This little piggy went to MARKET!

After much anticipation, opening day of the Farmers' Market finally arrived.  I was so excited for the opportunity to see what the local professionals were growing that I managed to convince four of my friends to come along with me.  The farmers' market always seems like the place to be in town on Thursday evenings.  There was a lot of socializing going on!  I however was on a mission.  I wanted to pick up some spinach, leeks and asparagus.  The first thing I saw when I walked in were the familiar faces of my favorite farming family with a table full of asparagus.  I promptly introduced my friends to their lovely crop and the grower to my lovely friends.  I briefly asked how their winter was and then moved on to locate the best deal on spinach,

Spinach at the farmers' market appears to be quite expensive: $5/lb.  But spinach doesn't weigh that much.  My friend and I did a little experiment.  I bought from a friend's farm that sell their spinach for $2.50 a bunch while my friend purchased hers at another farm by the pound.  She asked for half a pound (equal in price to my purchase). Sure enough, when we compared the quantity of spinach was pretty much equal.  On another note, I broke down and bough 'NW grown' spinach from the grocery store yesterday.  I almost never by produce from the major chain grocery and I feel a tad guilty.  But my boyfriend keeps requesting a spinach pie recipe he heard about on NPR and it call for a lot of spinach.  The grocery store spinach was a little under half as expensive (in this case) but I have to say, it looked like sh*t compared to the stuff that comes out of my garden or from the farmers' market.

My last purchase of the day were three decent sized leeks.  I grabbed the last three fatty-ies, which 1- I felt lucky about and 2- made me realize that even they grow green onion sized leeks like i do!  So that's my market finds.  Today is the Saturday market where I was hoping to get rhubarb and fresh flowers, but I have a commitment this morning so things might be sold out by the time I get down there.  Hopefully not!  I am looking forward to some great recipes to share this week!

P.S. Sorry there are no pictures.  I was so excited about the farmers' market and so determined to score great produce that even though I brought my camera I forgot to take any pictures!