We braved cold temperatures and persistent drizzle this Saturday for the Midtown Farmers’ Market and a wide selection of vegetables was our reward. I bought chard, cabbage, beets, three kinds of squash (delicata, kuri, and butternut — all part of this fall’s quest to embrace squash), Haralson apples (the ultimate pie apple?), red peppers, leeks, tiny eggplants (destined for brine), small onions, parsnips, and lemongrass — which is as close as I am going to get to local lemons.

With the season almost over, it’s interesting to compare prices now to the beginning of the year. Chard was $4 in June. In October, with everybody charded-out, a bunch can be had for $1, as can a bunch of beets.

Or, take the roma tomatoes we bought (not pictured). At the beginning of tomato season farmers put out crates for those with ambitious and foresightful canning plans, charging $15-20. This weekend, we were able to get a milk-crate’s worth of romas for an unbelievable $5. The tomatoes are so heavy that I can’t weigh them on my scale, but I think it’s safe to say this was a deal. The tomatoes have probably seen better days; they’re ripe almost to the point of rotting and some of them were moldy (our farmer was kind enough to sort those out for us). But that makes them all the better for making sauce with.