Fabulous Fresh Finds: Week 2

This past Saturday the Grand Army Plaza Greenmarket was packed. It was a beautiful day and we left laden with food, since this time I came more prepared (read: I brought along my favorite helper).

As for produce, we bought a red pepper, some potatoes and some cherry tomatoes from Cedar Hill Farm/Kernan Farms, who are in Cumberland County, NJ. We also got fennel and garlic from Bradley Farms, which are out of Ulster County, NY, and mushrooms from Madura Farms, out of Orange County NY.

More excitingly, we visited the Ronnybrook Farm Dairy stand (Columbia County, NY) and purchased a quart of vanilla yogurt — yum, especially with granola and a bit of jelly — and a quart of two percent milk, which I hear is delicious. Being a lactard (lactosally challenged, lactose intolerant, whatever you want to call it), I can't partake. We also got sweet Italian sausage from Flying Pigs Farm (Shushan, NY). More on that later.

One of my favorite items we brought home was a non-food item: lavender from Lavender By the Bay (Suffolk County, NY). I couldn't resist buying a small bunch after walking by the stand and smelling it. It lasts several years, though, so money well spent.

So what did we make? Well. We feasted. On Saturday night we sauteed the mushrooms up with an onion and ate those with some steak and the remaining carrots, green beans and zucchini from my first trip to the greenmarket. These we roasted in the oven. 

On Sunday we had an almost completely local meal. We sauteed (I use the term "we" loosely. I mostly cut and washed) the sausage and pepper with another onion (should have bought one at the market — an oversight), roasted the potatoes, and assembled a fennel and grape tomato salad. It was a fantastic meal, but the highlight was the pork sausage. Easily the best I've ever had. 

Since we'll be going away this weekend, our next greenmarket trip will have to wait a week. I will miss it.

The Grand Army Plaza Greenmarket is held on Saturdays from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. year-round. The city's Greenmarkets are a program of GrowNYC, a non-profit geared toward improving the quality of life in the five boroughs through environmental programs. This particular Greenmarket, founded in 1989, is GrowNYC's flagship Brooklyn market and is its second largest market behind Union Square.

Related: New Blog Feature: Fabulous Fresh Finds