Fresh from the Farmer's Market

A sink full of loot from the Farmer's Market on the St. Paul Campus of the University of MN.

Seth and I have only gotten to the Farmer's Market twice this year. The timing on Tuesday morning has not worked out for us with day care and traveling. It is also really hard to find parking and get in and out - bad location! Finally today we got to go and pick from a wide variety of vendors. I was excited to unpack my loot especially since I only paid $5 for my $15 of produce! (Thanks to some government coupons I received this summer.)

Here is what we got: 5 or 6 zuchinni, 4 or 5 yellow squash, 4 cucumbers, a bag of beans, a bunch of beets, five huge sweet peppers, and a bag of small red potatoes. I was tempted by the apples coming in from the orchards but hope to get back again soon for those. I was running out of hands to carry all this goodness!

I am excited to cook things up and enjoy all week and into next hopefully too. Beets are something I always hated until I retried them this summer. Boiled like potatoes with just a tad of butter and salt and not bad at all. And oh so good for you too!

Tonight I have cut up cucumber and sweet peppers for a large pasta salad for which I already had an abundance of small tomatoes. I was disappointing to find that my two red peppers were moldy inside but they were a super deal so I will get over it. I will also avoid that vendor next time.

I was also tempted by the beautiful bouquets of flowers but a girl just can't have it all. Besides all last week a bouquet of sunflowers has adorned my table so it's not like I have gone a long bout without flowers. (Thanks Seth and Jason!)

The one thing I got that I have never seen before is a purple sweet pepper. Have you ever seen or tried one? I am thinking I will cut it up and try it with some ranch dip just to check out the full flavor. Something new is always a must!