COURTESY BAYFIELD COUNTY TOURISM
402recbox1
Like this variety at the Bayfield Farmers Market, fresh offerings from local producers creates the charm of shopping at local farm markets.
One breezy summer Saturday morning, I took the 8 a.m. ferry from Madeline Island to Bayfield, Wisconsin, where the weekly farmers market runs from spring to fall down First Street, just off Manypenny Avenue.
COURTESY SUPERIOR BUSINESS IMPROVEMENT DISTRICT
402recbox3
Besides good food, you can pick up locally grown plants, for example, among the other offerings at Superior’s farmers markets.
Walking to the end of the street, I was swept into a kaleidescope of colors – vibrant green beans, stubby orange carrots, ropes of yellowy fat garlic, and the brilliant reds of tiny plump cherries and raspberries as big as my thumb.
Year after year, my visits to the local farmers market produces far more than a week’s worth of groceries or the makings for blueberry jam. The heaped tables deliver a living calendar detailing our harvest bounty, week by week. Even early in the season, before crops come in, the markets offer wildflower honey, maple syrup, cheese, eggs, poultry, game, wild rice, flour and grains, artisan breads and preserves.
These markets engage our senses and connect us to each other, and to our food, in casual, spontaneous, and occasionally profound ways. Waiting in line for coffee, I often find myself chatting with neighbors I have yet to meet, sharing recipes, stories and memories of meals past.
Through chats with the market growers and producers, I’ve learned more about my food than I have through books, I’ve come to understand how the methods used to produce vegetables, grow organic apples or make farmstead cheeses affect their flavor and nutrition. I’ve learned how some practices support a vibrant local economy while protecting the water, land and wildlife.
What I don’t look for are cheap prices. Much of the produce available here is grown sustainably: rotating crops to restore nutrients to the soil, employing pest-eating critters and labor-intensive weeding in lieu of toxic chemicals. Lamb, pork, beef, buffalo, chicken, dairy and egg farmers avoid antibiotics and hormones and allow their animals range free.
If we are what we eat, then regular trips to the farmers markets help us learn more about who we are and where we are. When I exchange money with the farmer whose carrots resemble his earth stained hands, I’m reminded that this is as close as I will ever get to planting, weeding and harvesting this food myself. These direct transactions between farmer and cook, ancient as civilization, connect us city-dwellers to the country and to the good earth.
Beth’s Go-to-Market Tips
• Forget your shopping list. Enter the market with an open mind. Grab a cup of coffee and stroll, imagining how the foods you see might work together. Will the zucchini, eggs and bacon inspire a quiche?
• Bring your own basket or bag.
• Ask the growers about their food, storage ideas or preparation tips. Most of them love to cook, and I’ve learned a lot from them. Many have recipes online or to hand out at the market, especially for unusual produce.
• Bring cash. Some, but not all can take credit cards.
Simplest Summer Soup & Herb Toast
Here’s a garden in a bowl. Vary the vegetables depending on what you find at the market. Serves 6
Ingredients:
For the soup
1 Tbsp. vegetable oil or unsalted butter
1 medium onion, diced
1 carrot, diced
1 stalk celery, diced
2 sprigs fresh thyme, chopped
1 small leek, white and green parts, chopped
1 large tomato, diced (about 1 c.)
1 medium summer squash or zucchini, diced
1 medium potato, peeled and diced
4 c. vegetable or chicken stock
8 oz. green beans, cut into 1-inch pieces
For herb toasts
6 slices baguette
Olive oil
Freshly ground pepper
2 Tbsp. pesto (see recipe)
Instructions:
Heat the oil in a large soup pot. Sauté in the onion, carrot, celery and thyme until the onion is transparent, about 5 to 7 minutes. Add the leek, tomato, squash, potato and vegetable stock. Bring the stock to a boil; then reduce the heat and simmer the soup until the potato is soft, about 15 minutes. Add the green beans and cook until tender, about 5 more minutes.
To make the herb toast, preheat the broiler to high. Drizzle the baguette slices with olive oil and sprinkle with the ground pepper. Broil until toasted, about 1 to 2 minutes. Spread equal amounts of the pesto over each slice. Ladle the soup into the bowls and float a crouton on top of each.
Pesto!
Don’t limit your pesto to basil when a wide variety of different fresh herbs are available through the season. It freezes beautifully. Makes 1 to 1-1/2 cups
Ingredients:
2 c. packed fresh herbs, chopped (parsley, mint, cilantro, lemon balm, basil or whatever you have either alone or in combination)
1 clove garlic
1/3 c. blanched almonds or pine nuts
2 to 3 Tbsp. fresh lemon juice
3/4 c. oil (olive or vegetable), divided
salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Instructions:
Put the herbs, garlic, nuts and lemon juice into a food processor fitted with a steel blade plus 1/4 cup of the oil. Pulse several times, then, with the motor running, slowly add the remaining oil in a steady stream to make a creamy sauce. (Add a bit more oil if needed.) Add the salt and pepper to taste.
A Farm Market Roundup
Our Lake neighborhood farmers markets offer the best of the region’s home grown produce, wild rice, meats, poultry, cheeses, eggs, smoked fish & meats, prepared foods, baked goods and artisan crafts.
Our area’s largest is in Thunder Bay. The Thunder Bay Country Market occupies two floors, has more than 100 vendors and is open year-round with eat-in and take-out food options. It has the great motto of “We make it; bake it; grow it.”
This is a broad sampler of where and when to find your local market.
WISCONSIN
Ashland Area Farmers Market
200 Block of Chapple Ave. Ashland
Saturdays, 8 a.m.-noon
Early June to early Oct.
Bayfield Farmers Market
Third St. & Manypenny Ave., Bayfield
Saturdays, 9 a.m.-noon
Late June to mid-Oct.
Cornucopia Farmers Market
at the beach off Highway 13, Cornucopia
Thursdays, 3-6 p.m.
Generally opens in June
Barker’s Island Farmers Market
Hwy. 2/53 & Marina Drive, Superior
Saturdays, 8 a.m.-noon,
June 21 to Oct. 25
Superior Downtown Farmers Market
1200 Block of Banks Ave., Superior
Wednesdays, 11 a.m.-2 p.m.
May 30 to Oct. 31
Winter Street Depot Farmers Market
1615 Winter St., Superior
Wednesdays 1-5 p.m.
June 2 to Oct. 20
Washburn Farmers Market
Bayfield Street, Washburn
Wednesdays, 3-7 p.m.
June 11 to Oct. 9
MINNESOTA
Cook County Farm & Craft Market
Senior Center Parking Lot,
Grand Marais
Saturdays, 9 a.m.-1 p.m.
May 24 to Sept. 30
Downtown Duluth Farmers Market
Lake Superior Plaza, Lake Ave. & Superior St., Duluth
Tuesdays, 11 a.m.-1 p.m.
July 17 to Sept. 25
Duluth Farmers Market
3rd St. and 14th Ave. E., Duluth
Wednesdays, 2-6 p.m. & Saturdays, 8 a.m.-noon, May 3 to Oct. 31
West Duluth Farmers Market
Memorial Park, 5315 Grand Ave., Duluth
Thursdays, 3-6 p.m.
July 10 to Sept. 25
MICHIGAN
Calumet Farmers Market
6th St. between Shute’s and the Calumet Theater, Calumet
Saturdays, 10 a.m.-2 p.m.
May through October
Downtown Marquette Farmers Market
Marquette Commons, 112 S. 3rd St.
Saturdays 9 a.m.–1 p.m.
May 20 to Dec. 16
Sault Ste. Marie Farmers Market
corner of Ashmun & Portage,
Sault Ste. Marie
Wednesdays 4-6 p.m.
May through October
ONTARIO
Thunder Bay Country Market
Dove Building at the Canadian Lakehead Exhibition Grounds,
425 Northern Ave., Thunder Bay
Wednesdays, 3:30-6:30 p.m. & Saturdays, 8 a.m.-1 p.m.
Year-round
When Beth Dooley isn’t leading kayak tours in the Apostle Islands, browsing farm markets or writing for us, she’s working on cookbooks, like the more than a half dozen she’s authored or co-authored so far.