Farmer's Market

There's nothing quite like a Farmer's Market to get me inspired to cook dinner. Iowa is blessed by numerous farmer's markets---in fact, it has more per capita than just about any other state. This is a reflection of the rich agricultural climate and heritage of the state, as well as the growing movement of "Buy Local". But perhaps the abundance is also due to our desire to Stick It To the Old Man Winter. Nothing says spring has arrived and summer is imminent like a farmer's market.

Des Moines holds the largest market in the state every week from the beginning of May through mid-October. It is like a street fair, with entertainment and craft booths meshing with the vegetable and fruit stalls. It is busy and vibrant---and also 30 minutes away by car from my house. So I am fortunate that my small suburb also boasts a weekly market for the same period of time. It is a microcosm of the large downtown market---a few craft booths, a BBQ stand, Kettle Korn popcorn, cinnamon crusted nuts, baked goods, plus the vegetable and fruit stands.

The vegetable stands inspire me. Whatever they offer will be on the table sometime in the next few days. A typical late spring "take" might yield sauteed vegetables (broccoli, green onions, early zucchini, yellow squash, snow peas) and fresh strawberries, served with Bacon-Lettuce-Tomato sandwiches with lettuce, tomato, and fresh bread from the market. Those same veggies the next night might morph into a vegetable-pesto pasta topped with goat cheese and served with the fresh bread and a tossed green salad.

One vegetable farmer warned his customers recently that this was the last of the lettuce. Buying and eating locally produced food means you are at the mercy of the seasonality of a crop. Lettuces and tender greens are cool-weather crops and as the days get hotter, become bitter and tough. Rhubarb and asparagus bear their bizarre stalks perenially in the spring, but then gradually fade away. Sweet sugar snap and snow peas disappear in the late spring and may reappear in the early fall. But the tender spring vegetables give way to the kings of summer produce: sweet corn, green beans, zucchini, squash, onions, melons, cucumbers, peppers, and tomatoes. With their arrival, new dishes appear on the table which make you forget the loss of the peas and lettuce. As the weather cools, and you know you can't think of another thing to make with corn and tomatoes, the pumpkins and potatoes and apples appear, along with a short resurgence of carrots, peas, and greens.

Luckily for me, my family appreciates fresh vegetables. They humor my announcing where the veggies came from, as if I were an antiques dealer recounting an object's provenance. I want them to know that not only are they enjoying my delicious cooking, they are appreciating the hard work and dedication of a local farmer who got up early that morning and picked those peas and broccoli and lettuce. It tastes better knowing those veggies soaked up the same sunshine and rain we did just a few days before.