Sunday, July 20, 2008

Alemany Farmer's Market

Normally Steve and I hit up the Ferry Building Farmer's Market every Saturday morning. We love the atmosphere at the Ferry Building...we love the specialty foods...the breakfast sandwiches...it's in our neighborhood after all...but we never leave with much produce. It's super expensive and while I agree that it's good to support local farmers, I can't help but think that cutting out the middleman should lower the prices a tiny bit. The other weekend Nate & Courtney were talking about the Alemany Farmer's Market that they like to frequent. Saturday morning we met them there bright and early and had a great time! It's not as snobberific as the Ferry Building (I can say that b/c I love the Ferry Building Farmer's Market with all my heart), but it was fantastic! Everything a farmer's market should be!

Here's Courtney and me about to embark on our journey into the market.

Courtney was a total pro...not intimidated at all by all the crazy produce.
Steve and Nate however were totally intimidated and confused about this item. Turns out it's called a bitter melon. Seriously it is...the lady in the teddy bear jacket told us so. When we asked the vendors what certain things were and how you'd cook them the generic answer we kept getting was "chop it up!!! stir fry!!! stir fry!!!"
Steve wouldn't let me buy beets. I love beets.
We didn't buy any flowers but we should have.
Steve and I ended up focusing on homemade salsa ingredients.
Nate and Courtney bought lots of produce and went crazy and bought some fish.
We didn't even miss our standard Saturday morning breakfast sandwich because there was a vendor cooking up freshly made pupusas to order. The best I've ever tasted. Like wow delicious (Jeremy, you'll flip your lid when you try them).
The best part about going to the Alemany Farmer's Market is that you can play the game called "See how much you can get for $10." This was our haul from Saturday. Can you believe it!? We even gave 1/2 the bunch of lemongrass we bought to the Grover's. Does anyone know how to use lemongrass?

12 comments:

Alice said...

When we get back I wanna come to the farmers market with you. I'm going to miss how Zürich has one every Tuesday and Friday ALL YEAR LONG! So cool huh?

Johanna said...

When I lived in Brighton (UK) I used to go to the farm shop that was across the street from where I lived. It feels so much fresher and I think the taste is better as well. I also had the bonus of it being cheaper.

You can use lemongrass in woks, it's nice with chicken and coconut milk. You can also use it in marinades or even in some desserts.

Damian said...

Another nice thing to do with lemongrass is make Tom Kha Gai Soup (I thing I prolly misspelt).

Sometimes I am jealous of other's lives.

Erica said...

loving the homemade salsa! and missing the farmer's markets!

Lindsay said...

We play "see how much you can get for $10" every Saturday at the Farmer's Market in Sunnyvale! Also, I love bitter melon...my mom makes it in soup. It's yummy. And so is the cilantro lime marinade recipe you posted. I made it this weekend and it was a HUGE hit!

Betsy said...

Farmer's Market Party!!!
Thanks for the ideas...Damian, I want to try that soup...and Astrid, anything w/coconut milk sounds good to me.

Linds...we're going to UT this weekend but need to reserve a time to visit the following weekend so we can shower little baby Cooper with gifts of organic produce...

Steve said...

I hope I get it...

Betsy said...

Honey...I get it...you loved a Chorus Line. For those of you who have seen A Chorus Line, Steve is singing a line from it every time he posts "I hope I get it..."

Lee said...

I have nothing to say about farmer's markets or lemongrass, but I wanted to let it known that I have finally moved on from TNA and am ready to read about The Sanotoses.
Peace.

Betsy said...

hooray! lee, how lovely to see you round these parts! i still think maybe you should take over TNA for us. i'm not closed off to that idea.

i think we should have a party in slc this weekend when steve and i come to visit.

Lee said...

I wouldn't mind taking that over in some way. I'd leave it pink, of course, but there would be a lot more farts.

k8 said...

nate and courtney! hooray!