!

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  6. UnknownAugust 4, 2013 at 9:13 AM

    We love farmer's markets..they are the best

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  7. Carolina HeartStringsAugust 6, 2013 at 12:01 PM

    Would love to try some of these. Especially the different honeys. Yum.

    ReplyDelete

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