farmers’ market

Farmers’ Market Goes Corporate

/ Shane / Leave a comment

I’ve discussed before about the farmers’ market a block or so from our place.  We go there nearly every week and 99% of the time we purchase something from the Bleeding Heart Bakerybooth.  It is a little expensive, but everything is very delicious and very unique.  We get something new every time, anything from scones to rhubarb tarts to spinach and goat cheese croissants.  I’ve never been disappointed.

The last time we went there the booth wasn’t in the normal location.  Instead a booth from the Medici, a local restaurant and bakery, was in its place.  Eventually we found the booth further down and bought something there.  This week the booth wasn’t there at all.

Now I don’t know which company is actually bigger, they might be roughly the same size.  But in terms of Hyde Park restaurants, the Medici is definitely one of the heavy weights.  I like Medici a lot and in fact I have purchased bread from their farmers’ market booth.  So this isn’t against them directly.  But, especially considering that the Medici booth is in the exact (prime) location that the Bleeding Heart booth used to occupy strikes me as a corperate muscle job.  It would really be a shame if that was the case because 1) there is room for both booths since one sells mostly bread and the other sells mostly sweets and 2) the Bleeding Heart booth had so much more original things, instead of the boring old standards at Medici.

So maybe the booth will be back next week, but if not, my opinion of Medici will really go down.

Ma Ma

/ Shane / 3 Comments

Well, the day has finally arrived, just over 10 months in the making and Evie finally said “Ma ma”.  (Well, more like “mamamamama”)  It’s funny because on T.V. and cartoons and stuff, that is always the baby’s first word.  Anyway, Evie has been pretty sick all weekend and she has been extra-extra-clingy to Sara.  I was trying to entertain her while Sara was busy but she really wanted her mommy.  And finally she said it!  It is also weird because it is the first time she’s ever made the sound and yet she meant it.  Contrast that with “Da da” which she was saying for months without really meaning anything.

In garden update news, holy cow weeds.  They just grow like crazy!!  It seems like a never ending job but I swear all the other gardens around us never have any!  Ours is like weed heaven.  Last week we weeded 4 times and never spent less than an hour and a half at it.  But the good news is, our “crops” are growing as fast as the weeds.  Well, the carrots are a little iffy, but everything else is good.

Speaking of garden-based updates, the farmers’ market is really taking off.  I previously reported that it was sort of lackluster but we’ve been back every week since and it gets better every time.  There are more booths now offering more things and they’re not sold out by the time we get there.  We’ve tasted fresh salsa, admired the fresh cut peonies, investigated the spinach, asparagus and mushrooms, bought organic Amish bread, considered the lamb and we’ve never been able to avoid buying something from the organic baker.  There is even a drummer now for entertainment.  All in all, much improved and much recommended!

Finally, a condo based update.  We bought like a big hutch thing to contain, among other things, our china.  So we can finally get all of those boxes out of the closet and unpack them for the first time (although it was convenient for moving that they were still all packed up).  Also, we finally put up some tie backs for the curtains in there so we can let some light in.

And now also I suppose I have a blog update ::publish::

The beauty of multimedia

/ Shane / Leave a comment

I don’t know how to embed this, so you’ll have to click here to see a really nice video about the farmers’ market.  They did such a good job with the video that I was almost like, “Is that the same place I went?”  But they obviously got there pretty early since there was still vegetables.  I’m not crazy either, even the Trib is reporting they were sold out by 10:30.  NPR’s story was pretty lackluster, I have to say.

It’s a farmer’s market

/ Shane / 3 Comments

So today was the first day of the 61st and Dorchester Farmers’ Market, which we have been looking forward to for some time.  The weather was beautiful and there seemed to be a pretty good turnout.  I have to say, I was a little bit underwhelmed.  I realize in retrospect that my expectations were perhaps artificially high.  After all, as Sara pointed out, what vegetables would they even have to sell at this point in the summer?  Still, we got there at about 10:30 and as far as I could tell there was only one stand selling vegetables and they were already sold out.  The market is supposed to go to 2:00, so I guess they underestimated a little bit.

Don’t get me wrong, what they did have was nice.  There were flowers (but no fresh cut flowers, only to be potted), a lamb stand, a cheese stand, a homemade salsa stand (I didn’t try any because the proprietor was being interviewed by NPR and I didn’t want to get involved) and a nice bakery stand.  The bakery was more of a sweets kind of place and we weren’t able to get any bread, which was one of my main targets for today.  We did eat a delicious goat cheese and basil croissant though and there were many muffins and scones I intend to try in the future.

So I’m really not complaining, it was okay for what it was.  I’m just saying, we came with a bag intending to fill it and we went home with it empty.  This was the opening weekend, their first chance to make a big splash.  If I came today and left with nothing (and I didn’t live one block away) I don’t know if I would be inclined to come back again.

As it is, I was able to tend to the garden a little bit and get rid of some weeds.  I’ll be back to tend the garden regardless, so I will definitely be back to the farmer’s market.  Of course I will give it another chance (and a few more after that) and especially report back after the growing season really gets cranked up.  But for all this talk about Woodlawn being a “food desert“, I’m not sure this is what the doctor ordered, and I’m not sure any of the people I saw would have trouble making it to a “food oasis” as it were.