It was with some sadness (and wistful thoughts of future Saturday mornings spent sleeping in) that Martha and I mounted our noble bicycles and set out on the ride to the last official Midtown Farmers’ Market of the 2009 season. The weather, while generally cloudy, was punctuated by bursts of sunlight and dominated by a steady autumn wind that elicited some speculation from vendors about how long they would last out there. But they are a hardy bunch and I’m sure they saw the market through to the end (I sure didn’t!).

As promised, I did a good job attacking the crisper drawer over the course of the last week such that we were left with only a bunch of celery and some lemongrass. Which meant it was time to stock up, all the more so since this was the last farmers market of the year before a long winter. Much of my buying took this long view into account by focusing on vegetables that store well: onions, three kinds of potatoes (russets, large red potatoes, and small red potatoes), carrots, parsnips and butternut squash. The real joy of the farmers’ market for me is the fresh, green food: brussels sprouts, broccoli and leeks. Those will be missed later in the year. And it wouldn’t be the fall farmers’ market in Minnesota without apples; I couldn’t resist a ¼ peck of Honeycrisps.

For her part, Martha couldn’t resist some letter press cards by regular market vendors Vandalia Street Press that make use of interesting figure-ground relationships. Nor could she resist including them in the photo of the market haul!

Although this was the last official farmers’ market at Midtown of the fall, there will be more opportunities to get delicious local produce. I will definitely be going to the Midtown Farmers’ Market fundraiser at the Minneapolis Eagles Club (2507 E 25th St) on November 14 where in addition to raffles and music and the usual fundraising hullabaloo there will be a farmers’ market set up in the parking lot. A pretty great way to support a worthy cause while selfishly stocking up on the best vegetables around! (And very conveniently situated before Thanksgiving.) But if planning ahead for Thanksgiving isn’t your thing, Brett of Real Bread informed me that there will also be a special market at the usual place on Wednesday, November 25 from 1–4 PM. Even though the official market season’s over, the Midtown Farmers’ Market won’t leave you out in the cold for great produce this winter.

Another weekend at the Midtown Farmers’ Market brought an impressive, but dwindling, bounty of vegetables. The late summer fruits — bell peppers and tomatoes — are clinging on to life even as the impending frost threatens to cut them off without warning. Their bright reds, oranges and yellows are starting to be crowded out by the earth-tones of the fall harvest: brassicas from root (turnips) to leaf (brussels sprouts, cabbage) to flower (cauliflower, broccoli); large carrots, onions and potatoes with hardy skins are waiting to fill root cellars for the winter (you have started filling your root cellar, haven’t you?). Sweet potatoes made their first appearance this week — their tender bulbs begging me to wrap them in foil, toss them in smoldering coals and eat them, steaming, right out of their jackets.  Green beans, which appear to be one of the longest-seasoned crops of all in Minnesota, seemed a proper compliment to this kind of food: good, hearty fare that makes you feel like a true Midwesterner.

It is hard to believe that there is only a month left in the market season; once October’s over, that’s it for convenient local produce buying. But while the season starts off a little slowly, it comes to a much more plentiful end; the last month of the market still promises plenty of good food.

Upon arriving at the Midtown Farmers’ Market this morning, I was confused: there were cars where the market should be and a market where the cars usually park! This weekend, they were having a big resource fair for Latina families living in the area, and needed the extra space for extra tents. I eventually got over my disorientation (nobody was in their usual spot!) and was able to buy my produce without too much difficulty.

The market continues to make the transition from midsummer to late summer. Sweet corn is everywhere, and new varieties of tomatoes at new stalls are appearing. Carrots, potatoes and onions are all getting bigger and more mature. There are still plenty of green and yellow beans and a variety of summer squashes. And lot of cucumbers. One farmer I spoke to said melons would normally start this time of year but because of the cold weather were still not ripe. To me, it still seems a little early.

For the first time this week, I decided to buy garlic at the market. I usually avoid it since it is significantly more expensive than at the store, but these bulbs looked too beautiful to pass up. I have always been a little skeptical of garlic at the farmers’ market—are they really growing it locally?—but with the number of people selling it short of some kind of massive conspiracy it is probably legit.

As I was buying corn and squash the farmer interrupted our transaction to take a phone call from a friend closer to downtown monitoring the impending storm. “Storm?” I thought, looking for the first time at the sky. It looked ugly, and it was starting to get dark. And to rain. As farmers and resource fair participants desperately poked at their canopies to try to keep the rapidly accumulating pools of water from collapsing the whole operation, Martha and I donned our rain jackets and headed for our bikes. And that’s when the rain really started. But, with warm weather and no lightning, it was actually kind of nice to ride through the rain, rather than waiting under some bridge. Besides, I had vegetables to attend to.

I don’t know if it was the blue skies, all the rain we’ve been getting lately, or all the wine I drank last night, but there was magic in the air at the Farmers’ Market today—vegetable buying magic. The produce on offer was for the most part the same as last week, with a few promising new additions: tomatoes are starting to appear everywhere, although it is still a little early. Next week I imagine everybody will have them and maybe the price will go down a bit. Still, I could not resist a bowl of cherry tomatoes. I was also happy to see the tomato’s green-skinned, husked cousin tomatillo available from one vendor. Fresh tomatillos in season bear only the slightest resemblance to the dried up, rotting ones you can find in some forgotten corner of the produce section most of the year: their husks are bright green and soft and they have a crisp, bright aroma. Leeks were also new this week, but the most exciting, summer-is-here development was sweet corn. Corn on the cob, corn salsa, corn salad, corn soup; so many possibilities.

Cucumbers, cherry tomatoes, sweet corn, purple cabbage, cilantro, fingerling potatoes, tomatillos, purple carrots, leeks. Exciting! Magical!

I couldn’t wait to cook some of it up. Arriving home, I fried the sliced potatoes with some onions and then tossed in an ear of corn. Martha brewed the coffee, and with some fried tomatoes and sausage and eggs (sausage and eggs not from farmers’ market) it was a breakfast fit for a farmer—or a farmers’ marketer.

The last time I went to the Midtown Farmers’ Market, summer was in full swing with a great variety of vegetables, but most of the vegetables were still pretty small: baby beets, tiny zucchini and summer squash with the flowers still on, new potatoes, spring onions, young greens, etc. After three weeks, the same vegetables have gotten bigger: red potatoes the size of two golf balls, baseball-sized onions, large squash and beets, and full-sized, adult lettuces.

There were a few new vegetables available, signalling the arrival of mid-summer: carrots, green and yellow beans and cucumbers. Cucumbers are one of my favorite things about summer—it is amazing how much sweeter and full-flavored they taste in season versus their year-round counterparts, which are just watery.

I also picked up some still young vegetables—radishes and green onions—which must be cultivated and replanted throughout the summer.

This is one of the most exciting times of the year around the market: there is a large enough variety to keep the kitchen well-stocked and interesting for the week and the most exciting vegetables of the year are just around the corner. I heard talk of sweet corn if we can get a little warm weather and the first cherry tomatoes were already in evidence. This time of year can’t be beat for prices either. What might have been $3 at the beginning of the summer, like the beets, can now be had for one. There’s no better time to be at the market!