In Midland for the week, but not wanting to miss out on a Saturday at the market, I visited the Midland Farmers’ Market with my friend Sarah this morning. She wanted to go in order to find cinnamon rolls from the Amish farmers. I found popcorn from the same vendors… and picked up a few things for my mom. She had asked for thin cucumbers and cherry tomatoes. I couldn’t believe the amount of fresh fruit in Michigan. Take a look:

I couldn’t resist taking home a Honeyrock, the name for the type of cantaloupe that grow locally in Bay County. This one was perfect. Juicy (take a look at the plate), sweet, and truly melt-in-your-mouth.

Along with the honeyrock, there were the cucumbers and tomatoes for Mom, apricots, and a bag of popcorn. What better late-Saturday morning snack than a slice of honeyrock and freshly popped corn from the stovetop?

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.