Finishing up a visit to Saugatuck, Michigan (on Lake Michigan about 130 miles north of Chicago), my favorite find has to be The Summertime Market.

Driving back home from downtown Saugatuck on our last day here, and hoping to spot some sort of farm stand selling lettuces, we stumbled upon their little store. If you’re ever in the area, it’s very much worth a stop. They’re just on the other side of the bridge over Kalamazoo Lake from downtown Saugatuck. As they say, “Blue Star Highway… At the Bridge.” Great produce, great foods, great graphic design (!), and a solid mission. This is an all-around excellent place. I felt like I was at the farmers market, only somehow magically each farmer had brought exclusively the most perfect of fruits. Some inside, some outside.

Perhaps a bit gimmicky… but I really liked this… each item was marked with the number of miles it had traveled to reach the store. Here’s a little something from one of their take-away pieces:

We’re about eating local, like our grandparents did. We only sell produce from farmers we know and trust, and are located within 30 miles from our stand….

All of our products are made or produced in the state of Michigan. Except, of course the glass bottled real cane sugar Coca-cola….

If you know me, you know I can totally get behind a philosophy of local-everything-but-Mexican-Coke (plus olive oil, wine, etc.). Summertime also carries local cheeses, milk, and meats. I didn’t see any pork on their bulletin board, but hopefully they’re working on that one.

We picked up a beautiful butterhead lettuce, green and yellow beans, and 7-grain bread from local bakers Salt of the Earth. For reference, Salt of the Earth is opening up a new restaurant in Fennville, MI where Journeyman Café (sadly) closed this past fall. I’m sorry we missed their opening! It looks like they’ll be ready for customers later this month.

Thanks to Summertime! We much enjoyed our salad. I’d love to return next season.

1 comment | Butterhead, Douglas, Farmers, Farmstand, Green Beans, Lake Michigan, Local, Michigan, Produce, Saugatuck, Seasonal, Summertime Market

This entry was posted by Martha on Thursday, August 6th, 2009 at 9:25 pm and is filed under Farmers Market, Travel. You can subscribe to responses to this entry via RSS.