Yes, we love the Farmers Market downtown and I’ll mention a few things we’ve gotten lately on this post, but first here’s a warning: Be careful buying fresh corn. A few weeks ago there was a photograph in The CA showing the effects of the longterm drought on the local corn crop. I mean the ear of corn a farmer was holding up looked as if it came out of the Dust Bowl in the 1930s. We didn’t think about that picture or the drought when we picked up six ears of corn in their husks last Saturday from a booth at the market, and I supposed it was silly not to peel back the husks and examine the corn on the spot, but we didn’t. So we were dismayed last night, when I was going to cook the corn out on the grill, to discover that the ears of corn were not fully formed and looked pretty dried out. You can see that effect in this picture; the dimples on the tops of so many of these kernels mean that they didn’t completely ripen, they didn’t “plump out.” I’m not saying that you shouldn’t buy corn at the Farmers Market, just that you should be careful.
You can see in the next picture some of the other items we bought last Saturday. The banana peppers go into a recipe for beef tenderloin served with a yogurt-walnut sauce. We also bought tons of tomatoes, some of which LL dried in the oven, many of which we’re using to make tomato sauce, and others of which contributed themselves to last Saturday’s pizza. One of the green peppers went onto the pizza too, as well as one of the onions.
We also bought some organic, pasture-raised chicken. It’s expensive enough to make your eyes pop out and bounce up and down on little springs, but I grilled half a bird over charcoal last night, and it was so good, so unusually meaty and juicy and flavorful, that our reaction was to say, “Oh, so this is what chicken is supposed to taste like.” It was as if this chicken had just walked right off the Ark.
Instead of the corn that we abandoned, I grilled some yellow globe squash and LL made a salad (this is an Alice Waters recipe) of fresh purple-hull peas, green beans, tomatoes and onions, all of this from the Farmers Market, with chanterelle mushrooms from Fresh Market.
Eating adventures
Responses to “Corn Warning”
July 13th, 2007 at 9:40 am
Seeing the peaches and cream corn picture gives me a chance to report that I bought a big grocry bag full of peaches & cream corn for $3.00! At the Jackson TN Farmer’s Market. We cooked it along with also purchased snap beans and blackeyed peas. The snap beans and peas weree 3.00 pint (shelled).
Even with the dry weather & small corn produced, the corn was still very sweet and very good. Other things at the Jackson Farmer’s market was Rock Springs Milk, some real good BBQ from a couple that cater, some outstanding pies, and some China Grove TN baked goods. A lady from Hayti MO had hot pepper jelly and hot pepper relish with other relishes and salsa.
The Jackson Farmer’s Market has a strict rule (and the rule is enforced) that the main area sellers have to sell locally produced produce and items. So the Market look more home folks and less professional sellers. There is an outer area for sellers that do not meet the selling criteria.
They had at the market and I purchased Wild Gooseberry Peas. I am going to see how they taste. I am not familiar with this type of pea. If someone could contribute information on the pea, I would appreciate it. Google shows only fruit like versions of gooseberry. Partially colored peas.
July 13th, 2007 at 7:42 pm
A lot of the sellere weren’t at te Jackson Farmers Market. The ones there told me the regualrs not there, that they were at a new Arlington TN Farmer’s Market.
Whats the story on a Farmer’s Market in Arlington?
July 14th, 2007 at 5:36 pm
Fred, there’s a story aboutr the Arlington farmer’s market in today’s CA and on the website.
And LL went to the downtown farmer’s market this morning and bought some excellent corn on the cob. I think you just have to choose carefully and examine the corn.
July 14th, 2007 at 8:08 pm
I had that same corn experience last night at Fresh Market in Germantown where they had Georgia corn on display for $2 for four. One ear was fine, but when I unhusked the other ear, about half of the kernels were completely undeveloped. Doh! In retrospect, I should have paid a little more for the kernels that had already been pre-husked and packaged ($4 for four).
July 23rd, 2007 at 7:38 am
I went to the Jackson TN Farmer’s Market last saturday (July 21, and it wqas packed both with vendors and customers. I like to think mentioning it here on the blog made it busier than usual. It was so full, vendors were selling outside of the covered roof. I bought two bags of Peaches & Cream Corn (@18 ears in each bag ) for 3.00 each and some heirloom tomatoes. I found somne cucumbers. that looked good (3 for 1.00). and that is great, because most of the cucumbers I’ve seen were only the pickling ones.
Later, We also went to eat late lunch early supper in downtown Jackson. On Baltimore, across from the county courthouse (and across Highland from the Federal Courthouse (and near the State Supreme Court) a Quiznos (one of 3 in Jackson), A Starbucks (one of only two in Jackson), and a Subway (one of 7 in Jackson) have opened on the court square. This is maybe a block from the Dixie Castle Restaurant on Baltimore that serves $4.50 DAILY (m-f) plate lunches (and in the evening (m-f & saturday) serves GREAT steak dinners) They Subway Quiznos Starbucks) are only open until 5:00 pm, but the atmosphere is tremendous. We chose Quiznos. There is something about their bread and their method of toasting a sandwich that makes their subs so good. Since we were back downtown, I drove (4 blocks) back near the Farmers Market at 4:00 pm, and yes surprisingly there were still a few vendors there and a few shoppers there too.
Its real nice to see Jackson’s downtown revive after that tornado in 2003. There are stll a lot of empty parcels of land from the damage, but the downtown is returning.
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