Category Archives: farmer’s markets

farmer's markets, farms, foraging, locavore

Saturday’s Foraging Adventure

Today we went all over the place…we missed our usual haunts while we were on vacation: our farms, our markets, our farmers.

We began at the Bethel Farmers Market. We got lots of goodies, too numerous to mention from Newtown Cedar Hill Farm,  Maple Bank Farm, Don Taylor’s Farm, and Vaszauskas Farm. By the way Don, those peppers were sweet, not hot! Hat tip to Don’s son Matt (welcome back Matt). The highlight item of the day was apples. I had a Paula Red, my first apple of the season! I sure did miss these, but it was worth the wait. Just a little bit longer until Macouns…
Bethel Market

Then it was on to Holbrooks Farm on the other side of Bethel for some greens, Rose’s berries, fresh mozz (from New Pond), a delicious blueberry scone, and a few other things.

Holbrook's Farm

Onward to Stuarts Family Farm in Bridgewater to replenish our stockpile of beef. We closed out the day at Cherry Grove Farm in Newtown for extremely local honey and also got some habeneros and lots of other fresh delights. Okay, back to the kitchen for some serious puttin’ by.

challenge, CSA, farmer's markets, farms, locavore

CSA, Week 9

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August 20 was the ninth week of our CSA (Waldingfield Farm, pick-up point Sandy Hook Organic Farmer’s Market).

Our bounty:

– patty pan squash
– kale
– green onions
– Asian eggplant
– blue potatoes
– lots of different tomatoes
I’m not sure which is which—here are the choices:

Local meal, no challenge:
– grilled beef filet from Laurel Ridge Farm in Litchfield, CT
– baked blue potato from Waldingfield
– patty pan squash sauteed with green onions and tomato (all from Waldingfield) in olive oil and a tad of chicken broth, salt and pepper (from out there). I used very little seasoning to allow the natural flavors of the vegetables to dominate.

challenge, farmer's markets, locavore

Another Locavore Vacation Day

After spending most of the day in outlets in Manchester buying clothing made in China and Indonesia, we went down to Bennington to their Farmers Market.

We scored:
– organic beets, carrots, garlic, purple “green” beans, Chinese eggplant, and eggs from Wildstone Farm
– organic watermelon from Mighty Food Farm
– corn from Darling Farmstand
– San Marino plum tomatoes, yellow squash, zucchini, and peppers from the Youth Horticulture Project (grown at Mount Anthony Middle School)
– blueberries (no spray) from Apple Hill Orchard
– multi-grain bread from Avonlea Farm Brick Oven Bakery

We feasted:

The “casserole” consists of a bottom layer of hamburger, topped with a sauteed vegetable medley (one of every vegetable we bought, except for the beets and corn, shown separately), topped with Cabot extra sharp cheddar (it’s local here!) and baked just enough to melt the cheese.

challenge, farmer's markets, farms

CSA, Week 7

I’m not usually the member of the household who gets to go to the Sandy Hook Organic Farmers’ Market for our CSA pick-up. The market is open from 2-6 PM and I’m not generally in the neighborhood during those hours. However, this week it needed to be me and so I went.

Boy, have I been missing out. This is a most excellent Farmer’s Market. There’s music, fresh popcorn, and the pop-up tents are arranged like like a little village.

August 5 was the seventh week of our CSA (Waldingfield Farm, pick-up point Sandy Hook Organic Farmer’s Market). Our bounty included:


– lots of red lettuce
– green beans
– patty pan squash
– cucumbers
– green bell peppers
– heirloom tomatoes
– yellow squash
– kale
– jalapeno and chili peppers

Patrick of Waldingfield Farm, serving a customer:

My local dinner (no challenge) was:
A salad of red lettuce (from Waldingfield), a sliced hard-boiled egg (from Arno’s in Kent), shaved cheese (from Sankow’s Beaver Brook), basil (from Stoneledge Hollow), and a sliced pickled jalapeno (from Sister CG at Bluestone Farm). I drizzled some of Waldingfield’s salad dressing over it.