Local Eats!

(post, Rachael Warrington)

This last weekend I went down to Tulsa to visit family. One of the highlights when I go down is the farmers market. Cherry Street Farmers Market is a fantastic adventure in fresh food. We walked up the stairs to the little parking area where all the stands are set up; the place was already busy and it was not even 8:00 AM yet. We walked between two stalls to get to the main walk way and turned left. Oh my goodness, there it was the most beautiful site to behold, fresh, colorful veggies, piles and piles of them.
This first stand was from Three Springs Farm, a 5 acre farm that two people run and maintain and grow the best produce. They had the biggest and tightest bunches of red leaf lettuce I have ever laid my eyes on. They were huge, and looked good enough to display on your table as a center piece. White small sweet turnips, brilliant orange carrots, and multi-colored Swiss chard were all laid out. White and red baby potatoes, spinach, basil and tons more that I could not even get to because of the current crowds. I just stared and thought this is only the first stall, how are we going to eat all of this? I bought lettuce, Swiss chard, turnips, carrots and then tore myself away. I had more places to conquer.

We walked around and purchased vegetables till we could carry no more food. It all looked so yummy and fresh. I was already planning on how to fix everything. I should have bought two of those heads of lettuce!!!!

I made wilted lettuce salad out of the gorgeous leaf lettuce, I will be roasting the carrots and white turnips, I left the bok choy and rapini at my moms, lucky her. Our Markets are open here at home, but we are behind the Cherry Street Market in growing season. Plus we have had way to much rain and that has slowed everything down. So this was like a little glimmer of hope that fresh food would soon be had in our little corner of the world.