Last 2008 Farmers Market on the Square, But it’s Not Really Over

We went to the Dane County Farmers’ Market early this morning. Rewarded for our efforts, we came home with the quintessential cheese curds made that very morning, a colorful mix of purple, yellow, blue, and white potatoes, ground emu meat, and parsley pine-nut pesto. A good haul, but it wasn’t a pleasant stroll around the Capitol Square as usual. After all, we’re in the second week of November – it was cold and snow flurries were spewing from the gray clouds. It only makes sense that this is the last market on the Square for 2008. But wait!

Unlike in the earliest years of the market, this doesn’t mean the end of Saturday morning forays to visit the farmers and survey their goodies. The market moves inside next week, none too soon for my way of thinking. After all, while I love the market, I’m not fond of getting frozen fingers checking out the produce.

The indoors market opens next Saturday, November 15, and continues weekly through December 20th. The hours are shorter than in the summer – from 7:30 am to noon. It is held at the Monona Terrace, just a few blocks east of the summer location.

There is plenty of variety available, even in the colder months. Fruits such as apples and pears are available, plus apple cider, and apple and pear butters. Stored vegetables will include carrots, garlic, potatoes, and turnips. There are a few fresh vegetables – chard, greens, kale, lettuce, radishes, spinach and tomatoes. Meat varieties are almost endless. There are your standards found in any meat section, plus bison, emu and ostrich.

Plenty of offerings to keep my Saturday mornings booked for the foreseeable future.

Lunch at the Farmers Market

Dane County Farmers’ Market was in full swing this morning. I came home with vine-ripened tomatoes, corn on the cob picked at dawn, yellow and red peppers, eight different varietals of garlic, pumpkin bread, cheese bread, ostrich burgers, and a huge bouquet of orange, yellow and deep red lilies. But the highlight was the purchase of pumpkin blossoms. We dipped them in egg and seasoned flour–actually the same flour mix we use to pan fry our fish we catch in Lake Mendota–and then fried them in butter. To round out lunch, we had grilled cheese and tomato sandwiches, and drippy-fresh peaches.

Summer eating at its best.

–Bo Mackison is a Madison area writer and photographer who likes to visit the Farmers’ Market on Saturday mornings, cruising for photos and fresh food for the week. Visit her photo gallery at Seeded Earth Photography. Photograph “Real Tomatoes” © 2008 by Bo Mackison. All rights reserved.