Boulder Farmers Market, Blowin' In The Wind

Batten down the spinach, part deux. It looks like Boulder's winds are starting to calm down now, but when I was at the Farmers Market this morning, produce, canopies, and even weighting rocks were flying in the wind. Everybody seemed to take it all in stride, as the vendors held down their canopies with one hand, while trying to make change with the other. Funny that Boulder's winds are more likely in the spring, when the baby lettuce and spinach take to the air, than in the fall, when it wouldn't budge a butternut squash or pumpkin.

As for offerings at my favorite organic farm stands, it's of course much as I reported last week, but the variety of greens looks to be expanding. In addition to the spinach and braising mix we've been seeing since the market's opening, there are more baby lettuce varieties, including romaine, butter, and mixed baby lettuces. At Red Wagon Organic Farm, they'd added mizuna and mustard greens, and last week's Egyptian walking onions were replaced by Walla Walla onions with long, scallion-like tops, which will go into my pasta tonight. At Pachamama, they've added organic asparagus, and Munson's Farm made its first Saturday appearance. (As I noted in the Wednesday report, Munson's isn't organic, but they're really nice local people, with generally pesticide-free products.)

In visiting the Cure Organic Farm stand, the big news for me was that they have opened their stand near 75th and Valmont for the season! They will be open every day now, and it's always a surprise to see what the picks of the day (almost literally) are. Munson's, mentioned above, has a stand right across the street, but it's not open yet (their vast and wonderful corn crop is a big driver of when the stand opens). Even with just one of the two stands open, I'm likely to start biking out there whenever I want, rather than fighting the downtown market crowds. Reports on the Farmers Market will therefore become highly sporadic, just because I'll be heading out to even more options - let the summer produce season begin!