Underrated (American) Farmers' Markets?

Yes. And I don’t mean that sarcastically either.

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:heart:

I like to make Google maps for my trips and have separate categories for restaurants, farmers markets, bricks and mortar markets, etc. And non-food categories too of course.

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Categories? Is that a Google Maps function or something you do on your own?

Oh wait, I just got the “New List” function to populate on the drop down list!!
Thank you! I never thought to try that!
I can see me having “Favorite Cafes” or “Good for one dish only!” or “Did not meet expectations” or “Must do this activity again!” or…
Thank you, Tamara!

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Google maps allows you to “save” places, and you can create categories.Some are already there like “want to go”.

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Me, too! It’s really a better tool than Yelp, IMO. Especially because I’m constantly clicking “directions” in Yelp because the map tool is lacking. I should make one for Asheville; I have a very few outdated google maps for other cities and then one current (this year) for St. Augustine.

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Wow, now I want to go there!

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I was visiting daughter 3 yesterday as her Emotional Support Dad, during her court date to try to get a reduction on her first ever speeding ticket. It was 21 over the limit, which in NC is a reckless diving charge and a Class 3 misdemeanor.

That went well - the DA accepted her going to driving school as enough penance and dismissed it. She didn’t have to pay court fees, which to me was odd. All of my experience with speeding ticket “diversion” type programs still charge you court costs plus the amount the original ticket would have been, so the only benefit there is keeping it off your record.

Sorry, back to the topic - my daughter told me about a roadside produce market I’d pass on my way back home, called Shearl Produce. It’s about 10 miles south of Franklin, NC if anyone’s near there.

Wowza! I didn’t count, but they had what seemed like 20 varieties of apples, most locally grown (signs told you which were not, I think only Cosmic Crisp and one other), all at less than half what I see in the grocery.

Heritage, beefsteak, green tomatoes about 1/3 my usual cost. They had a table set up with clearance buckets for $3 each (“but you can’t keep our bucket”). I got one with almost 7 pounds of big tomatoes that were just fine other than having a blemish or two - what I had to cut out amounted to about 5 grams per tomato. That would have cost me over $30 here.

My wife and oldest daughter (and my grandson) all love roasted butternut squash cubes. I’ve been paying about $2.40/lb and they were $1.50/lb there. They also had (what I now know) are fairly common squashes that were new to me, like chayote (aka cho cho, mirliton, other names) and honeynut squash, so I got some of them.

(I went a little nuts and came home with about $40 in produce.)

I’m used to the farmer’s markets locally not having a lot of great stuff, charging similar to the groceries, and being loaded with stuff they’re just buying and reselling - most of the honeys, syrups, jams, and a lot of the canned (glass canning, I mean) goods.

I’m very happy with this place and will hit it up every time I’m in the area.

Edit -

@shrinkrap - Hi, I searched the cho cho squash here and saw you had some experience with them. I want to make a medley roasted squash dish (cho cho, honeynut, butternut) but the internet seems extremely conflicted about whether the butternut or cho cho takes longer to roast.

If you’ve ever roasted the cho cho as (roughly) 2cm cubes, can you recall time & temp?

Many thanks!

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I have not roasted it because I find summer squash watery, and prefer it cooked briefly if at all. I think winter squash, such as the others you mention, are denser and would take quite a bit longer. Locally cho cho is sold as chayote and is usually cooked, so searching that way may help.

My inlaws cook it, but usually briefly on the stove. I’ll be sure to ask!

Sounds like a great farmer’s market, but it seems far from anything I am familiar with.

I just ordered honeynut from my CSA.!

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Thanks!

I just saw Emeril make “stuffed miriliton”.

This wasn’t the episode I just saw, but it works!

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In the French Caribbean, the chayote, cho cho is called christophene. Very often it is served stuffed. I’m a big fan of them. When I make it at home, I microwave them until the flesh is tender. Split them open and remove the soft pit. Scoop out the pulp and leave about 1/4" of flesh on the skin. Mash the pulp and then depending on the mood, cook up some aromatics like garlic, onions, celery, carrot, herbs, etc. Mix in some bread crumbs and a bit of cheese. You could stop there but in the islands its very typical to add some type of seafood. Could be cleaned shredded salt cod, land crab, whatever. Stuff then broil for a nice crusty top.

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The SF Ferry Building FM gets a lot of attention but it’s a massive zoo and the prices can shock.

The oldest FM in SF, Alemany, is underrated. Been around forever, had taco trucks before they were hip and produce catering to different ethnicities. It has permanent stalls on site.

https://www.sf.gov/location/alemany-farmers-market

The Old Oakland FM is small but lots of local farmers and a handful who specialize in Asian produce.

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There’s an episode of The Simpsons where the family is in NYC. Bart sees 3 Hasidic men and says, “It’s ZZ Top! You guys rock!” One of the men shrugs and replies, “Eh, maybe a little.”

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The Sunday Fremont market has lots of vendors selling Asian produce, befitting an area with lots of Chinese and South Asians.

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Anyone seen the movie Witness?

There is a scene where the little Amish boy who is lost in NYC runs up to an Orthodox Jew thinking at first he was also Amish.

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i live in somerville ma. in the greater boston area, between mid-may and late november, we have farmers markets 7 days a week —all easily reachable by public transportation. and in somerville and cambridge, there are weekend winter markets.

not to pile on, but, we also have 9 — 9! — trader joe’s we can get to by bus and subway.

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