How this idea came together....

ME

I grew up in Wisconsin where my dad kept fruit trees and a sizable vegetable garden in our backyard. My mom taught me to cook, much of the time using the things my dad had grown. Making dinner most summer and fall nights involved the phrase--Tina, go outside and pick what's ready.

Now I live in New York City. Manhattan to be exact. No matter what I've done to pay the rent, cooking has always been my art and my sanity. Moving here, I learned that the freshness of produce in many grocery stores is questionable and really, they just don't have the same flavor that home grown does. To meet my desire for freshness, I became adept at smuggling frozen meat and fresh produce in from Wisconsin and growing a few vegetables in tiny containers on our terrace. Due to limitations of space and the unacceptable overhead that airline tickets added to the cost of seckel pears, my efforts were frustrating.

Then I discovered the Union Square Farmers Market.

I make a couple of visits a week, picking up lunch here or a dinner side there. But Saturdays are the best. I go early in the morning, do a sweep through--eyeing what's available at all the stands--then working my way backward to pick up whatever looks best. Then take it all home and figure out what my purchases can be paired with to compose entire meals for the weekend. It can be challenging, depending on season, availability and expense. It's definitely rewarding and more often than not, absolutely delicious.

The Blog

On Mondays, I have an exchange with a friend in D.C., in which we describe the highlights of our weekend's culinary exploits. An informal accounting of triumphs and the occasional defeat. I look forward to it each week.

I've taken a couple of recreational cooking classes at the Institute for Culinary Education so I get their class publication. The last publication I received listed a class entitled Greenmarket Cooking:

Richard Ruben, author of The Farmer's Market Cookbook and IACP 2003 Cooking Teacher of the Year, will teach you to take advantage of the best seasonal offerings. Part walking tour, part cooking class, the class commences at the Union Square Greenmarket to shop for the day's meal, then heads back to the school's kitchens to prepare an impromptu feast. Employ your creative spirit and enjoy a complete meal from the ingredients that you discovered at the market.

I started laughing aloud when I read it. My husband asked why. "They have a class in here for $95 that I would call "Saturday". Thus inspired by my family, love of fresh local food and to a degree, the Julie/Julia project, I decided to challenge myself to blog one year of Saturdays...what's good at the market, what I buy and what dishes I make from my purchases as well as how they rate with my gustatory guinea pig(s). In the end, I hope to have a seasonal record not only of produce, but also of my extemporaneous recipes.

I almost feel like I'm cheating starting at the end of summer given the abundance that results...but tomorrow, I begin!