Farmer's Market

Last night I discovered that the Troy Farmer's Market I've visited during the summer runs an indoor winter market as well. Apparently my husband has been aware of this, but kept it from me because he was afraid it would "cost us too much money."

To digress for a minute - I haven't gone into this aspect of my new food concerns yet, but I might just as well put it out there because it's going to play a large part in how I shop and cook. As a young family just starting out we need to live "conservatively." This means each week I try to budget myself $50-75 dollars at the grocery store - I am rarely successful at sticking to the lower end of the budget. So, the struggle to replace all of our old processed foods with better, more sustainable products is complicated by the fact that I have to be as thrifty as I can.

In the end, I convinced my husband that we should at least check out the market this morning when I got home from work. We slowly lapped the atrium trying an occasional sample of organic cheese or produce while I carefully calculated which products I'd like to try for $15 or less. In the end, I ended up with a jar of homemade Strawberry Pear jam ($4), three hydroponic tomatoes ($2), a few organic mint springs ($2), and a quarter pound of mild mesculin mix ($3.50).

When I got home I couldn't wait to come up with something yummy to make for lunch with the tomatoes and mint. The simple recipe I came up with will follow shortly