It Rained On The Beaver Farmers' Market!

Customers Came Out And Dodged The Rain!

Market attendance was down a bit - always is when folks look out in the morning and actually see rain - but the faithful were there!  You can see them lined up at the Jodikinos Farm tent ...
LFLF came home with beets, sweet corn, cucumbers, yellow summer squash, cookies & Focaccia bread. 
It wasn't a great time to have the camera out constantly, but here are some veggie close-ups of what's in season:

Baskets Of New Red Potatoes & Cukes

Summer Squashes Highlighted With Rain Drops

Purple Kohlrabi & Beets

Focaccia, White Bread, & Pineapple Zucchini Bread

A Visit To The Sewickley Farmers' Market !

 

Shoppers At The Sewickley Farmers' Market

Once again, you can't miss the signs directing you to the Sewickley Farmers' Market!  It was a brilliant sunny & warm Saturday & LFLF was out and about o this side of the Ohio River.

Sewickley Farmers' Market - Follow The Signs --->





Dillner Family Farm Customers

Peas, Strawberries, & Eggs From Dillner Family Farm

Green Onions, Beets, & Rhubarb At Dillner Family Farm

Today we stuck with photos of the farmer vendors ... leading off with Dillner Family Farm  and  Clarion River Organics . 
There are also plenty of food & specialty vendors to choose from here.  You can certainly take home something ready to eat or pick up unique gift items!

Clarion River Organics - A Great Selection of Greens!

McElhaney Family Farm - Customers Making Their Beef Selections

Cherry Valley Organics - Yes, We Have Lemon Grass!

Cherry Valley Organics - Soaps & Lip Products

Cherry Valley Organics had a very nice selection of personal care products in addition to the herb & veggies plants offered today with more organic produce as the season progresses ...
Speaking of the season progressing, the folks from Brown's Pure Maple Products said that they had a late start to the season this year.  Normally finishing around the 1st of April, they went a week longer with their maple taps up in Venango County ... everyone seems to be a week or two behind this spring.

Buying Maple Syrup From Brown's

Here's a close-up of the maple syrup products ... too many to fit in one picture!

Half of The Selection at Brown's Pure Maple Products ...

The Other Half of Brown's Pure Maple Products!

 

Raspberries This Week!

Fresh Picked Black & Red Raspberries At Beaver Farmers' Market

Now the raspberries are in season and LFLF had to get three containers for a pie .... we'll add these to some home grown sour cherries for a cherry/berry pie! 

Beets, beets, beets .....

We also got some of the beets for dinner later in the week ....... one of the customers was getting a bunch of each to make a beet salad. 

Summer Squash Variety!

All in all, a happy morning crowd lined up and dodging the rain forecast!

Customers in line At Enon Country Gardens

Market Goodies!

Mixed Bouquet From Ridgemont Farms

LFLF made it to the Ambridge Farmers' Market this evening after work.  The flowers were gorgeous tonight & I picked out 2 bunches for an arrangement at home.  Robin from Ridgemont Farms  says that the flowers are just exploding --- snapdragons came on quickly & are in their full glory thanks to this heat wave.  This is a great time to look over a big selection of bouquets ---- see this farm at the Beaver Market on Saturday.
Of course it was hot, so I decided to get something for supper.  Stuffed cabbage & pulled pork were first on the agenda.  Then it was off to pick up some summer squash and other veggies. 

Yellow Transparent Apples - 1st Of The Season

There were some  Yellow Transparent apples this week .... click to read a story to go with them.

Golden Beets

Preserving & Cooking the Harvest

Sorry to take so long to get this up on the blog, but it's been a BUSY week. Things started happening on Wednesday when my friend (and market garden grower) Karen & I went to the "Preserving Food at Home: A Home Canning Workshop" sponsored by Penn State Cooperative Extension. There was a really good crowd of 40 (women & men!) gathered to learn the latest techniques and recommendations for preserving food at home. It must be the economy and the concerns about our food safety that has made these programs really popular this year! It was a special treat to see my former colleague Pat Leach, now retired from PSCE in Indiana County. Pat has such a wealth of knowledge and personnal experience in this area & is a Penn State Master Food Preserver. If you're interested in preserving, check out the Penn State publications and get a copy of the current Ball Blue Book. Be sure to check out the rest of the Ball site when you're there ..... tons of good info.

Then it was off to the Ambridge Farmers' Market after work on Thursday. Luckily, the rain wasn't an issue when we got to the market. It came by later in the evening, which was a good thing for the Beet Cooking Demo--> going on at market! I don't know about you, but most people have only boiled beets or avoided beets because they don't know what to do with them! Everyone was gathered around the tent to watch Renee Squire from the Beaver County Penn State Cooperative Extension office demonstrate grilling beets and sauteeing the beet tops with fresh onion & garlic as a side dish. The two of us from my office at work both tried the recipes and we loved them! Here's a grilled beet recipe using rosemary that might be interesting to try .....
Finally, a look at some beautiful veggies. These round zucchinis look perfect for stuffing. And remember that August 8th is "National Leave Some Zucchini on Your Neighbor's Porch Night" in case you are overwhelmed with this veggie!

Here's a cabbage that cries out "TAKE ME HOME"! It was so big that it had it's own personal tote for market. That's a lot of Haluski!