Saturday, May 16, 2009

Riverside Farmers Market

Today was opening day for the second season of the Riverside Farmers Market in Roswell, GA. I was really looking forward to grabbing some tender Spring vegetables for dinner tonight... but unfortunately the market had just about everything BUT produce. This was similar to last year's opening day where the main attractions were craft items and flowers. Maybe it is just too early for local farmers to have a good harvest to sell at the market? No, because I'm quite confident the in-town markets like the Peachtree Road Farmers Market and the Morningside Market have an abundance of fresh produce.

At the Riverside Market I noticed candles, jams/jellies, coffee, fresh flowers, pieces of pie, a master gardener stand to answer all your home gardening questions, even some live plants and bags of composted manure. I'm not going to discredit the quality or craftsmanship of these items, I'm sure they're wonderful, (OK maybe the composted manure didn't take much skill) but when I go to a farmers market I want produce and I want lots of it! As it was, the only real produce I saw were some flats of strawberries, and a girl selling some greens. I already have a small bag of strawberries and a opened bag of pre-washed, pre-cut greens in the crisper drawer left over from last week. I was pleased to see some fresh eggs and a Artisan Foods Bakery stand selling fresh breads but I had already made up my mind that I wasn't buying anything. I'll try back in a month or so and hopefully the market will have ramped up its selection of fresh, local produce.