The farmer's market is open!

Deer Ridge Farm, famous for flowers,
syrup and honey, now with lots of eggs too.

Hooray, today's the day we've been looking forward to ever since the Brattleboro Farmer's Market closed for the season in the fall. It's open again! We'll be going every Saturday from now until October (unless for some reason we really really can't, like cuz we're in Canada or something). This season my plan is to blog about what we get each week and how we use it. I hope you'll comment about your own favorite uses for these things, too, we can get a nice archive of How to Use New England Produce going! Here are a few snaps from around the market.

Sprouts at Old Athens Farm.

Radishes and greens at Old Athens Farm.

They also had cucumbers. I jokingly asked why they didn't have tomatoes yet

and I was surprised to hear they might be ready in a couple weeks!
(Old Athens Farm is famous for having early tomatoes. Can't wait.)

Here are greens and herbs from Akaogi Farm. That pile in
the front is cilantro and was soon in my basket.

This is my pile of purchases: eggs, a scone, 2 heads of lettuce (one red, one buttery green), radishes, cilantro, bok choy and a cucumber. The first thing I'm going to make is a salad, of course! Winter is officially over and done and gone when I can have my first local salad of the year. I was also tempted by the ramps and the nettles at the farmer's market, but they seemed rather expensive. I am loath to pay $7.00 a pound for something I can "wildcraft" myself for free. Hmm, that makes me think I'll go pick some violets from the front lawn and put them in my salad.