Tom made sure we’d arrive at Midtown Farmers Market right at 8 a.m. on its Opening Day on May 7. He promised to head straight for the produce—be it spinach, asparagus, or even last year’s apples. He swore he wouldn’t talk to anyone or even buy a coffee before making sure we had some of the season’s first veggies in hand. That was the plan. As Tom fell into conversation with friends from Gardens of Eagan upon our arrival, I started wandering the market stalls, exploring the newest vendors at Midtown Farmers Market.

Near where Gardens of Eagan had set up their tent I found Midtown’s newest bread vendor, Black Paws, who’ll be selling breads from a collective of makers working together to bring their bounty to market. As a group, Black Paws’ bakers create a nice variety of breads. We picked a focaccia, thinking sandwiches. A word of advice: if you’d like to get your paws on one of these breads, arrive early! I remember hearing they sold out around 10 a.m. on Opening Day.

Maybe you’re not into bread, though. Maybe you don’t even care about vegetables. Maybe you’re more of an Italian-American doughnut lover. If that’s the case, Rebecca’s Bakery has you covered:

As I was talking to the vendors from Rebecca’s (Rebecca herself wasn’t there), I noticed they also had a few coolers on hand, so expect to find chilled dessert options (tiramisu!) as well as fresh eat-while-you-shop zeppolle.

We didn’t get a chance to try it, but Food by Greg is another new breakfast option at Midtown. Greg specializes in kabomelettes, $3 for Kabobs and $3 for Omelettes according to the May 7 signs. Instead, per our usual, Tom and I shared a La Loma’s Oaxacan tamal and a couple of coffees from Lisa & Dave at Fireroast Mountain Café. Finally, we had our coffee.

What did we take home? This sandwich sums it up. Focaccia, picked-that-morning Spinach from Peter & Carmen, and over-wintered apples from Havlicek’s. With a little cheese from a non-market source, it was a perfect spring farmer’s sandwich:

Tomorrow, Saturday, May 20, Midtown is hosting market #3 of the year at its usual location on Lake & 22nd Ave S from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. Unfortunately, we missed week 2, but we hope to make it early tomorrow morning to pick up that conversation right where we left off.

Yesterday Martha and I had the pleasure of attending Urban Bean’s Patio Party (Martha heard about it on Facebook). Most days, Urban Bean is an unassuming coffeehouse located on the corner of Bryant Ave S and W 33rd st that, I’ve been told, makes great coffee. But with temperatures peaking over 80 in the Twin Cities yesterday the gloves came off and we had a party on our hands. A party featuring a carnival trailer serving up hot dogs, bison burgers, pulled pork sandwiches, french fries and a really broad condiment station. And free beer. Yes, free beer.

Given those choices, I’m always going with pulled pork. The pork itself was a little dry and not super-flavorful, but the Urban Bean crew partially made up for it with the quantity and quality of toppings available. I was really impressed with the extent to which they home-made everything: the purple cabbage coleslaw with raisins, pickled cucumbers and carrots, and bacon ketchup. Ever since my elementary school cafeteria days a big jar full of free pickles gets me pretty excited, all the better if they’re homemade.

And the free beer? Well, it was PBR, but you don’t look a gift beer in the mouth. Much less a couple of gift beers.

Of course, free PBR can’t help but attract a certain crowd, and the whole time I was there the patio was awash in tight jeans, wife beaters, big sunglasses, and irony, oh so much irony. 

With this 80 degree afternoon coming out of nowhere from what has been a pretty dismal week, Urban Bean couldn’t have picked a better time.

I grew up in a household virtually free of beets. My dad did not, and I think still does not, like beets. In college, I started to experiment with beets and found I didn’t mind them. It’s only in the past year that I’ve started to fully appreciate the glory of the beet. They were big on beets at Blackbird, where I was briefly employed during the past summer, so I became familiar with the process of roasting, slicing, and tossing beets in salad. And then just last week, with beet matchsticks left over from beetza, I put raw beets on a sandwich.

In addition to beets, there was

• Multigrain Bread
• Sprouts
• Turkey
• Mayo

I was really surprised by how much I liked raw beets. They were crunchy, giving a real bite to the sandwich, and still had that characteristic beet sweetness, just less so than if they had been roasted. Less sweetness is almost always a good thing! So, the moral of the story is, beets: not just for roasting!