Downtown Farmers Market

Today Heather and I attended the opening day for the Tacoma's Downtown Farmers Market. I love farmers markets. So much fun to roam up one side of the aisle and down the other admiring the artfully arranged produce, tempting bakery items, ice chests filled with frozen meat and fish, and free cheese samples. Flower merchants whip together beautiful bouquets to adorn your tables, crafters proudly display their wares, food vendors from your favorite restaurants, and the people -- what better place to watch people?

Let's back it up a bit. First we must fuel our bodies so that we have the energy to shop, and so we stop at Satellite Coffee. Luckily for us Zachary was the barista on duty, and he quickly whipped us up our morning lattes: 12 oz Mocha with Soy for Heather, and a 12 oz Mocha with Hemp Milk for me. Since it was a special occasion we splurged on a blueberry scone, and a snicker doodle -- yum!

Fueled and ready for the day we arrived at the market to purchase our goods. Heather scored some lovely plants, spinach, green garlic, and rhubarb. I admit that I don't like rhubarb. I don't understand why it's good to take a hard stringy stem, add a bunch of sugar, and cook it to a gooshy-pulp to spoon on ice cream, or bake in a pie or cake. And why must strawberries be sacrificed to this gooey mess?

I copied Heather with the green garlic from Zestful Garden and spinach from Terry's Berries (we both read the Orangette blog on green garlic and spinach soup -- I'll let you know how it turns out), some cows milk blue cheese from Willipa Hills Farmstead Cheese, smoked Alaskan red salmon from Rolf's Choice, and Lime-Riesling Chimichurri from Sound Bites Sauce & Spread Co. My best purchase of the day however was several skeins of reclaimed yarn from the Smart Monkey yarn lady.

Such a fun day, but I was happy to take my treasures home and put my aching feet up for a rest. Can't wait till next Thursday.