I spent a few weekends in LA for a little vacation and activities surrounding a friend’s wedding (more on that trip in another post), so I’d missed out on the last three Sunday Heart of the City Farmers’ Markets. This is my favorite farmers’ market in San Francisco. I find the Ferry Building market too overpriced, and the Crocker Galleria market, while convenient, has a limited selection. The Heart of the City market is located in the United Nations Plaza, at the base of the sketchy part of the Tenderloin. It tends to get a lot of people from the neighborhood, the stands feature a lot of ethnic produce (yay – dragonfruit!) and the prices are usually reasonable.
Sadly, we’re approaching the end of tomato and peach season. I bought a few pounds of dry-farmed tomatoes, which are so sweet they can (and should) be eaten plain. And yellow peaches are looking scrawny and kind of beat up, which hides the fact that they are incredibly sweet and juicy. I got a few pounds of those, too. I meant to make jam or cobbler filling with them, but somehow managed to eat most of them this afternoon.
I love this time of year. I let what’s in season dictate what I eat. I find myself eating incredibly well, and I also find that I eat a lot less meat (though I make up for that by eating a lot more cheese).
So, here’s what I bought:
- Dry-farmed tomatoes
- Cauliflower
- Dates
- Carrots
- Cling peaches
- Gala apples (and some other, no-name apples)
- Flowers
- Squash blossoms
- Tomatillos
- Basil
- Cantaloupe
- Potatoes
- Honey (on the comb!)
- Onions and garlic
- Red and green peppers
And here’s what I’m going to eat this week:
- Fried squash blossoms stuffed with tomatoes, goat cheese and basil
- Rye crackers with bleu cheese and honeycomb
- Potato enchiladas with homemade tomatillo salsa
- Muffuletta sandwiches with olive and cauliflower spread
- Oatmeal cookies with coconut and dates
- Red pepper and eggplant spread on bread
Pickling cucumbers were down to $1/lb. I’m hoping they’ll drop to $0.50/lb soon so I can make a year’s worth of pickles… and then, after that, it’s apple butter season!
Sometimes I think that I’m really a grandma at heart.
This comment has been removed by the author.