Picking Perfection!

Fall Sunshine At Ambridge Farmers' Market

What a beautiful afternoon at the Ambridge Farmers' Market!  LFLF arrived to find shoppers enjoying the unseasonably warm 86 degree temperatures ...... surely the last of the year for those highs.  We picked up a box of carrots from the group above. 
It seemed that folks had time to search for their own kind of perfection.   LFLF chose a very nice group of large sweet bell peppers for stuffing.  
This gentleman carefully sorted through the Daikon Radishes, examining each one.  Inspired?  Here are some recipes to try from a farm web-site .......


Ambridge Farmers' Market - Buying Daikon Radishes

 We bought a half gallon of the last cider of the season and then moved on to find another customer happily selecting just the right combination of winter squashes!  The squash come in all sizes, colors, & flavors .... perfect for decorating before you eat them.

Douds-Floyd Farm - Boxing The Perfect Collection Of Squashes!

LFLF is holding off for the colder weather before stocking up on our winter squash.  Don't wait too long though ...... the butternut squash has a way of disappearing if you don't get it early!


Rainy Ambridge Farmers' Market

Ambridge Farmers' Market - Arriving In The Rain!

The Ambridge Farmers' Market opens at 3PM for the rest of the season & goes 'til "dusk".  Well, dusk comes early when it's raining!    LFLF got to the market around 5:45 & only a few dedicated shoppers were still coming & going in the rain.   We hopped out and made the rounds ..... a plate of fudge to take to the office tomorrow, a purple cabbage, & some apple cider. 
We got some nice pictures of squashes & pumpkins in between the rain drops ...... we just love the great varieties of winter squashes.  We like to buy them for Halloween & Thanksgiving season decorations & then use them for baking later!

From Douds-Floyd Farm - Fairy Tale, Jarradale, & Green Hubbard

The chard, kohlrabi, kale, & other greens look great misted by the rain with the pumpkins & squash.
Here's an interesting recipe to try for kohlrabi & egg noodles!

Ambridge Farmers' Market - Swiss Chard, Pumpkins, Celebration Squash, & Kohlrabi

Local Oktoberfest Dinner!

McElhaney Family Farm Truck

LFLF made a great Oktoberfest dinner today using local ingredients sourced from the Ambridge Farmers' Market this week.  First we grilled beef Bratwurst from McElhaney Family Farm.
Then we used red cabbage, a medium onion, 2 Cortland apples, & apple cider in our German style sweet & sour cabbage recipe.  It all came from the market!  Our recipe also included brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, & apple cider vinegar .....
The last local part of the meal was a nice dish of steamed edible pod peas ........

More Pumpkins At Market Today

Ambridge Farmers' Market - Pumpkins & Gourds!

What a beautiful fall day for the Ambridge Farmers' Market this afternoon.  LFLF had a chance to get there a bit earlier than usual and got into the flow with the early shoppers.  Our assignment (from home!) today was to pick up apples, so we got some Melrose apples, apple cider, edible pod peas, & purple cabbage.  The purple cabbage was an inspired choice after having some German Sweet and Sour Cabbage last weekend.  Time to look through the recipe cards!

Oak Spring Farm Apples, Cabbage, Peppers, & Squashes

We were also early enough to get some hot stuffed cabbage to bring home for supper.  The caterer is very popular here at dinner time and she sold out of hot sausage sandwiches while LFLF was in line.
That's PJ's Catering with the red checked tablecloth in the picture below ......

Fausti Farm - Tomatoes, Baked Goods, Apple Cider, & Apples

Reminder ---- the Ambridge Farmers' Market runs on Thursdays until Thankgiving week when the last market of the season is on Tuesday! 

Ambridge Farmers' Market Season!

 

Report From Two Markets!

Beaver Farmers' Market Shoppers Picking Out Mums

LFLF didn't have time to put up a post on the Ambridge Farmers' Market Thursday, so we'll just add it in with the pictures from the Beaver Farmers' Market today ......  After a rainy Saturday last weekend, the local shoppers were out in full force this morning!  We saw LOTS of cut flowers and hardy mums being snapped up today. 

Beaver Farmers' Market - Ridgemont Farms Cut Flowers!

We came home with a bag of Cortland apples, but you could have gotten virtually ANY fruit or vegetable today.  We've been seeing fall red raspberries at market lately ..... better get them soon! 
Let's go back to the Ambridge Farmers' Market on Thursday to get a closer look at some of the veggies at the markets now ........

Ambridge Farmers' Market - Oak Spring Farm Variety

 Lots of greens, leeks, garlic, beets, & potatoes .........

Brenckle Organics

 Then we talked to one of the farmers about Marketing 101!  Seems a customer came by looking for a basket of hot peppers, but didn't seem to want to pick them out herself.  After she moved on, our intrepid farmer picked out two baskets of 15 "select peppers" and put her sign on them ...... the shopper came back past the table again and bought one of the baskets of peppers.  Go figure!  Something we've always found is that you need to have more than one of something so folks can have a choice.  :)

One Basket Of "Select Peppers" Remaining - Upper Left

 LFLF of course, couldn't resist these edible pod peas and also picked up some bread to toast for personal pizzas ........

Peppers & Peas

Event For Beaver Farmers' Market!

Beaver Farmers' Market Garden Q&A This Saturday!

After 2 weeks of going to local fairs on Thursday nights, LFLF stopped at the Ambridge Farmers' Market this afternoon.  We spotted this poster advertising a "Special Appearance"  by Doug Oster & Sister Lyn at the Beaver Farmers' Market coming up this Saturday.  I first met Sister Lyn as she was working on a Community Garden project for the Sisters of St. Joseph Campus (former working farm!) in Baden, PA, back in my Penn State Extension days ........ she is now the Director of Grounds & Eco Projects there.  This should be a fun time to talk with her & Doug Oster of the Post Gazette & the KDKA "The Organic Gardeners" radio talk show.  Bonus - She & Doug are both beekeepers.   The November 3rd Seed - Saving Saturday looks like a great event too! 

Ambridge Farmers' Market - Flowering Kale & Hardy Mums Make An Appearance!

The mums are here, the mums are here!  LFLF will be picking up hardy mums soon.  The secret is picking the ones that aren't in full bloom yet, as far as we're concerned.  We like our mums to be blooming in October with our pumpkin display ....

Cortland Apples

We came home with focaccia bread, Cortland apples, yellow summer squash, & sweet red peppers.  There were plenty of cut flowers, canning tomatoes, sweet peppers, hot peppers, pickling cukes, eggplant, zucchini, beets, garlic, carrots, apples, potatoes, onions, etc. tonight! 

Pickling Cukes & Roma Style Sauce/Paste Tomatoes!

Thursday At The Ambridge Farmers' Market!

LFLF Brought This Home From The Ambridge Farmers' Market!

Thunderstorms for the last couple of nights prevented LFLF from posting our finds from the Ambridge Farmers' Market ........ so, we'll just get caught up today!   Actually, rain was threatening on Thursday when we shopped after work .... luckily for the market, it held off.  White peaches, summer squash, breads, anise biscotti, & lemon basil came home.  We also got the tail end of the stuffed cabbage rolls (yea!), but didn't get them into this picture.  Farmer Becky suggested putting the lemon basil in a vase and that's what we did ----- here it is with our own Black-Eyed Susans sprinkled in.   Great idea while you use the basil! 

Ambridge Market Shoppers

The blog has a sidebar listing of what's in season, so here are some close-ups of several of the fruits & veggies that can be found right now at market!

Fresh Picked Eggplant Varieties

White Peaches

Basils, Tomato, & Sweet Peppers

Summer Herbs & Seasoning



Parsley & Chives

This evening at the Ambridge Farmers' Market, LFLF focused on herbs and other seasoning veggies for summer cooking & grilling.   The potted herbs looked fabulous & we certainly need to get a few plants and pot them up for a little kitchen container garden. 

Varigated Sage

There were little onions for skewering with meat & veggies and these shallots and garlic should inspire some creative grilling!

Shallots

Softneck Garlic

We have to admit that we arrived a bit late at the market tonight. Apparently, it was a beehive of activity today due to the booth set up for Senior nutition vouchers.  A big crowd always shows up for that activity.

Ambridge Farmers' Market Open!

Ambridge Farmers' Market

LFLF was finally around on a Thursday and made it to the Ambridge Farmers' Market!  Lot's of hanging baskets, onions, asparagus, lettuce, rhubarb, snow peas, honey, & strawberries.  We seem to be a couple of weeks ahead on everything in Western PA since it's been such a warm spring.  There is also a hot food vendor as well as a local beef farm - McElhaney Family Farm - perfect for the grill!

Board Meeting At The Market - Decisions, Decisions!

Time For Lavender!

Need Zucchini ???

LFLF is here to report that the markets are packed with fresh fruit, veggies, and flowers.  You can't miss the boxes of tomatoes, baskets of peaches, and piles of zucchini!  Something a little different in the way of zucchini, are what LFLF refers to as the "Personal Zucchini".   Douds-Floyd Farm brought these little beauties to the Ambridge Farmers' Market today.  The round zucchinis make great one or two person portions ..... easy to stuff, too. 

Even close to 6pm, there were customers in line waiting to buy their produce.  And let's not forget Mr. Market holding court at the cooking demo booth!  Eggplant was the featured veggie mixed in with a whole wheat pasta dish .......

Ambridge Market - Front Page!

The Ambridge Farmers' Market made the front page of the Beaver County Times  today!  LFLF was shopping & browsing the market on Thursday ..... part of a very good crowd ..... when we spotted someone with a big telephoto lens camera.  Not the "rinky-dink" cameras that most folks carry around, and certainly not the ubiquitous cell phone cameras that take all of those crummy pics that get passed around the web.  We knew that something was up.  Was someone doing a story?   We got our answer today with this story and interviews from many of our local farmer friends! 

Big Summer Crowd!

The Ambridge Farmers' Market was in full swing on Thursday with a really nice crowd shopping all of the booths.  Today was the first Thursday that LFLF found a really good supply of all kinds of tomatoes and of course, the summer squashes and even a couple of winter squashes were available. 

May-Malone Farm had these great tomatoes and hot peppers ...... a bag of the Juliet tomaotes and the yellow pears came home to make a couple of tomato salads.  Just cut the tomatoes, add onion, salt, pepper, vinegar, & oil and it's ready to go!  

Remember the call for volunteers for cooking demos?  Renee from the Beaver County Penn State Extension office was at the market with recipes and a veggie pasta salad demo.  Very tasty!  More cooks and more demos are to come.   

Lots of Fruit!

The peaches, plums, nectarines, and early apples are all out at the markets now.  The greengage plums are hard to find & only available for a few weeks, so we picked up some of those ..... very sweet!  They were at the Ambridge Farmers' Market on Thursday.

Then it was off to Lisbon Ohio to the feed mill on Saturday morning and a stop at the market in the town courthouse square.  LFLF picked up a dozen ears of local sweetcorn and a cherry pie.  Another good choice!

1st Ambridge Market Today!

By the time I got to the market today in Ambridge, the lettuce & asparagas was sold out, as well as most of Pat's baked goods .....
LFLF got some lovely bunches of new onions.   Just perfect for salad!  There were also bedding plants, herbs, & hanging baskets for sale.  Two of the farmers had potatoes from last fall and they looked great.  I'd expect to see rhubarb and radishes soon.

Windowsill Garden

Rosemary makes a great windowsill garden plant ... this plant was purchased at the Ambridge Farmers' Market 2 years ago. After 2 summers outside and graduating to a larger pot, it's finally coming into it's own as a Christmas tree! It loves the southern window exposure and even came into bloom last week. Most of the clippings are used in the kitchen, so no more dried leaves for LFLF!

Just 2 More Ambridge Markets To Go!

This is about the best we can do for a picture at dusk ..... even with leaving work a few minutes after 5:00, it's getting pretty dark at the market. LFLF is missing the opening rush of customers now, but the people that are buying seem to be stocking up! Apples, cabbages, squashes, potatoes, carrots, leeks .... all seen going out in big bundles and heavy bags! Here are some squash glamour shots ...... 1/2 bushel baskets of mixed winter squashes and some neat info on neck pumpkins.

Hurry to Market

Since the time change, it's "rush off to the Ambridge Farmers' Market" before dark on Thursday evening. Oak leaves were piled high in the middle aisleway of market today ---> swirling and blowing with the changing wind direction! We saw 2 women carting off huge bags of greens & cabbage .... they say it really cooks down. I sure hope so! Look at the pretty little Kuri squashes. Use them as you would any winter squash. And ..... finally, Pat the baker brought gingersnaps to market for the first time in a long while.

Another Rainy Thursday

Thursday came and it rained pretty much all day ..... again. It was colder this week too, with the farmers bundled up in hooded sweatshirts, jackets, & rain ponchos. At least by market time, the rain mostly held off, or was a mist/light drizzle. Of course, all of the regulars & die-hard farmers' market fans were there, rain or not. LFLF came armed with a shopping list that included onions, red cabbage, Melrose apples, romaine lettuce, & potatoes.
The cold weather inspires thoughts of comfort foods. I barely got the picture of cabbage & kale taken before it was snapped up right in front of me. Lesson learned ---> buy first .... take pictures later! And yes, there were 3 cabbages, so one came home.