Martha+Tom

Midtown Farmers’ Market: Week 13–Magic in the Air

Tom fills his backpack Tomatoes are getting serious

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.

Purple skinned carrots (they're orange on the inside) Tomatillos appear at marketTomatoes Fingerlings

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

Week 13's Bounty

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.

Farmer's Brunch Farmer's Brunch, detail

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3 comments on “Midtown Farmers’ Market: Week 13–Magic in the Air”

  1. Martha 27 July, 2009 at 8:10 am

    Savory breakfasts from here on out. I no longer have need for waffles or pancakes. For a while.

  2. Amy 28 July, 2009 at 1:46 pm

    Engagingly expressed, Tom. And I loved the light, humorous tone–fun!

  3. Tom 29 July, 2009 at 10:10 am

    I’ve never been so excited about a vegetable in my life as I was about those tomatillos. That enthusiasm probably spilled into the writing.

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