Headhouse Produce Roundup

 Profusion of Strawberries, Early Zucchini and Peas

With its position at the head of the Headhouse Shambles, Blooming Glen Farm does boffo business

Strawberries-by-the-pint were plentiful and reasonably priced at today's Headhouse Square farmers market, ranging about $3.50-$3.75. A.T. Buzby and Beechwood Orchards offered the best deal, however, with quarts selling for $6.50.

Zucchinis made their first appearance of the season at both Culton Organics and Buzby. Tom Culton sold out early, but at 1 p.m. Buzby still had some at $1.50/pound.

Culton had tons of long, beautiful asparagus ($7.50/pound, iirc), lots of radishes (as did just about every other vegetable farmer), some broccoli, tiny beets with pristine greens ($3/bunch: buy them for the greens, not the beets), and snow peas at $5/quart. The star of Culton's offerings, as far as I was concerned, were the tiny shelled peas, $5 for a half pint. I tasted a few raw and they were as sweet as could be.

Lettuces and other salad greens filled farmers' tables, too. I picked up some head lettuce at Blooming Glen and perfect looking endive at Weaver's Way.

Traffic at the market seemed quite variable. More than one vendor told me that they'd go from being slammed with long lines at one moment, to no one five minutes later, only to be slammed in another five minutes.

The two orchardists at the market, Dave Garretson of Beechwood, and Ben Wenk of Three Springs Fruit Farm, said sweet cheeries are only about two weeks away, with sour pie cherries a week or so behind that.