A Trip to the Bucket

Yesterday we ventured out in the rain to explore the Pawtucket Winter Farmer's Market at Hope Artiste Village. The Hope Artiste Village on Main Street, was the largest Mill restoration in Rhode Island. The building is beautiful, and I did think it was the perfect place for the Farmer's Market, making the trip in the pouring rain not such a big deal. As for the Market itself, I have been thinking about this since we left there. In fact Mad Dog and I talked about it on our ride to my Mom's afterwards. What is the one word that would sum up the Market?

"Overwhelming". Yes, overwhelming and for numerous reasons. The Market is more of a social event (tracing back to the Markets of our ancestors) for most of those who visit it, this could have been because it was raining out, but there were a lot of people hanging around, chit chatting and not shopping the booths. This makes shopping difficult for those people who have a purpose or newcomers to the Market. The space is not meant for strollers, so if you have little ones and they can't walk it might be a good idea to find someone who can watch them. The crowd makes it hard to maneuver through it, I find it amazing that I'm saying this since we have attended multiple comic conventions with strollers larger than the mini-umbrella stroller we took here and didn't have any issue.

The Market is laid out the same way weekly, which makes it helpful, if  you know who you want to visit. I liked this. It also made it possible for me to find out who I had talked to and purchased from, since I had a very hard time talking to anyone and collecting informations. We got there around 12:30ish and some of the people I talked with didn't have information (such as business cards) left or in some cases there was no information about the farm or business at all. This was not a plus for first time visitors to the Market. I want to learn as much as I can about the people we are doing business with and this just didn't work for me. The people I did talk to were very friendly and helpful regarding their businesses and products.

A few other thing to know about the Market. Most of the vendors take cash only, however the Market supports a program called Fresh Bucks. The main booth a the start of the Market is equipped with a wireless credit card machine. For a small fee you can have the swipe your card for a designated amount, in return you will receive Fresh Buck Coins. The coins are in $1.00 and $5.00 increments, which can be used at the booths through out the Market. Using the $5.00 coins will result in receiving change from the farms and vendors in cash, which makes it easy to continue with your shopping through the market.  Several of the vendors were nice enough to explain the process to people asking about credit cards, but Mad Dog found that if you asked most of the vendors said they just took cash and didn't mention the service. We don't know if this means not all the vendors except the Fresh Buck Coins or some choose to discourage the use with their business.

The Market has a variety of products: seafood, meats, cheeses, yogurts, bread, pastries, jams, honey, sauces, veggies, fruits, plants, eggs, herbs and cider. I recommend walking the length of the Market before making any purchases. See that people have and prices things out. If you have little ones be prepared to buy them something sweet, and watch them. There are lots of vendors and stuff tends to be at kids level, so keep an eye on them letting them know to ask before touching. A lot of vendors experience the "Grab and No" - child grabs a product and the parent says "No" to buying it. Most of these products are food, and not necessarily wrapped individually, so a grabbing hand ruins the product and makes it unsellable.

What did we purchase? We bought sweet potatoes and shallots from Hopkins Farm, in North Scituate, RI. They were very friendly and had a variety of winter vegetables. They also excepted and talked up Fresh Bucks and offered bags if needed. I moved on to Schartner Farms of Exeter, RI where I purchased a bag of Rye Flour. Lex found his way to Cutie Pies where for a $1.00 he tasted a Chocolate Irish Cream pie. He wore it all over his face. I managed to taste cheese from Narragansett Creamery which were wonderful, but the sampling at their table makes it very difficult to speak with any of the many people they have on hand to assist customers. I ran into a woman who was carrying a container of Honeycomb, something that Mad Dog has been dying to try for a while now. She was nice enough to point me in the right direction where I found Aquidneck Honey. There I spoke with Jeffrey Mello, Bee Keeper. After speaking with him and listening to his food porn, he explained how I should enjoy my first sample of honeycomb in detail. I purchased a package of cut honeycomb. Which we enjoyed that evening exactly the way he told us to: get a good artisan bread (we picked up at the market from Olga's Cup & Saucer) sliced thin, spread the honeycomb on it and then sprinkle Asiago Cheese over it. Place in an oven at 200 degrees for 20 minutes. Enjoy it with a nice glass of Merlot Wine. He was right - it was amazing. Mad Dog and I had that treat after the kids went to bed.

Our last stop before leaving was at The Cupcakerie owned by Kristin Brennan. I picked up a mini variety pack from here for $7.50. We sampled some of them at my Mom's and then later at home. Our favorites were The Red Elvis (red velvet), the Lemon Drop, Cookies N' Cream and Wake Up and Smell the Cupcake (mocha with espresso cream ).

Overall the Market is completely worth it, you just need to be prepared:

1. Bring your own bags.
2. Bring Cash. 
3. Make a list, but be prepared to be flexible. 
4. Don't go hungry!
5. Shop around, and ask questions.
6. If you have little, little ones (infants) you're best bet is to use a Baby Bjorn or sling, otherwise leave them at home. 

A Winter's Tale

The family headed out to the Natick Winter Farmer's Market this morning. A small winter farmer's market that runs from January 9th to March 27th that is held in the gym Johnson Elementary School it has about 16 or 17 local sources to select from. Though I packed my camera and complete planned to document the trip, I didn't. We have to find the balance between talking to people, managing Lex and sampling things a bit better. Having said that Lex was nice enough to take his camera long and documented each vendor, I have posted some of the best here.

On walking in there were two sources for seafood. One (saddly we didn't get to speak with them) had Salmon, Swordfish (both not locally sourced), but did have Haddock from Gloucester, MA. The other was C&C Lobster from Hull, MA they had Chix Lobsters on site for $6.99. We tasted some Cashew Chicken from Healthy Habits Kitchen in Wellesley, a business that sells healthy food kits that comes with all the things you need to make a meal is less then 400 calories, 30% fat and 800 mg of sodium. Chestnut Farms in Harwick was on hand, they run a meat CSA, something Mad Dog is interested in doing, though I'm not sure about the initial cost. They not only attend the Natick Common Farmer's Market in the Spring and Summer (Saturday 9A-1P) they can also be found at Lexington Common on Tuesdays 2p-6:30P and Arlington (Russell Commons Parking Lot) Wednesday 1P-6:30P. That was it for proteins.

Dairy we found a wealth of possibilities. We met Lawton's Family Farm, which happens to be in Foxboro, MA. I had found them online recently and with it being so close to work for me, I had made plans to check the out. The not only do Raw Milk they also do cheese. They make a wonderful Asiago Cheese and a Fromage Blanc, a spreadable cheese with a buttery flavor. They had samples of both and the Formage Blanc in 3 different flavors: Plain, Lemon & Honey and Tomato & Basil. We picked up the Lemon and Honey which is amazing. It has a clean fresh taste. I had some on crackers at home with my blueberry yogurt, the lemon really complimented the blueberry. The tubs of Fromage Blanc were $8.00. We also found some fresh Mozzarella courtesy of Foir D'Itailia in Manchester, VT (yes, it's within our 100 miles!). The Mozzarella was $5.00 for ball of the fresh cheese. We had a taste when we got home, very yummy. The also sell fresh pastas. I spoke to the gentleman at their table. He said that the market breaks and the moves into the spring/summer market. He said they hate for it to end, but they'll be back soon than you think.

Other vendors included In Good Taste, which Mad Dog sampled and loved their Salstina. Mad Dog discribed the Salstina as a hummas texture, but made from peas! Okay this is amazing, because if you know Mad Dog, you know he doesn't eat "Frog Eyes"- it just doesn't happen. Yet we bought an 8 oz container of it for $5.00. I'm sorry to say they don't have a website. The sample I had was very good and like I said for Mad Dog to actually want to by it is amazing. If you're interested in finding Pam Granese who makes the wonderful Salstina I have linked her email address from her business care here. Mad Dog also sampled honey candy from Om Sweet Om Bee Products in Holliston. I missed it since Lex was keeping my focus from other things. I picked up a Batard Bread from B&R Artistan Breads in Framingham, MA. It was a Walnut Wheat loaf, which was hand made using old world traditions. The bread screams this when you touch it. Makes me think about the scene in Ratatouille, when Collete teaches Linguini about how to tell a good bread, the way it sounds! This is that type of bread, you hear the outer shell crack with love. Lex also had a love Honey cake from a local Baker, which he loved. It was recommend, since another little boy who attends the marker each weekend gets one.

There were a few other vendors there, one with produce, which we sadly didn't get to, because there were too many people around him. We don't know if this produce was local, but we're guessing yes. I believe it might have been Freitas Farm in Middleborough.

This is a small Winter Market, but the sources were worth the field-trip. They only accept cash, which is something to keep in mind. We limited ourselves to $22.00, which was the cash I had on me. We'll have a better idea next time what to expect.