East Nashville Farmers Market

Every Wednesday my little part of the city holds a farmers market. The East Nashville Farmers Market is located on a little plot of land next to a church in five points. This might be the second or third year of the market, I can't remember. What I do know is that every Wednesday night on my way home from work I stop by to look at the beautiful produce, pick up my CSA, and enjoy some outdoor entertainment.

Squash from Flying S Farms

This year after much research, Steve and I decided to get our CSA through Flying S Farms. We found their price pretty reasonable. Also, I could personally attest to the quality, as I have been buying from this vendor for a while now. A sweet older gentleman in overalls and a trucker hat always helps me out. He always greets me with a smile and recommends ways of cooking that week's produce. Since it's late spring/early summer we have been living on squash. Every BBQ I have attended I have brought along a pile of roasted summer squash. It is very tasty, but I'm running out of ideas on how to cook the little buggers. Anyone have any creative squash recipies?

Flying S Banner

After picking up my basket and seeing my veggie options for the week, I like to walk around and find other good things that I could use in cobbling together a meal. I'm proud to say that Steve and I are cheese obsessed and I always have to sample the goodness from Kenny's Farmhouse Cheese. The lady who staffs the East Nash booth is super friendly and always lets me sample as many as I want. I normally buy the Garlic Paprika Jack, but I wanted to branch out so I asked for the Garden Herb Havarti. Apparently many other people had the same idea and they just sold their last slice. So after sampling a few more, I decided on the Cumin Gouda. This cheese is delicious and addicting. Whole Cumin seeds are dotting throughout and the cheese melts nicely (I made a quesadilla with the stuff). I hope I am courageous enough to branch out again and try something new next time.

Alfresco Pasta also has a booth. Get some veggies, some cheese and some pasta and you have a complete meal. I've purchased from Alfresco in the past. Everything comes frozen with simple cooking directions. I recently made the Southern Sweet Corn and Mascarpone Ravioli in Beet Pasta and loved it. I really wanted to get two servings of the squid ink pasta, but they only come frozen in bulk portions of 12.  I like squid pasta and all, but I don't want a whole freezer full of it. Alfresco, if you are reading, go back to selling single pasta portions of your noodles! Also, if you don't have time- they sell pasta sauce too!

Besides Flying S, there are a handful more produce vendors at the market. Most people carry the same things, but sometimes you find some unique to one vendor or the price is just much better. I wanted small onions to cook up with some kale and I purchased those from the Devlin Farms booth. They looked the freshest and were the cheapest. Good deal for me.

Devlin Farms Produce

Devlin Farms CSA Basket

Nashville Foodscapes- Gardening with food!

Finally, I think it might be good to take a look at what was in our CSA basket this week. As you can see the basket itself was overflowing with green goodness.

This week's CSA included lettuce, kale, a whole ton of squash, cucumbers and blueberries. What will I get today? Tune in next week!