Petalique, I just want to say it sounds like you had a wonderful day!

A nice drive, on a warm fall day in New England.

I bet the colours were spectacular.

Beautiful produce!

I don't live in an area with farm stands, but for some odd reason, there is one about 15 minutes away. I go there every week for tomatos, cucumbers and corn. It's on the honor system. There is a box in which to put your payment, and everything is priced by the piece. I have been overdosing on tomatoes. They are just so good.

I pass farm stands not infrequently in my travels, but I don't stop at them. IDK why, but I feel stupid and self-conscious about it, like a dumb tourist or something. Now, mind you, I have an incredible aversion to eating alone in a restaurant and refuse to do it, so take how I feel about stopping at a stand as just an individual quirk.

Ah, {{{{{porkchop}}}}}

The produce is often labelled. I did not know what half the stuff was, so that’s good the had a lot of it labelled. Pricey, however, and this was not even in a toney town.

You have full rights, PC, and included in that is permission not to know everything and to feel confident and worthy in your lack of information about esoteric produce.

I did not know what delicata squash was, but it was labelled and I bought some and asked the young woman at the cash register how I might cook it.

I didn’t tip over the applecarts or get all tippy at the gourds. It was half open air, so no claustrophobia and other patrons seemed normal and friendly. I blew $9 on a jar of home made garlic pickles, FPS!

Go for it, porkchop!

I don't have a lack of knowledge about produce....IDK how you read that into my post...

I feel stupid and self-conscious about stopping, just like I feel stupid and self-conscious to eat alone in a restaurant -- that is entirely about my feelings and how I think others perceive me and has not one iota to do with my knowledge about produce or food on a menu.

ETA: But it is nice you got some good-looking produce and enjoyed the experience.

THERE you are, petalique! Did you know we were missing you?

There are a few good farm stands near where I live and that I pass regularly, and I stop by every few weeks during the season. It's getting a little late for local produce, though, with mostly just gourds and potatoes.

No farm stands but I’m near farmer’s markets.

Thanks, Chisue ♥️. No, I didn’t know. Usually I feel invisible.

I was feeling under the weather, grieving some things, adjusting to others. We all go through these sorts of things, but I am not good at it, despite the abundant crap that’s landed on me. I am not a good, nor a graceful spirit about it, particularly when the same (sore) bell gets repeatedly rung.

Someone told me about some funny episodes on South Park, so I binged on that for a while. It can be addictive. The creators are now billionaires. I never gravitated towards animation or cartoons, but some of these episodes are satisfying. One thing I’ve noticed is that, with the exception of the ad for a butt-ugly, dishonest TV station, the ads tend to be a bit upscale, even the one for ketchup.

I don’t know if it was a ”farm stand” or what it would be called. There were gourds and pumpkins all around the outside. On the inside (wide doors left open) there was produce on shelves and tables and in wooden bins. Some things in a refrigerator with glass doors. I bought a mix of apples — Macs, Cortlands and Macouns. The greens in the fridge were pricey — a small anemic looking bunch of chard for something like $4!

DD1's NYC neighborhood has a Saturday morning farmer's market. I love to go and buy apples. It's like going to a candy store! All kinds of varieties, none of which are in the supermarkets. All of them have different tastes and textures. I admit to going a little crazy, and then I have to drag them home to the burbs.

What I am waiting for is the romenesco. I have not found it close to home, and it is one of my favorite fall veggies, just roasted with a bit of olive oli and salt.

I love Romanesco, but here it seems to come and go as growers get a wild hair and decide to grow some, then they don't for another few years :-(

We fell in love with Romanesco when we were living in the Netherands, but our farmer's markets and grocery stores never have it.

Before moved to East Texas, there was a family farm that had a store and I loved to shop there. I especially miss the smoke house that was next door to it. They have the best sausage. I have never gotten excited over sausage, but I don't like to cook beans, without their sausage now. I plan to go back soon and buy enough to last me awhile. I have tried sausage at meat markets here, and it can't compare at all. I ask people to recommend a place with good sausage, and it is not even close to what I bought back there.

There is a farmers' market in the nearest city to me, but I have never been to it. Living alone now, I can't use as much produce as when I was cooking for myself and my husband.

Marilyn_c,

what typeof beans and what sort of sausage?

My farmstand is online and they run it more as a farmers' market now. I love it!

I am some sad that you can't find the sausage that you like locally.

If you find some in that market in a village nearby, have you found some genial single (or coupled) friends who might be interested in sharing some if you find them?

ole joyful

I live in the MIdAtlantic and we have a farm neaby that I have been buying seasonal produce from for decades . It opens in mid June and closes the day before Tday in November. They start out with cooler weather greens and such and then into the tomatoes ,peppers, eggplants, melons, beans and all the summer stuff and then back to the cooler weather produce as the Fall comes. Inbetween there is a beautiful crop of corn, and orchards of peaches that give way to orchards of apples in the Fall. It is not cheap but it is such a seasonal luxury. We dont eat out or waste money on junk in the grocery store, so we do enjoy having this abundance for the season and would rather spend our food dollar on this . It is a real orchard and fields and not a farmers market kind of thing. You have to go out to them. They dont sell at farmers market.

Right now I have about 30 pounds of wonderful apples and have been enjoying them with abandon. Until a couple of weeks ago, it was tomatoes that I bought in large quantities. I dont buy either apples or tomatoes at other times of the year .I dont care much for apples in general, but these are not the lame bits of stuff that are sold in most grocery stores. And, tomatoes i dont buy until they come back in the summer. So, if we have them everyday in the summer that is fine . They have both fields and orchards. It is a luxury that I enjoy.

There is no place for home growing where I live . The neighbors trees have grown to shroud my yard and it is just not conducive.

There is another farm/orchard not far from this one and they do a lot of entertainment kind of things like hayrides and things for kids and families. They let you go out to the orchard and pick your own. We did that when grandson was young, but now I just want produce that someone else harvested. They have a huge crowd every weekend. It is good for families.

We don’t have too many farm stands around any longer, but occasionally will see one. In fact there is an old guy who brings his sweet potatoes to the same location every year, sets up his portable tent, opens the back of his truck and sits there most of the day.

We do have several ’farmer’s Markets’ that set up in various days throughout the area so if you miss a day at one you can go to another. My favorite is about 15 minutes from me but most stop after Labor Day. One farmer there had the very best corn this year. We do have another a little further and it’s where i always get my peaches and strawberries and occasionally other produce as well. They are a large operation and come to the farmers markets too so I can pick up what i need at either location sometimes.

My own tomatoes suddenly produced another flush again as they usually do so I am overrun with tomaroes right now. On a local garden chat garden group, I offered up some iris rhizomes I was about to dig. Several expressed interest and 2 responded they would meet me to pick them up. One sweet young woman brought me 2 jars of apple butter she made. The other brought me a bag of sweet peppers. I had a smile on my face all day, feeling like I had two new friends.

I have an abundance of both farms and farmers markets around me. I worked for our local farmers market for 5 years. It was a great experience. There is a farmers market available all around me for each day except Monday, I think. Each farmers market sets their own rules and standards. Some of our vendors also sell at other markets. Most of them are a bit on the higher side but you are buying locally grown and often organic food. It was such a pleasure to get to know the vendors and they become like family. Many have devoted customers that follow them from market to market.

The farms near me also have stores on their property. Two of them started out at our farmers market in 2007 and as they grew, they no longer had the time or manpower to come to the local farmers market. I had no idea about all of this until I volunteered at our local farmers market.

I’ve enjoyed reading your comments. Jehanne, luckyyou with all those apples. That reminds me, I need to use mine soon.

Annie, thanks for the explanation. It was a roadside stand on the farmer’s property. So much work to produce all that lovely variety of fruits and vegetables.

Here are a few more photos. Interesting multi-colored carrots and I always love looking at gourds.

Wonderful pictures, petalique! Vegetables do make interesting subjects!!

When you find the right sausage, it's amazing - it's both flavour and texture that are important to me. I figure if I'm going to eat all that fat and salts, it's going to be sausage I really, really like. For me, it's a bunch of varieties sold from one vendor in Toronto's St. Lawrence Market - my favourite flavours are the lamb and rosemary, Italian with extra fennel, and andouille.

TV, have you ever tried making your own sausage? I never have, but doing so was one of my pipe dreams. I think I have the sausage stuffing tube kit on my KA mixer. Years ago, for some reson, I stumbled upon and bought a couple uf used Goodwill store meat grinders. I was helping care for my parents and there was a good GW store in the next town.

I love lamb and rosemary and the Italian sausage with fennel seeds. I’ve even made spaghetti sauce without sausage or meat and just added some fennel seeds. It was very good.

A friend of mine has made his own sausages. However, I don’t think I could easily overcome my aversion to the thought of grinding raw chicken or turkey. Eew! Chunks of beef and pork or lamb, okay. But the wet, flesh-colored slippery raw chicken visions and sounds, might make me go vegetarian.

I think I understand about the saussage. Our DIL's family has stayed 100% Polish, from the first immigrant to the US 90 years ago. (They made an exception for our DS to 'dilute' the genes.) These people are *picky* about their sausage!

When DIL's sister visits Chicago, she fills one piece of luggage with her favorite Polish sausage to cart back to Utah.

tried making your own sausage?

No, but it sounds like an interesting project. I'd need to learn a lot more to do it safely, of course, but I am retiring soon and will need a new hobby.........

They allow sausage in Utah?

There used to be a place on the edge of town here that sold, along with onions, watermelons and cantaloupe melons in season. I always bought mine from there and often bought a whole bunch to pass on at work because they were really good. I don't buy cantaloupes from the shops because they always end up tasting like nothing. Now the local guy has stopped so I don't get cantaloupes any more :-(.

I do make my own sausage, from venison summer sausage to liverwurst to chicken breakfast sausage. However, the neighbors have a sister that lives in Chicago and they are also very Polish. She brings sausage from Andy's every time she visits. I like the fresh better than the smoked but it's all good.

Sorry about the melons, Colleen. I can't seem to grow them worth a darn. They always look beautiful and taste like nothing.

Beautiful pictures, Petalique. Those potatoes look like some I grew this year for the first time, from Row 7 seed company called Dakota Rose. Pink mottling and like a Yukon Gold on the inside, they're good but didn't get very big.

Annie

Annie, are the melons like artichokes, where the ugly (frostbit or otherwise stressed) have the most flavor?

pllog, appearance doesn't seem to matter in my garden. The ugly ones taste like nothing too. It's not the climate because Magicland (as noted above), has delicious melons and they are not far from me. My soil tests well, according to Michigan State University, and the plants grow nicely and produce fruit which tastes like nothing, LOL.

So, I just go to Magicland and buy melons. Locally grown and helping support a local farm is a good thing anyway and we just don't eat that many melons. I couldn't even grow many because there is no way to keep them very long so I use that space for other things and just buy 2 or 3 melons per year. Everyone in my family will eat them but no one is crazy for them and it seems they don't care whether I grow them or not.

Annie

Petalique, kidney beans and the sausage is pork and venison. He has a variety that includes some cheese and jalapenos and when my husband was alive, we always got that, but I like the pork and venison, without the jalapenos.

Joyful, I am not adverse to sharing anything, infact every time I go to Lufkin,

the nearest city to me, I look for a particular homeless woman that I give food to.

However as far as sharing the sausage, it is a 6 hour round trip to go get it. I would probably cook red beans, sausage, and rice for my church when they have fellowship and share a meal, but where I live, there are very few people. Horses and cows out number people by far, and there aren't any poor people that I know of here. Not saying there aren't any, out here in the country I don't know sny. Actually, I don't know very many people here, and when I say they aren't poor...I don't mean they are wealthy. Mostly just regular people who live on farms and ranches. Anyway, the sausage I am talking about is not a commercial brand, and after trying numerous ones in the general area, I don't expect to find any I like better. Sausage isn't something I would generally seek out. I never gave it a second thought until I tried these.

Thanks, Annie! I totaly get the not worth the bother. I was just curious. I overheard a statement that fruit that's grown elsewhere than its orignial habitat won't be good, hat's an obvious falsehood. We grow most everything in California and most of its good. (Don't trust the "California!" signs outside of the state. We keep most of the good stuff, and they sell the culls elsewhere. I think that thing I heard has to have been an example of magical thinking rather than reality. Perhaps it's jsut the seasonal thing on the three melons you grew. Here, the beginning and end of a melon's growing season the melons tend to be lacking in flavor, where they're sweet and best textured in the middle. But for all I know, that's due to other factors than the actual season.

Re Farmstand, it occurs to me that from the online one, it's not really, though that's how it started, and even uses the word, but at the in person one, you can choose the exact pieces and quantity, and online they choose (though it's pretty perfect) and some are offered by the package or pound, though for others you choose quantity. But they deliver. :)