Robert's Market Report

Saturday (and Sunday) at Headhouse

I visited opening day of the Saturday Headhouse Square farmers’ market sponsored by The Food Trust and found the east side of Second Street alive with vendors: Los Taquitos de la Puebla for taco al pastor; Earl Livengood for his usual spring selection of fresh, pristine produce; Davidson Exotic Mushrooms for shitake and oyster fungi; Two Ganders Farm for honey and biodyamic produce (whatever that means); John and Kira’s Chocolates (I couldn’t resist a 9-piece pack of ladybugs and bees); Young’s Garden for herb seedlings and flowers; Spice of Life for gluten-free baked goods; La Colombe Torrefaction for coffee; and Henry Fisher’s Lancaster County produce, eggs and cheese. More vendors are expected to join the Saturday roster in coming weeks.

Today at Headhouse the Sunday market was in full swing. (That's Tom Culton serving customers in photo at right). Do you want white radishes (Weaver’s Way) or white turnips (Blooming Glen), which might have been switched at birth? The young cooking greens were seductive at all the produce stands, as were the young garlic bunches at Blooming Glen and the scallions (green onions) at Weaver’s Way. You want exotic mushrooms or greens? Try Queen Farm. And I love the baguettes from Marcelle’s Bakery (formerly Versailles); they aren’t as crusty as you’d get from Metropolitan or Le Bus, but much more like the everyday baguette you get in Toulouse or Paris: a bit breadier and more substantial, full of flavor.

The outlook for summer fruit is looking good. Ben of Three Springs Fruit Farm said they’ve got lots of fruit set and plan to thin them out this week, so we can look forward (weather permitting) to great harvests of stone and pome fruits as we get into summer and then to the fall. He also said that for the coming season, they plan to pack more peaches in water than they did last season; although their peaches in light syrup hardly have more calories than the water-packed version, so long as you drain the liquid, a lot of folks were disappointed when the sugar-free variety sold out.