Sunday Mornings

I tend to be a creature of habit.  While I enjoy surprises and new beginnings in life, it can take me a while to readjust and find my happy medium again.  Over the last few weeks, I have been training for a new job, which left me mentally exhausted at the end of each day.  When things get busy or I feel out of sorts, I always count on my Sunday mornings to bring me back. 

No matter the day of the week and regardless of whatever craziness I managed to get into the night before, I'm awake before 7:00am.  Sometimes earlier if the kitties have anything to do with it.  On Sundays, I grab the morning paper and make a big pot of coffee before heading out to my happy place: the St. Paul Farmers' Market.

One of my favorite parts of Lowertown is Mears Park.  It's like a little green oasis amid the lofts and restaurants surrounding it.  It's so peaceful.  There are brightly colored flowers, a bubbling creek, and happy dogs running around with their owners in tow.

Then I arrive at the farmers' market.  I usually take a quick pass by all of the stands, checking on the best places to buy what's on my list and looking for inspiration from new produce.

This Sunday, farm-fresh eggs were on my list.  I love the shades of brown of the eggshells and the promise of a golden yolk inside.  Hard boiled, fried, stirred into muffin batter, or scrambled into some fried rice, eggs are one of my favorite kitchen staples

The farmers' market is a great place to check out new things.  These twirly, garlicy, snappy garlic scapes called to me this Sunday.  If you're unsure of what to do with your new ingredient, ask the farmer.  They more so than anyone else will know how to showcase the fresh flavor of your new item.

Besides the tasty, fresh food, I think that sense of community and conversation is what I love most about the farmers' market.  Everyone is there because they love fresh, local food.  Shoppers talk to the farmers....farmers talk to the shoppers...shoppers talk to other shoppers all with the hope that these freshly grown morsels end up deliciously on someones plate.

Part of this conversation involves eating.  How can you truly know if a carrot or tomato is what you are looking for if you can't test it out?  While walking past a stand this morning, I heard a farmer say, "well taste it!  You won't know if you want to buy it until you do."  Where else are you encouraged to try before you buy?  And because the food is so fresh, you can snack on your purchases while you shop.  Thin, snappy stalks of asparagus are my favorite farmers' market treats.  But I've been known to munch on fresh berries as well.

The farmers' market reminds me that we have a plethora of food locally available to us in Minnesota.  While we might not have the most advantageous growing season, and there are some things that we can't grow here, overall we have a lot of variety!  It's no wonder the locavore movement is so strong here in the Twin Cities.  You can rely on locally-sourced produce and have a menu filled with diverse flavors.

My whole trip to the farmers' market usually lasts under one hour, and then I make the trek back home, my grocery bag bursting with expected and unexpected treats.  I think about all the delightful things I can cook with my new produce over the upcoming week.  I leave the zen of the farmers' market, once again at peace and ready for my week.

I can absorb all of the crazy of the upcoming week, knowing that I'll be able to draw from my Sunday morning routine every time I pull out my freshly picked strawberries or sugar snap peas.  And the crazy can hit anytime, anyplace, even a block away from the farmers' market!

St. Paul Farmers' Market

It's finally time for the farmer's market!  Well, they've actually been up and running for a while now, but this last weekend was the first opportunity I had to go to my farmer's market and buy some delicious produce.  I go to the St. Paul Farmers' Market in Lowertown, which is on East 5th Street, about a block away from Mears Park.  It's open at 6am Saturdays and 8am on Sundays and is open through 1pm.  They have a more limited schedule in the winter, but right now it's in full swing.

I adore the St. Paul market.  I love going there early Sunday mornings and walking around with my cup of coffee.  I love talking to the farmers about their produce and learning things about tomatoes and herbs.  I love the sea of reusable grocery bags.  I love that everything at the St. Paul market is local...you won't find any rogue bananas or mangoes here!  It's a lovely little community.  Can I say "love" just one more time?

This Sunday I had a bit of spare time to take a leisurely stroll around the market and check out all of the seasonal options.  I found lettuces, sugar snap peas, the ever-confusing kohlrabi, rhubarb, garlic chives (yes!), bedding plants, and the beginnings of broccoli.  And wait, what's this.... strawberries!  You haven't lived until you've had a strawberry fresh from a farm.  These oddly-shaped, miniature morsels are packed with a sweet, juicy punch.  Plus they are just so cute. 

I also saw some of my favorite local vendors, including the Wolf Honey Farm from the St.Croix Valley.  They make some amazing honey and you can try each variety to see which tastes best to you.  I picked up a bottle of the more mild clover honey and perused some of the beeswax products and the honey sticks.  But seriously, who wouldn't love that bee hat!

Then I picked up some salsa from Snappy Dog Salsa.  I tasted the mild and medium options, but then they pointed me to a rhubarb salsa.  I was skeptical.  But after a quick taste, I realized they were on to something!  It was spicy with a bit of a sweet, tart edge from the rhubarb.  So I bought me a jar of this totally awesome, seasonal salsa.  They recommended pairing the salsa with some chopped-up avocado for a really easy guacamole.  Yum.

I also love the flowers at the St. Paul market.  So many colorful varieties, and wow are they reasonably priced.  I've had a few friends that used flowers from the farmer's market for their weddings and it always turned out gorgeous.

But this year I'm going to try growing some herbs and unlike last year, I'm going to try to keep them alive!  It's hard because my apartment windows don't face the sun so much as they face the side of a neighboring apartment.  But I'm hoping that proper placement and a bit more love than I apparently gave my plants last year will be sufficient to grow some basil, rosemary, and thyme. 

I'm sure I'll have more posts about the St. Paul Farmers' Market as the seasons continues.  Some weekends I go there just to learn something new about produce or growing my herbs.  And one of these days, I will succumb to the temptation of the egg rolls and spring rolls that one of the vendors serves!  Who says that you can't have an egg roll at 8:00 in the morning?