It feels like spring today in my part of Chicagoland, and over on Twitter I see people on the West Coast preparing to head out to their farmer’s markets. So now I want to be at mine.
Unfortunately, it’s only mid-February, and here in the Midwest we won’t see a farmer’s market for months to come. Memorial Day, where are you?!
I want sunshine and rows of fresh produce and flowers—lettuce and spinach, strawberries, live plants for the garden. I want the party atmosphere and the fun of seeing friends and neighbors out and about.
Our farmer’s market is a wonderful thing—honestly the best I’ve ever found, although I will admit to local bias. It’s not just the array of fresh produce, plants, flowers, cheese, baked goods, and even meats and sausages. It’s most especially the combination of fresh donuts—hand-made in the basement of the adjacent church every farmer’s market morning and sold fresh and delicious as a fundraiser—and the farmer’s market band. That’s a live folk and bluegrass band, fiddles and all, installed next to the donut stand where passersby can sit and eat, rest, sing, dance. They’re there every Saturday, and they and the donuts make the market a party.
Tweet This
By the way, breakfast of champions: fresh donuts and farm-stand cheese curds. There’s nothing in the world like it. Don’t laugh until you’ve tried it!
I love a good farmer’s market, and I have to say that the one held on the lawn of the Wisconsin capitol in Madison is also very fine. It lacks the music and still-hot donuts, but it’s huge, full of variety and friendly vendors, and…here’s where it rivals my local farm market…the lovely capitol building is open to the public to go inside and take a look around. It’s a don’t miss-market even if you’re not looking for produce or breakfast.
Looking up at the dome of the Wisconsin state capitol in Madison.
Summer can’t come fast enough for me right now, although even as I type that I must add that I would hate to miss spring, which sometimes happens in Illinois as temperatures can sometimes go from 40° to 80° almost overnight. And with global climate change a very frightening reality, I will edit myself and say that, yes, I can wait for summer. But I’ll be at my farmer’s market the weekend it opens!