Wednesday, April 18, 2007

I Never Took the Smile Away From Anybody's Face

The boys and I went to the farmers market this morning.


Farmers market: how I missed you so. ::sigh::


I miss the for thine beautiful flowers...


I miss the for thine beautiful, locally grown, fully ripened fruit and vegetables.

Of course, I had to keep yelling at Darwin, "Stop! Stealing! Strawberries!" "Darwin! Stop! Stealing! Strawberries!" "Seriously! Darwin! Stop! Stealing! Strawberries!"


In his defense, these are Really Good Strawberries.

Ah, farmers market, I missed you so.

19 comments:

Anonymous said...

OMG! The Farmers Market is open? I've got to go ASAP.

Angelina said...

Alright, that does it, I'm moving to Kansas! How come your farmer's market opens so early in the season?

I love the collarate (sp?) dahlias.

Oh, I'm so envious of the farmer's market.

LJ said...

You're mean. Couldn't you wait to show these photos like in two months? Like when EVERYONE has a chance to see flowers growing and not big mounds of dirty snow everywhere and it's cold as hell?!

Anonymous said...

Ohhhh! Locally grown, fully-ripened fruit sounds SO good right now! When I'm driving again, I'm going.

lera said...

My mouth is seriously watering over those strawberries. Mmmmmm.

LLA said...

I do love a good Farmer's Market - and your pictures make that look like a very good one...

Oil Cloth Junkie said...

Woo hoo Farmer's Market!
I'm so glad that Lawrence's is up and running too!

Berber said...

Yummy strawberries... we have to wait until June before we have them here!

Anonymous said...

The strawberries are local?! This early? And tomatoes? Are they from a greenhouse?! Eeek- they look so good. My mouth is watering.

We'll have to go next Wednesday!!!

Renee said...

Everything is so pretty. We went to a market this past weekend and I was in heaven!

amy h said...

Ooh, I forgot the market opened this week! Yay!

vintagechica said...

Oh, I can't wait to get to ours....not until June...ugh!

Farmers' Friend said...

As the manager of the farmers' market in Lawrence (KS) I can promise you that there are no locally grown strawberries or melons available right now.
Please, everyone, ask the vendors if they grow everything they sell. Most state extension websites will have a chart listing the season for fruits and veggies in your area. This will help you to avoid buying produce that is shipped across the country.
There are many types of "farmers' markets". Lawrence's market is in the category of "producer-only" meaning everything sold buy a vendor is grown, raised or crafted by that vendor. I visit all new farms to get to know the vendor and see his or her operation. If there are only four peach trees on the farm, then I will not expect the farmer to be bringing hundreds of pounds of peaches for weeks at a time.
I know there are some true farmers at the Overland Park market, but I am also aware that there are many peddlers who go to wholesale produce auctions and purchase fruits and veggies which they then sell at markets around the KC area.
Our farmers (and those throughout KS and MO) suffered serious loses with the extended cold weather during the first half of April. We may not have locally grown apples and peaches this year. Heck, there may even be a complete loss on peonies!
I do know that we have greenhouse tomatoes and cucumbers available. There is spinach and salad greens and asparagus will be coming on soon.
If supporting local farmers and purchasing locally raised produce are your primary reasons for shopping at a farmers' market, you may have to do a little detective work (familiarizing yourself what is grown in your area and when it is in season, asking the vendor some questions about how the crop is grown) to insure that you are getting what you pay for. If you just enjoy the atmosphere of an open air market, then by all means just ignore my blatherings and have fun at the market. I just wanted to share with you a bit about farmers' markets.

laura capello said...

normally, i think of such things. i agree, it's totally out of sync for us to have strawberries in kansas right now.

but my two year old was stealing, and they were so good...

sometimes i'm a very, very bad girl.

nuttnbunny said...

Curse you of the early spring! I want to come help Darwin steal strawberries.

OH! Did I really just type that?

I meant - keep him from stealing, of course.

Kim -today's creative blog said...

Oh, I can't wait for berry season!
Can't wait!

Chickenbells said...

How wonderful...ours doesn't open for a bit yet, which is good since we had 50 mph gusts today..gheeze!

beki said...

Lucky you!!

Chara Michele said...

I can't wait for our farmer's market to open! Jealous that yours has already started:) For some reason ours doesn't start till June (which seems stupid to me since it is already warm enough out and people have stuff growing and ripe already! Silly city that I live in!