2/27/14

Do You Like Farmers' Markets?




Hey everyone!  Do y'all go to Farmers' Markets?  We don't go every week, but they really are fun even if you aren't buying produce.  We have a Farmers' Market every Wednesday right here in our neighborhood, so we like to go and snoop around once in awhile.   
      


This beauty is one of our Rec Centers here in our neighborhood -- The Barn!

Power Ranch Barn Gilbert AZ
Source
It's a pretty cool structure, huh?


Our favorite place to shop is from The Farm at Agritopia.  If you've never heard about Agritopia, you can read the story and history HERE.  If there had been any homes for sale that met our criteria when we bought a couple of years ago, this is the neighborhood we would have moved into.  Anyway, the people who work the farm are here at the market every week with the freshest produce you have ever seen.  Of course, it varies from week-to-week, depending on what they harvest from the garden that day.  It's all organic, too!

This little 6 day old baby had everyone's attention!  The owner was promoting the raising of goats on   small ranches, which are actually fairly common around here.

The landscapers who maintain all the common areas in our neighborhood have been very busy.  These almost didn't look real -- so gorgeous!  These are the bedding plant of choice right now around 
The Barn!

Sometimes the prices at Farmers' Markets can be quite high, but the Agritopia Farm has very reasonable prices -- these 2 huge heads of leaf lettuce were $1.50 each.  They came home with us!

I washed all this lettuce in one sink full of water, and there was not one speck of dirt -- pretty incredible, right?

Everyone seems to have their own unique method for storing lettuce.  Mine is to wash, spin (if you don't have a salad spinner, you should get one), & divide into zip bags.  I decided to go ahead and tear & blend the two lettuces for quick salads.  I also kept some in a bowl for a salad I was having that  night, and I saved some whole leaves for wraps.

I squeeze out as much of the air as possible without crushing the lettuce.  This method works very well for me and keeps lettuce for a week or more.  The key, I believe, is spinning as much of the water off prior to bagging.

A few random pics from the last couple of days.

This is what citrus trees look like around here right now.  This is a lemon tree at our favorite Mexican  restaurant -- perfect weather for dining on their patio!  In another week or so, the air will be filled with the most intoxicating aroma from all the citrus in the area -- love it!

We normally go to the gym every morning, but The Man said he would like to walk our neighborhood and pick up some trash he had noticed when we were in the car.  There wasn't a lot, but you just hate to see any.  Oh yeah, Mr. Good Citizen!

In the next couple of weeks, these cottonwood trees will be leafing out and all the brown grass 
will be nice and green.

Ahhh......this was much more fun than the treadmill at the gym!

Thanks for stopping by.  Hope y'all have a wonderful weekend!

10 comments:

  1. I love farmers' markets! I can't believe you got the lettuce at that price! What a steal! Those red flowers are gorgeous! Are they geraniums? I like to go for walks around the neighborhood too. I love to see what kinds of flowers are blooming in other peoples yards. It's always fun to people watch too. :)

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  2. My lemon tree looks similar which makes me happy because it was the last thing Mark planted and I haven't killed it yet :) My park looks the same :( Your neighborhood is beautiful and we do have a Farmer's Market but on Sunday am when I'm at church, however I make it once in awhile. I need to try the one in Tempe! Wasn't today absolutely Gorgeous?!?! I love the breeze and the fact that we may FINALLY get some rain :) Enjoy your weekend as well!

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  3. You have a great guy there. It's so nice to see people caring for our environment. And the farm you go to, fantastic. Do you have the Farmer's Markets year round? Ours is okay...it's from May to November. You can always go to surrounding suburbs, some are better than others. I don't necessarily look for organic, I'm looking for fresh, as in grown nearby.

    I can't wait until May now that you have me thinking about it! :)

    XO,
    Jane

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  4. I love a good Farmer's Market. Ours are short lived- June thru Labor Day in Sept. I really enjoy them. Your hubby is a good citizen to do that~ Love it- Hope you have a great weekend- xo Diana

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  5. I love going to Farmer's Markets and how lucky that your neighborhood does that once a week. Did I tell you I used to live in Gilbert back in the 90's? We lived in "The Islands" community, if you know where that is. Oh, how I miss the sunsets there, so pretty.

    How sweet of your hubby to pick up trash....that is so nice of him. :) Have a wonderful weekend, sweet friend! xo, Liz

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  6. What a gorgeous place to buy produce....recently a neighboring town started having farmers markets on the weekend in their downtown square and I love it. I'm hoping once the warmer temperatures hit us they come back even bigger then last year. I always love the fresh produce and flowers. They are almost as hard to pass up a thrift store find of great dishes.....lol

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  7. Absolutely love them and I can't wait for it to be back! I do buy a lot of plants and even some meat products there too!

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  8. Wow, Cas, how beautiful! I would go just to be going if we had things like this, but, you know that hubby plants enough for us and the rest of the county, and of coarse, we are farm country around here too. What a beautiful neighborhood ya'll live in. I can't imagine being without fresh food. Just mostly wanted to pop by and say hello.

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  9. That's a great price on the lettuce. My town doesn't have a "farmer's market" they have a "fresh market". I guess there aren't too many actually farmers that have produce to sell around here. In the summer people buy direct form Florida farmers and then re-sell at the fresh market.

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  10. We have a farmer's market every Sat. We went once at the urging of our friends. Everything was expensive. I was less than impressed. Of course that could've had something to do with the fact that we went in Aug. when it was much to hot to be just walking around outside!

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Make this a great day!
Carol