Farmer's Market Notes, or: A Goat is Never Too Old

Here is Rick Hood's asparagus, picture taken by my friend Neil Dundee. Three vendors at the farmer's market had asparagus this week. All of the asparagus looked different. Yeon bought all three so I am sure she will share them with you.

At the farmer's market today, Yeon and I learned from Alice of CapriKorn Farms that her goat's milk cheeses were featured at the opening of the Annapolis Whole Foods. Whole Foods in the Mid-Atlantic is selling her cheeses to their stores. Each Whole Foods store decides which cheeses to buy from which suppliers. Alice said that she had been in a Safeway recently, and they had a cheese like hers imported from the Netherlands at a similar price point to hers, and it made her think that they ought to carry local cheeses. A different large grocery chain has contacted her about selling her cheese and she is very excited.

Alice also told us that her husband put an old buck in with the female goats this winter thinking he was too old to cause trouble, but now 34 out of 36 of her she-goats are pregnant; she is rushing to make room for all of the babies that are coming, because her pens are not big enough.

Yeon and I talked to a lot of vendors to put together ideas for the Farmer's Market Festival, which we are planning for May 30. More details forthcoming.

I got some great stuff at the market today; a sirloin, mocha milk, new garlic, baby spinach, espresso-chocolate cookie, swiss chard, goat-cow cheddar...

Yeon gave me a gorgeous book today about heirloom tomatoes. I read half of it this evening, consuming the information about new-to-me heirloom tomato varieties like an aphid going to town on your vegetable seedlings. There were also some amazing recipes; I can't wait to make the tomato jam with red wine and saba vinegar (to quote the book, "a sweet syrup made from the must of Trebbiano grapes") or the tomato-avocado salad with garlic toasts and chevre cream. Drool.

Shannon