It all looks wonderful Teresa! I lose control of myself in these markets and take home far more than we can ever eat.
I just love to browse around amongst fruit, vegetables and homemade preserves.

I haven't seen butternut here yet....lucky you!

SharonCb

Teresa

You and I spent the morning in the same way :) I posted my pics on my blog. I go every Saturday, and always want to buy one of everything.

We have had unseasonably warm weather ... for crying out loud it is in the mid to high 80's in Northern Ohio ! Someone tell me it is October. It has extended our growing season, but I am ready for a real Fall day.

It all looks good, Teresa! I'm hoping tomorrow to get back to the little market I found last week. They're there until November. Enjoy your haul :)

It's still summer here on Long Island, too!

My farmers market purchases in NY yesterday were similar to yours, Teresa.

And we are also having mid-July weather in NY, Ohiomom. It was very good for our Succoth celebrations - Most years we get some pretty cold nights sitting out there in our little fragile shelter but this year it was so warm and the nights were really lovely.

Today we went to a Bar Mitzvah party that was held in a backyard. It was too hot for the first hour or so, until the sun went below the building line, and then it was really nice. The mother of- was afraid to put the platters outside in the heat so she set them up inside and had tables outside for people to sit and eat. Is this NY in October? Global Warming anyone?

It is 85 degrees here in IL and it's almost 5 pm! And it's supposed to be hotter tomorrow.

Teresa, my very favorite things about farmer's markets is the smell of fresh vegetables. The soaps looks wonderful. I like to buy the glycerine soaps with the embedded luffa. The luffa just feels so nice, sort of like a massage, after working in the garden.

Linda, your farmer's markets are fabulous and they remind me of the ones we had in MI. The ones we have in IL are just pitiful. People just don't know what they are missing.

Michelle

Michelle

I believe the local food movement is growing, one of the bloggers who has a family farm commented on the increase in traffic at this year's market. They went from about 300 customers on Saturdays to over a 1,000.

Nothing like having a personal relationship with the people who grow your food. I get to chat with them about their crops, what is doing well and what isn't. One local farmer has over 30,000 garlic plants ... which is great considering that 80% of what is sold in our supermarkets now comes from China.

Also, I notice that another agribusiness, Cargill is having a beef recall...coming right after the one from Topps that put them out of business.

Jumping off my soap box :)

And I'll keep the soapbox warm....

I've always believed very strongly in supporting local (and US) agriculture as much as we can. Today I talked with an organic farmer just north of me: she had farm canned salsa, marinara sauce, tomatoes, and seafood sauce processed in their own commercial kitchen and from produce grown on their land. She even had photos of their kitchen because it is very new.

Some farm signs said "we only sell what we grow ourselves." There were several stands selling beef raised on their land, ostrich, cheeses, and more farmers' market participants are partnering with each other and promote those partnerships. The Honeybee Harvest folks supply honey to the Goat Lady Dairy farm to be used in some of their cheese spreads.

Teresa....down off the soap box for the moment! :o)

Teresa, you can get back up there on that soapbox if you like, I'll stand next to you.

I also think that locally grown food is usually the best, picked at it's freshest and grown by your neighbors. I'll support any small local farmer before I support the large corporations and I like to be able to "put a face on" the person that grows my food.

That's a wonderful selection you have there but truly, those purple pansies are what really called out to me. It got to be 88F here and the humidity is in the 90s. However, it's supposed to be in the 60s by Wednesday, the poor pansies wouldn't like the sudden change, I'm afraid. They'd better stay with Teresa!

Annie

Annie,
It's supposed to get up to the low 90s here today - arrrgghh!
Where is the FALL? I don't want to put out the pansies only to have them suffer in the heat.
Teresa

Beautiful, love the photo, Teresa!

Love your market photo Teresa. It is nice that you have such wonderful local farms and markets to buy from. I'd support them too.

Ann

I ran out to get canning jars about a month ago and could not find any except small mouth qts and I went to 4 local stores. Oddly enough I had just picked up some the week before and there were plenty of cases in stock at that time. Several of the clerks said they were having a "hard time keeping jars in stock as there was a shortage this year with so many people canning".

Hopefully, this trend will continue!

Michelle

I love the pictures Teresa. I have been to your market and agree that it is great. What I really hate, is a lot of the local farmers markets are having stuff shipped in and selling it as their own. You really have to know the sellers. People will stand in long lines here to buy from reputable sellers who grow their own stuff. If I wanted the shipped in-don't know how old it is stuff, I would go to the grocery store.
I also, like you and Annie, want to support local growers. We are so fortunate to have such a lovely array of fresh veggies and fruit in our area. I am standing on that soapbox with you, Teresa.
Sherry

Hope that there's room on that soapbox for me too!

We stopped at a farm market on Sunday and bought lots of goodies...including a couple of those big stalks of Brussels sprouts.

Nancy

Michelle

That is why I was online at Lehman's yesterday, looking at the beginners canning kit.

I am also fortunate that my local family-owned grocer carries a wide variety of locally grown produce and has it marked which farm it comes from. They are members of Ohio Proud, and you can go up and down the aisles for items that are produced in Ohio.

There is another reason to buy locally ... the money you spend stays in your community.