Fresh and yummy!
I’ve lived in Charlotte since June of 2004. I heard about the Farmer’s Market when I first got here and made myself a promise that ‘one day’ I would go to the market and pick up some things. Well, time has a way of marching on and when I woke up this morning, Saturday, September 24th, I decided that today is the day that I go to the market!
I looked outside and it was dreary and rainy. I decided that that wouldn’t stop me today. I was going! I got dressed, grabbed my camera, and headed out the door. I found the market easily. It’s about 20 minutes from my home. When I pulled in I noticed the four large areas housing various vendors. As I parked my car, the devil began beating his wife. That is from a saying that when it raining and the sun shining, it means that the devil is beating his wife. 
I wonder what she did to make him mad. LOL.
Anyway, on with the story. I headed into the nearest area where I saw all kinds of fruits, vegetables, herbs, spices, etc. You name it. They had it. I took a few pictures, bought some apples and some kale, took a few more pictures, and walked around a bit. I was conflicted. Take pictures or shop? Kind of hard to do both. I was about to take the little stuff that I had to the car and stopped at Bill’s stall. I found out his name a bit later. I’ll tell you how. Bill had a nice watermelon cut open with a knife sticking in it. I thought that that would make a nice ‘Farmer’s Market’ photo, personifying the market. You know fresh produce and all that. The nice thing here is that most everything is available to sample! I tasked some good apples, today.
As I took the photo of the watermelon and the knife, I hear someone from my right say:
Well, now that you took the picture you have to buy some!
~Marsha
I turned around this lady, who introduced herself as Marsha let me know that Bill, the owner of this stall, had the best peaches, tomatoes, onions, and watermelon of anyone out here and that she should know because she’s been coming out here for 20 years or so, every Saturday!
I introduced myself and asked her where I could find some ginger. She said: I’ll show you where to get ginger from if you promise to buy something from Bill. I told her that I had already planned to. She led me to the ginger. I got some fresh ginger for $5.00 for the bunch. Lots of ginger complete with stalks and leaves. The lady who sold it even told me how to prepare it, store it, and make tea with it. Nice! I then made good on my promise to purchase something from Bill: Peaches, tomatoes, and onions. I had to make a trip to the car to store my bounty.
When I came back, Marsha was waiting for me. She took me around to all of her favorite vendors, from those selling herbs all the way to those selling organic mushrooms and grass-fed beef, neither of which I purchased … today. I saw a good looking brisket that I think that I may have to purchase next time around.
I even stopped by her son’s booth to purchase some fresh cilantro. Next, we headed into the arts and crafts barn where I got to see some impressive hand-made crafts. I even bought a couple of baskets to store my onions and potatoes. Now they won’t look so out of place hanging out on the counter.
As I type this I am brewing some ginger leaf tea and am quite satisfied with the rye bread, goat cheese, and tomato sandwich that I had, all made with stuff that I bought from the market. The home baked rye bread is delicious as are the tomatoes and the fresh goat cheese with four kinds of peppercorns! Yumm!
Well, Harris Teeter, sorry to have to let you go, but from now on, I’ll be buying my fruits and veggies from the Farmer’s Market. The prices are better, the people are cool, I can get stuff that’s in-season and not trucked across the country, and there are many photographic opportunities to be had.
As for what it is that I love … I love to meet friendly new people who just love to have a conversation with a complete stranger. I would imagine that if I go to the market every week to get my stuff that I’ll be running into Marsha again. That was cool! I think that, even though it took me a long time to get there, I picked just the right day to go!
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When Bonnie and I lived a little closer we would go to the Farmers Market located near the Charlotte Coliseum. Now we visit the local one here which has a limited choice but is only a few miles away.
Your right, you can’t beat fresh vegetables and fruit. However, I’ve noticed recently that some supermarkets are starting to carry some local product again.
Have a good weekend!
Yep! That’s the one that I went to, Earl. They have a huge selection. I’ve noticed, too, that the supermarket is starting to offer local veggies, but the prices are much higher than you can get at the farmers market. For example, red bell peppers are sometimes $4.99 EACH at the supermarket. I saw them for $1.00 each, red, green, or yellow.
Nice story Paul. We also have Farmer’s Markets here which we use though we have an equally good green-grocers who has seasonally great produce too. The only places we never buy produce from is the big supermarket chains though as Earl says, they too are feeling the competitive edge of the Farmer’s Markets and are starting to respond in kind.
BTW, ginger, lemon and honey tea is one of my favourites. Specially in winter—or what stands for winter over here
Well, Cedric, I could certainly get into two ingredients in that tea: ginger and lemon. I am not a fan of honey at all. I never have liked it very much. As for the grocery stores, they would have to have local foods and compete on price, which they won’t do. I’m sure that they have enough of a loyal following, though, so as not to have to compete very much.
Paul, it’s good to see you discovering the pleasure of a good farmer’s market. They are the antithesis of the corporate “big-box” grocery that are around us everywhere these days. Keep the money in town, I say. The food is better for you too (usually).
Thanks, Eric: I think that I’ll be a loyal customer from now on. They even have certain farmers who are organic as well, so you get the best of both worlds, local and organic.
I like that watermelon photo, Paul. It’s my favorite fruit. Now I want some.
We don’t go the the (very popular) Public Market in Rochester because we have some local farms within 2 miles of our house that grow all kinds of fruits and vegetables and we like to support them. Their products are generally far superior to some of the grocery stores, but they don’t grow watermelon or bananas around here.