All the things I needed to know, I learned at the farmer's market.

I've always enjoyed farmers markets a whole lot. The very idea of taking local (or regional) produce, and selling it where it can't normally be accessed is a capital idea. Though, for me there's always been two problems with them.

Price. Location.

So, it's just my luck that on the first Wednesday at school I run into a small, but well-stocked farmer's market right in front of my school. That solves the location issue.

The two mainstays of this particular market (99th and Madison) are Mignorelli (Tivoli, NY) and Breezy Hill Orchard (Staatsburg, NY), both about 100 miles north of the city, in NY.

Mignorelli is most obviously a greens farm, providing a good abundance of chards, collards, and root vegetables, including radish, carrot, and numerous other bulbous turnip analogues. They even deal in lettuce and salad greens, putting them in large styrofoam containers. toward the front is a variety of fruit, plums, peaches, apricots in the summer.

Breezy Hill seems more like a bakery than an orchard/cider mill. Half the stall is assorted pies, pastries and cookies (and the requisite apple cider donuts), the other half is large wooden crates filled with a variety of fruit (seasonal orchard fruit).

It's a rather underwhelming market, but it's got a good selection. There's usually a third seller (whose name I didn't catch), and on occasion, I'd catch a fourth, though they vary depending on season (the last one was concord grapes from the Niagara region).

Really, the farmer's market was a nice alternative to the usual produce I get from the local Associated, and lacking the unreasonable price bumping for mediocre goods (instead getting the standard higher price for local-ish food). The price aspect is, in aprt solved by a special program Sinai has with the greenmarket. Every Wednesday, students and staff are eligible to get $2 off anything at the market. It's pretty sweet, considering the quality of the produce there. 

As per the things I ended picking up from each:

Mignorelli: Donuts, Collards, Carrots, Chard.

All of these were fresh and delicious. The donuts were actually pretty good, though not apple-y at all (surprise surprise). I was actually kind of surprised to find a little grren caterpillar in with my collards the first time I bought them. I was a little grossed out, but not surprised, since they grow their stuff without pesticides. I was kind of charming. I let the little fellow play around on one of th ecollard branches before I set it free in Central Park.

Breezy Hill: Apples, apples, apples, and oh, did I mention apples? Also, apple cider.

At this market, the gallon of cider for 5 bucks is the best deal. I regularly indulged every week, and cleared out my gallon of cider by the end of the weekend. I mulled it regularly using the mulling spice blend from Penzey's. Good stuff.

Apples: I picked up a few varieties, but I was msot impressed by the Camille apples that they had. I'm normally no fan of raw apples at all, but these were fantastic. Softer skin, very juicy, a little tart, a little sweet, it was the best kind of apple I've had so far. It's a meh cooking apple (due largely to the enormous water content), but it's great with a little honey, or straight off the core.

The Market's gone now, but at the very least I stocked up on enough cider to last me for... two weeks.

orz