This week's market post is brought to you by the Amish!
This past weekend I had to attend a meeting in Gettysburg, PA. I took the opportunity to take the scenic route. In this case, that was route 30, also known as the Lincoln Highway (they love them some Lincoln down in Gettysburg!)
The Lincoln Highway was the first transcontinental highway in the US! It took about 3 hours to get from Philly to Gettysburg, but as a total farmophile, it was worth it. Lots of pastoral scenery, chicken coops, clothes out on the line...these are my people.
Anyway, I decided to take a detour to Lancaster. I am interested in the Amish and I hadn't been back to Lancaster since I was about 12, so I thought it would be a fun side trip. I visited the Lancaster Central Market (http://www.centralmarketlancaster.com/) which is the oldest continuously operating farmer's market in the US. It was pretty amazing. The building was awesome, and there were a lot of great vendors. It was not a growers market, so you had to sort out the local produce from the rest, but there was a lot of local grass fed beef, and local cheeses. Even a couple of real live Amish people!
My souvenir was two somewhat cheesy and adorable recipe pamphlets.
I got into a great conversation with a young farmer there who mostly had radishes for sale. He had my favorite type of radish, the Watermelon Radish. Eric and I are basically obsessed with these huge radishes. They have the coolest red flesh (hence the name.) Eric grates them up & serves with salt, pepper, and a light vinaigrette, although they are good just grated as is.
We may grow some of these beauties this year. I've seen a lot of them at local winter farmers markets, so they are probably a good winter crop (or they store well.) Here's a link: http://sustainableseedco.com/heirloom-vegetable-seeds/pe-t/radish-heirloom-seeds/watermelon-radish-seeds.html
And a photo (with boar chops- yum!)
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