A Few Local Farm Friends

Approaching the farm market in Northport

Friday mornings are a bit like holidays in Northport. That's when producers of local fruits and vegetables and meat and eggs, vendors of local bread and honey and jam and such, gather around the old Depot down by the marina, and everyone turns out with market baskets and shopping bags. 

I wrote the Bare Knuckle Farm people a check early in the season and have been drawing down on my credit. 

That would read "Northport" and "Michigan" if I'd gotten the whole sign

Here is just a tiny sample of beautiful things at their tent this morning.

The bread lady's line is always long. I got fooled because she was facing into the park rather than out onto the parking lot this time, but she'd been so busy when she arrived that the croissants hadn't even made it into the counter display.

As has become almost a weekly habit, I bought beef and bacon from the woman selling meat from pasture-raised livestock but didn't get a picture of her tent. If you squint through the bread lady's line, you may be able to catch a glimpse of the meat tent in the background. I didn't make it to the Idyll Farms tent this morning, knowing I can buy their goat cheese tomorrow across the street at Motovino at the end of the day.

My total expenditure this morning was $55 (including $18 deducted from my BK credit), and I feel great about the way I spent that money. Look at all this great, wholesome food (you can't see the meat because it's on top of the ice and underneath the vegetables): Swiss chard, fresh tomatoes, a couple of eggplants, sweet little cucumbers that look like "watermelons for Barbie," as someone remarked last year; bread and croissants; beef and bacon:

Everyone loves market day!

Last week, uncharacteristically, I missed market day in Northport, because friends with a share in a CSA down toward Cedar were out of town and offered us the chance to pick up their weekly portion. It had been a couple of years since we'd visited Jim and Judy Schwantes at Sweeter Song Farm, and the place and people and customers and ambiance were as wonderful as ever. 

 There were lovely, big, flat green beans that I cooked up with with ham the next day. Delicious! We also got one of the biggest kohlrabi I've ever seen, radishes, carrots, lettuce, beets -- what else? Oh! There, on the board below, you can read what each family's share included last week:

I like the little note in the bottom right corner saying that if there's anything in your share you don't want or can't use you should put it on the "Up for grabs" table, where anyone who wants to can help themselves. Great idea, isn't it? I also love seeing the chickens walking around in the sunshine, clucking happily.

After picking up the CSA share at Sweeter Song, we decided to visit another farm, down south of Cedar, to try their Mexican menu. We'd heard good things about it and were not disappointed.  

Hydroponic farming would not be the way I'd go -- I'm much too interested in soil -- but the greens we saw growing at Cedar Sol Hydro Farm looked beautiful, and my taco salad was enormous and delicious.

Summer bounty in Leelanau -- what can be better? 

Will there be more farming books coming in the UPS truck today? I live in anticipation!