Today's Boulder Farmers Market Report

Since I missed last week's market, I was happy to see two weeks of evolution in the Farmers Market's spring offerings. While spinach is still ubiquitous, radishes, which were almost nonexistent two weeks ago, are available in abundance, and other interesting offerings are popping up at the various vendor stands. Here's the lowdown on what I saw at my favorite organic farm vendors.

The prizes for most varied offerings and most unusual veggie both go to Red Wagon Organic Farm this week, in my book. In addition to radishes and braising mix, today they have pea shoots, sorrel, lovage, and rhubarb, plus assorted fresh herbs offered in convenient little $1 packages. As for the most unusual veggie offering, they have a tie within their own stand, between fava bean leaves (yes, I said leaves, not the beans), and Egyptian walking onions. The Egyptian walking onions reportedly can be used like scallions, and their name comes from a fascinating propagation method. If I understand this correctly, the plant develops a little bulb at the top of its scallion-like stalk, causing it to bend over from the weight, subsequently rooting itself in the ground for another shoot, ready to do the same thing. Just think, a field of scallion-like creatures rising, bending, and rising again in a Slinky-like fashion, how awesome.

Here's a summary of what I saw at my other organic stand faves. Isabelle Farm has radishes, chard, arugula, spinach, and kale. At Pastures of Plenty, baby lettuce, baby arugula, French herb mix, chervil, plus hanging baskets. Pachamama had so many starter plants, they could hardly fit in some spinach leaves. Cure Organic Farm was offering pea shoots, radishes, chives, bok choi (interesting spelling), and arugula. Finally, Black Cat Farm had "hailstone" radishes, arugula, braising mix, spinach, chervil, and rapini.

Apologies if I've missed any offerings. It's a bit awkward trying to record these on the fly, and one vendor in fact inquired what I was up to, in a nice way. The skies may be gloomy, with yet more rain on the way today, but we can celebrate our spring produce!