ITHACA FARMERS MARKET

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12 May, 2008 Seasonal

Waid’s Honey and Candles

The Ithaca Farmers Market is in full swing! It’s a true feast for all the senses: beautiful kaleidoscopes of tulips and lilacs, wonderful sounds of laughter and music and exotic smells from all the world’s best street food. The competing aromas beckon you to their stalls, and you are left with grueling choices to make. The first vegetable crops are sold in wonderful displays: baby lettuce, spinach and other greens. Wineries and cheese makers, jam and honey vendors proudly display their wares and offer samples. And foods from Cuba, Tibet, Nepal, Greece, South America, Japan, India and China, Thailand and Laos are a representation of the feasting on hand for hungry customers. Everyone has their favorites and many vendors attract long lines of repeat customers. Over the years I have many favorites and I’ll touch on just a few here. Some of the newer offerings such as French crepes and Greek Gyros looked and smelled wonderful and are quickly attracting loyal followers. If I need to sustain my weekly craving for healthy gourmet food I’ll wait in line at Macro Mamas. There you don’t need to make a choice. They’ll sell you a platter with all their salads and hot items loaded together. Many people (and I am one of them) bring containers to bring home Macro Mamas for the rest of the week. It’s worth the visit just to feast your eyes on the huge bowls of salad and the mile high cakes and luscious desserts. My recommendation is to bring some friends and buy an assortment of goodies to be eaten in communal picnic style. That way you can sample a variety of cuisines.

Here are some of the highlights to try:

Ø From Macro Mamas: Try Peggy’s corn fritters: served with two great sauces and sample her side order of peanut lime noodles. You can order these in the left “express lane” rather than waiting in the longer whole meal lane.

Ø Just Desserts at the North end makes breads and pastries. Try their crispy flatbread pizza cooked while you wait in their portable pizza oven.

Ø Cuban foods also at the North end of the Farmers Market has authentic Cuban sandwiches: a delectable panini of roast pork, ham, cheese, mayo, mustard and pickles made by Roy Josef who also serves beans and rice, a vegi medley and delicious succulent chicken.

Ø The Gyros at On the Street are their biggest seller and it is hard to go past that vendor without being drawn in by the wonderful aromas. They also sell souvlaki and falafel.

Ø Nearby is Gimme Coffee which all Ithaca coffee lovers know and love.

Ø Towards the lake is Osakaya is one of the original vendors. We brought our children there 20 years ago for chicken Yakitori and sushi. The hot noodle soups and cold salads are also authentic and delicious.

Ø Cactus Head has also been around a long time. Their “made to order” waffles with fresh fruit are not to be missed. And I love their citrus food juice.

Ø One of the very popular vendors for breakfast is Solaz on the Southern end. Long lines form for the made to order breakfast burrito. My favorite is the Calabacitas : a burrito stuffed with zucchini, mushrooms, corn, cheese and homemade salsa.

Ø Across from Solaz is Littletree Orchards which has great fruits in season and also great cider. Now check out their homemade donuts which are perfect with the Gimme at the other end of the lane.

Ø Moving on to one of my many other favorites is Khmer Angkor: traditional Cambodian street food. As you wait you can watch huge woks in action frying up various vegetable fritters. My favorite selection is the Kmer Pan Cake. It is a large omelet filled with your choice of ground meat or vegetables and perfectly seasoned with basil, garlic and chopped peanuts. On the side is a sweet sauce and also an optional VERY hot sauce. You are guaranteed to love this!

Ø Robert Berkley’s Daily Soup offers some wonderful homemade selections. My favorite is the mushroom barley soup, but he will give you a sample to try if you need help deciding. Robert also makes wonderful granola and ice-cream.

Ø Sunrise Samosas fries up either savory curry samosas which are really terrific served with their selection of chutneys that you add to your preference. They also make sweet fruit samosas

Ø Next to Macro Mamas is a wonderful Chinese vendor: Jung Ching Foods. They have a cold noodle salad with a variety of toppings to choose from including tofu, kimchee, peanuts, sprouts, cucumbers, tomatoes etc. This makes a great lunch and I’ll often take a serving home. The tamarind sauce is fantastic. People crowd around to buy egg rolls, steamed buns and dumplings. They offer a huge selection complete with several sauces.

I’m a regular Saturday customer and have been for ever; even before Steve Gibbion designed the new covered Market. I can truthfully say that I’ve loved all the food vendor products. I’ve listed some of my favorites but try everything! The bakeries sell top notch European style pastries as well as top of the line American favorites like cinnamon buns. The honey, the cheese, the wine and jams all need sampling. Stay local and buy all your meat, and eggs from several local farms. Many of these Market goods are staples in my home.

Finger Lakes Community on June 12th, 2008 at 10:06 pm

Very informative posting. Thank you.

ITHACA FARMERS MARKET: ENJOY A PICNIC | Finger Lakes Feasting on May 12th, 2009 at 10:23 am

[…] ITHACA FARMERS MARKET: ENJOY A PICNIC ITHACA FARMERS MARKET OPEN SATURDAYS AND SUNDAYS The Ithaca Farmers Market is definitely the “happening place” on Saturday mornings. You can still buy wintered over vegetables like parsnips and leeks but the fresh veggies are also springing up . Asparagus and spinach and lettuce greens are abundant now, as are every kind of flower and herb Some new and many of the old favorite prepared food vendors are making the choices even more difficult. One great way to maximize the enjoyment is to have a picnic. With a wonderful selection of wine, bread, cheese and cold cuts , you can have yourself a feast. THE PIGGERY, which was a sometime vendor last year now have their own stall at the North end of the long arm. They are the only meat purveyor that sells fresh meat. The various cuts of pork are displayed much as you would see it in a European charcuterie. Charcuterie is the French word for both a pork butcher and the products of his labor. A charcutier takes pork and makes sausages, hams, confit, pates, terrines, etc, all of which comprise charcuterie. Charcuterie is the prototypical convenience food. A jar of pate and a baguette is lunch. For this husband and wife team, Peggy Sanford and Brad Marshall, the Piggery is a labor of love. Brad says his work is the charcuterie business and in his hobby is taking care of his pigs. In other words he works all the time. Often they have little samples and I’ve tried several. The smoked sausage ("smoked grillers") are really wonderful as is the liver pate and the sliced ham. I’m hoping to see some more pates varieties made with nuts, prunes and liquors and with a little more assertive spicing. The Piggery takes good care of their pigs. These are pasture raised heritage breeds who also get fed locally grown organic grain. Peggy and Brad are committed to sustainability and prepare their products in a specially designed off grid kitchen. SO….to take the European feasting one step further….buy some charcuterie from the Piggery, some cheese from one of the other vendors and a crispy baguette, and a bottle of wine and what more could you want? FAT BOYis one of my favorites among several top notch European style bakers. Their plain and semolina baguettes are what you’d expect to find in Paris. They sell out of these treasures quickly. They also have many other varieties of bread including epi, pain rustique, mixed grain, rye whole barley, sourdough, wheat walnut and Bavarian farm bread. All are beautiful to behold and worthy to serve at the finest meal. Their pastries, cookies and scones are hard to pass up so my advise is to make your way through a sample of every delicacy they prepare. And to round out your picnic, stop by NORTHLAND SHEEP DAIRY where Maryrose Livingston makes European quality cheese. She and her partner Donn Hewes are a team; he working the farm with his team of draft horses and mules and she holding the job of shepherd and cheesemaker. They sell several cheese varieties and always have samples to taste. I like them all and am very excited to try the Torta de la Serena which Maryrose will begin making soon. Maryrose spent part of her winter interning in Western Spain in the region called Extramadura with one of the few cheese makers left making this cheese with his own herd of grass fed sheep. If all goes well we should be sampling a young cheese in August. This is my all time favorite Spanish cheese. The Ithaca Farmers Market is open Saturdays 9-3 and Sundays 10-3 Check out last year’s post for some of other great food vendor tips: ITHACA FARMERS MARKET POST MAY 08 […]

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