Produce-arrific weekend

[gieves]

Saturday morning rolled around and, since I was up before 8, I decided to swing by the Farmer's market to see what there was to see. Upon arriving, I tripped and fell upon temptation, spent all of the money in my wallet and came home with the mother lode of autumnal produce!

Comments

[diffusedglow]

Nice! The pie looks lovely!!

What the heck are ground cherries?

[gieves]

Thanks! I was pretty pleased with the pie overall, and I did think it looked pretty.

Ground cherries are a fruit in the same family (Solanaceae) as tomatoes and tomatillos, but a different genus from the tomatoes (At least, that's what Wikipedia says) They're wild: they taste a little like cherries, pineapple and tomatoes with maybe a hint of vanilla thrown in. Weird as that sounds, they are in fact delicious.

They're supposed to be great in jams and pies, good when dipped in chocolate and are supposed to dry well, like figs. Here is a pretty food blog entry on them with much better pictures than mine.

[gwacie]

Our Tomatoes didn't grow worth a darn this year either; I think it's just a bad tomato year, alas! I had so been looking forward to fresh tomato salads *tragic sigh!*

I too have never heard of Ground Cherries before; interesting! New food is good :)

[gieves]

Yeah, I think it was the excessively wet spring followed by the very dry summer that did us in - that, at least was the opinion of the Master Gardener I asked when everything started dying.

Our tomato salad quotient was also depressingly low, which is why I fell for the heirloom tomatoes at the market. :-)

[butterandjelly]

I am so jealous that you have a nearby farmers' market :(

[gieves]

Yeah, I have to admit to surprise that our local market is open as late in the year as it is!

There is one in Parma and one at the Mustard Seed in Akron, but they're shorter season markets. There's also going to be one from now until spring every Saturday morning in Shaker Square. None of these are really close to you, but they're options!

[cynic51]

Is this the one at Crocker Park? There's also one in Lakewood, within walking distance of my house, that I should check out sometime.

[gieves]

Yup, the one at Crocker Park. They're open - reportedly - until November 22 this year!

[sparklie_lady]

Hurrah for pie crust!!!

That all looks so yummy--where did you go for the raspberries?

[gieves]

We got our raspberries at Rosby's. Part of the incentive was the hard frost on Sunday morning; I figured that the season was just about over and that we'd better pick while we could.

Based on their (daily) website updates, I think there are some berries left, but the cold weather is hitting them hard.

[sparklie_lady]

I was there once. I'm surprised there's anything left. Still in midterm/ party hell, so maybe we'll get there next year!

[gieves]

Well, they usually offer raspberry picking from August until Halloween unless frost kills off the berries earlier.

Sorry about the midterm/party hell! :-(

[wandering_rangr]

Farmers markets are always an evil temptation. I was studiously preparing for my bike tour this weekend at the Library of Congress when I got a text from Mitch telling me about a new Farmers Market that he'd stumbled across on 8th St between D and E and that I really should take the rest of my lunch hr and check it out.

He was right. It was totally awe inspriring. It didn't have any ground cherries (sounds absolutly intriging!) but orchards from all over the local area with apple varieties all priced the same so you could pick and choose. Plus real apple cider! And then a bakery and a stand selling sheep's milk cheese, crab cake venders, even someone with bison meat!!!!

I limited myself to the cash I had on hand (but did break down and used the card to get a hunk of cheese!) and then beat a strategic retreat before my foodie tastes got the better of me too. We're planning a repeat visit tho for some of that bison meat when Mitch's parents come out for a visit.