Food Blog

I went to my first farmer’s market of the season this morning in Evanston and bought some nice stuff. It’s very special stuff but it’s not cheap.

I got some asparagus from a farm in Michigan, leeks from Nichols farm in Marengo Il, levian sourbread from Bennison’s Bakery, asian flat leaved chives from Henry’s Farm and morels from River Valley Mushroom in Wisconsin.

The season is very early for farmer’s markets, but the selection, wasn’t as skimpy as I though it would be. Many sellers had a large selection of potted herbs and one booth had hydroponic lettuce and other green leafy things. The new addition to this year’s market is fresh baked goods. Bennison’s, an Evanston bakery that’s been around forever, offers several artisan loaves at expensive prices ($4 for a big loaf of chaibatta or sourdough). Another bakery had some nice looking bread and pies.

As usual, there are plenty of jarred products like jams, honey, (half gallon containers and honey combs are available) marinated mushrooms. And there’s a cheese guy with a huge variety. Truckloads of flowers and plants are available, but the most interesting to me are the edible flowers from Henry’s Farm.

I was most happy to get some morels from River Valley Mushroom who also had portabellos, chantrelles and some others. Morels are nice, but at $32 bucks a pound, the 5 bucks worth I bought better be really nice. The had some that were big enough to stuff, but I perfer the smaller ones.