At the Market: St. Paul - Lowertown
My sister and I decided to make a short trip East to check out the St. Paul Farmers Market in Lowertown. It's a nice size and under a covered pavillion, providing shade, shelter and nice acoustics for the great blue grass band that was playing this morning during our visit. Each stall was packed with produce at its peak, as well as a wide variety of speciality items. City Pages has called it an "urban locavore's dream" as "there's no re-selling of items allowed, making the market a locavore's paradise with just the right amount of St. Paul's signature low-key friendliness." I found this to be fantastically true.
Tomatoes and sugar snap peas are my market standards. Regardless of my cooking plans, I always pick these two items up (when in season) because a) you can always find something to do with tomatoes, and b) sugar snap peas are a fan favorite for snacking in our house. So I grabbed those (scoping out the cheapest, best-looking ones) and then explored a few other items.
For example, dragon's tongue beans! They're like green beans' super cool cousin, with a similar texture but flatter form and psychadellic purple and cream marbling. Also perfect for snacking.
Another awesome find: Chocolov shiitake mushrooms! I'd never heard of these but the "mushroom man" from Birch Creek Forest Products gave me quite the sales pitch. One intoxicating whiff of these mushrooms was really all it took, though. Their scent is so potent, it reminded me of beef stroganoff in the best possible way. I'm pretty sure I will just be making these to eat on their own. They smell THAT good.
I also grabbed a bag of this black pepper lasagnetta from the locally-sourced Sunrise Creative Gourmet, which began in Hibbing, MN. Their pastas can be found at many retailers throughout the midwest, including their new Sunrise Market in St. Paul. I'm excited to check it out. And for all you celiacs out there, they apparently sell gluten-free pastas. In the same way I find exotic-looking vegetables fun, I also find it exciting to try interesting shapes and flavors of pasta. I think this black pepper lasagnetta will be the perfect foundation for a simple carbonara in the near future.
Finally, nothing says summer quite like sweet corn. I picked up half a dozen ears, along with some purple kale for a buck (!) and called it a day. A mighty fine day, in my fungal opinion (just a line I picked up from the "mushroom man").
