Kathy & I visited the Farmer’s Market yesterday morning – specifically  the Charlotte Regional Farmer’s Market – with friends John & Marcia.  Amazingly, for all our interest in fresh, local food, we had never visited before.  John & Marcia are veterans and showed us around, then we explored for a little while on our own.

I had conversations with a number of vendors about their products.  One guy was selling honey, and had samples taken at different times of the year.  It was amazing to taste the differences between them.

The produce was amazing.  There were vegetables I had never seen or even heard of before.  But all I had to do was ask, and I found out not only what it was, but how to cook it and when to buy it.

There is a group of Korean folks who sell flowers all over  town.  They operate a number of stands and frequent many of the festivals and markets, selling beautiful bunches of flowers for $10 each.  They had several stands at the farmer’s market.  It was fun to watch them as they assembled the bouquets from the pails full of flowers they had on hand.  They talked and joked and generally seemed to be having a good time.

Kathy & I stuck to the basics and brought home a few veggies and some peaches.  It was the first batch of peaches of the year, and they aren’t quite at their prime.  But it is still great to get fresh peaches, and we’ll be back for more.

The kitchen in our apartment is a little small to do a lot of prep work in, but we’re getting by.  We bought some things to get us through the week.  One of the things we are looking forward to in our new place is a kitchen big enough to have plenty of room to work.  Then we can become farmer’s market aficionados, too.