Kitchen Witch: Farmers Market Shopping

Dear Kitchen Witch, I want to love the farmers market and make it a real part of my preparation life. For my real life, that means using the things I buy there to make easy meals, but whenever I go to the producers marketplace my eyes end up taking over from my brain. Can you help me strategize about how to shop at seasonal markets without getting tempted by stuff I won’t eat and wasting money? —The Farmers’ Mark Dear Mark: Show me a cook who hasn’t come home from a growers market with a bag full of greens they’ve never heard of and don’t know how to cook and I will show you a unicorn.

The latter is a place, like a regular grocery store, to accomplish the basic chore of gathering necessary provisions for one’s continuing need to eat, which implies all the drudgery and sense of dull routine that can come with regular grocery shopping. Obviously, the producers trade is both a fun thing to do on a Saturday morning or a Wednesday lunch break or whenever your local growers trade is AND a good way to stock one’s home larder. So, what you need to do is work a little more sense of the routine grocery shop into your producers market browsing, but—we hope—not lose the sense of enjoyment that browsing one brings.

I’d add that if you do weekly or semi-weekly shopping, try to make the farmers marketplace your first stop, so that you can get everything on your big list there that you can, and then fill in at a regular, less fun supermarket. Whichever day your trade is, take ten minutes the night before or the morning you go to check your calendar for the week ahead for dinners out, guests, evening activities, a potluck you’ll need to bring a dessert to, or whatever.

Think about what’s in season and what you’re seeing at the trade from week to week, or if you haven’t been in a while and aren’t sure what you’ll find, consult a seasonal guide . Write out a basic meal plan for the days you’re preparation at home and any other cookery plans, like making a cobbler for that potluck.

Since you thought of the list in terms of what you plan to cook and eat for the week, and you’ve already checked your calendar, you’re primed to pick up items in a volume that suits your household needs, rather than getting distracted by a bushel of cucumbers you can’t possibly pickle tonight in between your other activities. Departing from the list or changing it up in small ways will happen, and (as in that kind of movie) the serendipity is part of the joy. But a plan gives you something to work and adapt from, even if you don’t hold yourself to it strictly.

If part of your farmers marketplace routine is to get a tamale or an excellent pastry for your breakfast from that one vendor you love, by all means, carry on. That’s part of the pleasure of the outing, and I’m not trying to deny you that.

If all that planning sounds like too much, but you still want to put on the brakes, I have another trick for you. Since more producers are accepting them now), to curb the volume of your purchases (not to mention your overall spending) at the producers market, simply don’t bring extra money (or your credit card.

It’s a great way to stop yourself from getting that $20 box of fruit for jam if it uses up half your trade budget for the week when you weren’t even remotely planning on making jam. If you do make a plan, you don’t need to stick to it too closely, though. Might I as well suggest a bunch of flowers for brightening up your kitchen and making you want to stay in it to cook the beautiful produce you’ve purchased?

Nothing will make you feel more like you’re in that movie set in Provence than wandering beatifically out of the market with a glorious bouquet poking out of your market basket.