Hometown Farmers Market

While I was home last weekend, I went back down to the Olympia Farmers Market. I had been there once before, but it was cloudy and no where near the experience I had just two days ago. It was sunny, plus the fact that it was mothers day made the entire market explode. Hundreds of people flooded the docks, and the entire Market was full of booths from flowers to fruit, to pottery. When I think of a farmers market I thought of something rather different than what I saw. At least five singers with guitars were spread around the area singing music from country to classical rock, not to mention the main stage, and at least two guys were out making balloon animals. There was even a woman doing palm reading!
My Mother went with me and we had an interesting time squeezing through the crowded aisles of the covered market. It took is about 30 minutes just to walk through and glance at all the stalls! When I checked out how long it was open, I found out it's open April through October Thursday through Sunday, and November to December on Saturdays and Sundays from 10:00 until 3:00, which was a lot longer than I expected. The only thing I was a little bummed about was that the only major food stands were selling apples, pears, and potatoes- no strawberries like I had hoped. But I had the great pleasure of talking to one of the farmers and he gave me some great advice and ideas! He helped me pick out two kinds of apples and two kinds of pears, rather enthusiastically too, and when my mother asked him about using those to make a salad, he told us about a great recipe he loved; he told us to use normal lettuce, and mix in small cut up pieces of the apples and pears, one pear which was crunchy, the other softer, and to head over to another stall at the market that sold nuts, and buy raspberry walnuts, which were delicious! He said then find any dressing, and even suggested taking a look around to see if anyone was selling any of their own dressing, since he wasn't sure. I thought it was amazing that the people at the market were suggesting other stalls to go to!
The salad tasted great, and we used a honey dressing that pulled everything together. My Mother and I agreed we would have to go back at least once a week during summer and get food, considering the apples and pears I bought were just over $3, which was insane to me! If anyone lives around or happens to visit Olympia, I would definitely visit the market there!


Cromidas, Rachel. "The Pulse: Making Farmers' Markets More Accessible." ProQuest. New York Times, Apr 11, 2010. Web. 11 May 2010. .