Week 2:

The Shop

I was very late getting to the market yesterday (mid-afternoon) and I'll never do that again. It was absolute madness. Of course, it was absolutely gorgeous; high seventies, robin's egg blue sky, light breeze coming on the heels of three days of rain, everyone and his brother was out enjoying it. There also seemed to be hordes of trainees--we're talking multiple groups of a dozen or so guys wearing uniform shirts--wandering aimlessly in the shopping zone. When the market is that crowded, shoppers can become a bit testy. However my favorite overheard annoyed comment of the day was some guy on his cell phone just passing through: he was talking about the importance of fresh produce and complaining that he was trying to get to Whole Foods to get some, but "there's something going on in Union Square--tons of people--I don't know what the hell is going on!" Hmmm...glad you're tuned in to the fresh organic produce scene.

Anyway, the summer produce is still in stock, but more and more fall items are showing up in the stalls. I tried to do a bit of a cross-over this time around.

The List

russet potatoes
cantaloup (Hoeffner Farms again, although they're smaller in size this week)
beautiful green bell peppers (varigated with streaks of chocolate and flame)
crimini mushrooms
green beans
gravenstein apples (Terhune Orchards)
pears (Terhune Orchards)

I'm hoping the apples and pears make it into a dish, but honestly, they're so good that I think they'll be gone long before I get around to cooking with them.