Farmer's Market!

I should never go to Farmer's Market unsupervised.  It all looks so good I want to bring it all home.  I love the St. Paul Farmer's Market.  All of the vendors are local so all of the produce is what is in season and locally grown.  They also have a lot of great meat, cheese, soap (ok, so I'm not into homemade soap but if you are you can get it there), salsa (LOVE Snappy Dog), bread and lots of other delicious things.

It's another rainy Saturday in Minnesota.  And not just drizzly today, pouring rain.  What else are you going to do but go to Farmer's Market (especially when your dogs won't let you sleep past 5:30am)?  I did have a little coffee and some Kindle time this morning then headed off to see what they had to offer.  I'm guessing there weren't too many horse drawn wagon rides today.

I arrived a little after 8am and it was already packed! 

There were lots and lots of plants and flowers.  I admired their beauty and the people who can actually keep them alive, then walked right past.  My thumb isn't even remotely green!

There was lots of rhubarb.  One stand was advertising "strawberry rhubarb".  I had no idea there was anything other than green or red rhubarb.  So I took the risk and bought some. What's the worst that could happen?  It would taste like red rhubarb?  I did a little research after I got home and there are more varieties of rhubarb than I can list here!  Who knew?  If you're really interested you can click HERE and check them out for yourself.  I bought some "regular" rhubarb too.  I'll make Dave a couple of pies and see if he can tell the difference.

Two other vegetables were in abundance, asparagus and spinach.  I couldn't resist either!  I also found some really nice looking parsnips.  I love mashed parsnips!

I was out of hummus and as luck would have it Deena's Gourmet Hummus was at the market today.  I bought two flavors, spicy black bean chipoltle and roasted red pepper.  The hummus is handmade (according to the website) weekly by Deena herself right here in St. Paul.  I love the roasted red pepper on turkey sandwiches!  She puts feta cheese in the roasted red pepper hummus giving it this great, unique flavor!  I've never had the black bean before but I'm sure I'll find a use for it.

Eichten's Hidden Acre is always at the Farmer's Market.  They make the best cheese!  I thought I'd pick up some of their gouda since they were right there!  They now make a low-fat gouda.  Those of you who know me know I do NOT do fat free cheese.  That isn't cheese, it's some sort of plastic.  I rarely do light cheese but this was good!  Ruth then talked me into trying the part-skim herb gouda.  It didn't really sound all that good to me.  What do I know?  It was delicious!  Thanks Ruth!

Another new (well new to me) thing I found and couldn't pass up was pasta from Sunrise Creative Gourmet out of Hibbing, MN.    They have been around since 1913!  I went back and forth between the Butternut Squash Lasagnetta and the Roasted Red Pepper variety.  I landed on the butternut squash.  I knew I had alfredo in the frig and I was thinking the pasta with alfredo, asparagus fresh from Farmer's Market, grilled shrimp and a salad made from the fresh spinach I just got too, would make a yummy dinner.

I can never pass up chives or green onions, I throw them in everything so they came home with me too.

My bag was full!

Everything is processed and put away and I've got the upstairs cleaned.  I took a little break to watch the torrential rains and update my blog.  Next is getting the lower level clean and finishing the laundry.  Not nearly as much fun as wandering around Farmer's Market but it has to be done!

UPDATE:  Dinner was delicious!  Sunrise Creative Gourmet Butternut Squash Lasagnetta, sauteed asparagus, grilled shrimp with Penzey's Galena Street Rub on it and a spinach salad.  Yummy!