One of the things I LOVE about summer is all of the farmers' markets that pop up around the Cleveland area. Lately, I've been dreaming of living on a farm and getting away from all of the noise that fills up the daily grind. Since that is not an option right now, I like to make the most of what our local area has to offer.
Matt and I went down to the Howe Meadow Farmers' Market today. Twice. As we found out when we arrived, they are not "dog-friendly". But everything looked so amazing that I talked Matt into taking Gryff back home and going back.
The market was fantastic. Managed and operated by the Countryside Conservancy, these markets feature producer-only, local vendors who sell some of the freshest produce and meat around. They also had a variety of eggs, cheese, honey, jams, soaps, pierogies and pastas.
Going back to the meat... they had numerous vendors who sold humanely raised chicken, steak, pork and lamb products. One of the farmer's explained to me that all of her animals are free-range, grass-fed and hormone/antibiotic free. She went on to tell me how the animals have great lives... just one bad day. I thought that was clever.
If you are planning on going to a farmers' market, I suggest you get there early. Right when it opens if possible. Since there is not an endless supply, things get picked over very quickly. The whole dog fiasco resulted in me not getting the hand-picked strawberries I wanted. Oh well... there's always next week!
"But Mom! You drove me all the way out here and we have to go home already?!?!"
I ended up getting some farm fresh eggs, mushrooms, kale, Thai basil, chives, orange-tarragon chevre cheese, blackberry honey jam, tomato basil sausage and pierogies. Now I'm off to the kitchen to make some homemade ravioli out of these gorgeous ingredients!
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