BUYING WEEKLY MENU ITEMS AT THE FARMER'S MARKET

Recently I started making a weekly menu. This helps me cut out extra trips to the store (more time for parks and play dates) and avoid wasting food. From the menu I make a list of what I need to buy at the farmer's market, and what I need to buy during my weekly Whole Foods trek. I say trek because it is over two miles round trip from our house to WF. That might not seem like a long distance, but I'm pushing a stroller (hauling a 22 pound child plus a week's worth of groceries), not a gas pedal. 

Since I was a child, my parents have had and enormous garden. This garden would supply us with beans, peas, lettuce, tomatoes, corn, peppers, rhubarb, zucchini, squash, cucumbers, and pumpkins during the growing season. My step-mother would spend the summer months freezing all vegetables that could be frozen, canning tomato juice, salsa, whole tomatoes, and she would even pickle cucumbers! My grandparents were farmers and they would supply us with eggs, meat, chicken, apples, apple sauce, and fresh berries. I try my best to create some version of this for my son Milo. 

To do this, each and every Saturday morning we head down to the 14th & U St Farmer's Market to buy what ever didn't get bought at Whole Foods. We walk south on 10th St to U Street where we we stroll west 4 blocks. Once we arrive at the market, we go to the last tent on U Street. From there we work our way around the market buying whatever we need for this week's menu list. Today we bought peaches, tomatoes, sausages, flowers, corn, squash, eggs, pasta and sauce, and chocolate croissants. 

The market is a hub of activity at the 9 o'clock hour. We find many people with children, lots of dogs and owners, and early birds who covet the first pick of this weeks crop. We always find people who we know to talk to. It seems as though dogs and babies are an easy way to meet people and a great place to witness this is at the market. I'll hope to bump into some of you at the market in the coming weeks!