Farmers Market Haul 7/26/2020

The life of  a Farmer's market vendor can be hectic during the summer months, especially when you make your own products and continue to work another job.   There is no such thing as summer get-a-ways and lazy Sunday afternoons.  Making enough product to during the week in order to ensure you have enough to meet the demands of the busy weekend markets means 10-12 hour days Monday - Thursday every week.  Finding the time to make family meals in the summer is challenging.   Lately, Grubhub and Postmates has been my go to option for feeding my family of 6.   The problem with eating cheaply made takeout food night after night is the toll it takes, not only on your bank account but also your body.   Most takeout food is made with the cheapest ingredients possible, they add lots of salt, way too much sugar and god only knows what neurotoxins (MSG and other artificial sweeteners)  and other additives are added to keep food fresh.   After spending $100 on not very good Chinese takeout after delivery fees, taxes and a generous tip, I decided enough was enough.  What is the point of providing others with high quality, healthy food options when I can't even take the time to grocery shop for my own family.  We spend 15-20 hours a week at Farmer's markets, this is the perfect time to get my weekly shopping done.  I had an idea, why don't I come up with a way to purchase the majority of my items for the week for the market and come up with some new ideas as well as some existing recipes to plan for my week.  After all cooking is my passion and more importantly, finding ways to make healthy food taste amazing is what I do!  I figured, if I am struggling with finding ways to make affordable healthy meals on the fly, there are most likely several others.  Why not share my ideas and help not only my customers come up with dinner ideas but also help my fellow vendors and markets out with an fresh new food blog on farmers market finds related to these specific markets.  So here I am, writing my first blog in an attempt to help out my fellow farmer's market fans and vendors.

I was able to find just about everything I needed to plan out a couple of breakfasts and 5-6 dinners for the week over the 4 markets I participate in on a weekly basis.  I will focus on more and more products throughout the remainder of the season.  I chose the products that I know best at this point in time.  The items I found hard to come by at all of the markets were fresh chicken and dairy alternative cheeses and milks. as well as ghee.   I will add a few pantry items (salad dressing, spices etc.) as well as some meat that I purchased from a local butcher shop as a "fill your freezer" deal back in June.   Overall, I spent about $120 not including own pickled veggies and jams, the meat from my freezer, the few pantry items as well as the 2 Salmon we caught at Dillon Reservoir during a break Friday night between the Friday Dillon Market and the drive to the Saturday morning Steamboat Market.    Stay tuned until tomorrow to see how we prepared the salmon in 4 different ways using products purchased at our local farmers markets!