Local eaters fall into rhythm with the seasons, and welcome the gifts each season offers, including the gifts of memory and anticipation. Right now we remember the magnificent bounty of the past year, knowing that we will soon be entering a fallow time. Farmers and their fields will rest and rejuvenate. In the meantime, there are still two weeks left of wonderful local fruits, vegetables, meats, dairy, and other food at the Long Season Winter Farmers’ Market, just what you’ll want for holiday meals, wintry stews and soups, and holiday gifts.
This Sunday, December 11, Fisher Hill Farm will have a few frozen turkeys left, as well as potatoes, beets, onions, cabbage, sweet potatoes, turnips, carrots, parsnips, and winter squash. Phil and Sandi will also have frozen corn, beans, rhubarb, and strawberries from their farm’s summer harvest. Bolton Farm will bring hydroponic lettuce, watercress, arugula, pea shoots, microgreens, and winter squash. Andy’s Specialty Garlic and Produce is harvesting lettuce — red leaf, green leaf, and romaine, kale, bok choi, spinach, red potatoes, beets, turnips, arugula, radishes, and green and purple cabbage. Bloomfield Honey will have a variety of gift packs for honey-lovers, including skin care packs, plus ornaments and wonderful beeswax candles — long-lasting, naturally fragrant, and non-polluting (as are paraffin candles). JonJohn’s Bakery is bringing kid-sized gift packs containing peanut butter balls and cookies, plus their two-layer Red Velvet Cake with edible organic flower centerpiece; they will also take orders for desserts, cookie and peanut butter ball trays, and gift baskets.
Clearview Farm will have red and golden beets, beet greens, Asian greens (bok choi, tatsoi, Da Cheong Chae, Osaka purple mustard, mizuna), Tokyo White Cross turnips, rutabaga, the last of the Rainbow chard, broccoli raab, arugula, potatoes, Daikon (great for stir-fry), radishes, pointed-head cabbage, baby escarole, broccoli, kale, sweet carrots, garlic, leeks, and free-range, organically-fed eggs. Flour City Pasta is bringing lots of pasta gift boxes, plus a new flavor, Pizza Pasta — made with tomato, oregano, mushroom, onion, and garlic (sounds like a kid-pleaser). Spirit Wind Farm and Fiber Studio will have yarn from the farm’s alpaca flock, as well as items made from the yarn by local artisans (hats, scarves, shawls, ornaments, jewelry, and much more).
The market season would not be complete without a musical visit from Clamor, and this is the week; welcome back, Rick, Steve, and Bruce! We’re also glad to welcome Judy and Doreen from the Brighton Memorial Library, who will demo a Nook and a Kindle loaded with books and have information about the Library’s January eReader classes and other programs.
The Long Season Winter Farmers’ Market is a collaboration between the Brighton and South Wedge Farmers’ Markets, sponsored by the Town of Brighton and the South Wedge Planning Committee. The market is held Sunday afternoons, 1 to 4 pm, through December 18. It meets in Brighton’s Brookside Recreation Center, 220 Idlewood Road, with a second entrance off S. Winton, just south of the Westfall/S. Winton intersection. To receive information about next year’s South Wedge Farmers’ Market, sign up for email newsletters at www.swfarmersmarket.org or “like” the South Wedge Farmers’ Market Facebook page.