Mom and the farmers’ markets | Tess Tales

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Here is a visit to the farmer’s market with my Mom!

Growing up, my family was all about great food. My mother was a wonderful cook and an even better baker. She always baked for the weekend just in case guests stopped in and they always did. We were lucky if something baked on Saturday had leftovers on Monday for my school lunch.

baked goods-annpar edMy mother loved farmers’ markets. You could get home-butchered and smoked meats, fresh-baked goods and local produce. We would set out at 7:30 a.m. on a Saturday and come home hours later with bags and bags of wonderful stuff.

Our conversations always went something like this:

Mom: Kathleen (she always called me by my given name) are you ready? I want to get there before the old ladies squeeze all the produce. (The term “old ladies” always meant women other than herself. She was known to sneak a squeeze herself but only when necessary. That was different from other old ladies who squeezed indiscriminately.)

Me: I’m on my way. (Ok, I was still in bed but was thinking about getting up. I was the chauffeur as my mother hated to drive more than 2 miles.)

Mom (in the car): How does my hair look?

Me: Lovely but does it matter? Who is going to see you at the farmers’ market? (My mother always dressed up to go out. She didn’t own pants until she was in her sixties and never wore jeans.)

Mom: You never know! Sometimes the church ladies are there. (I have no idea who the church ladies were but we lived in fear that they would see my mother without every hair in place.)

Mom (at the market): Look at the baked goods. Should we get muffins or buns or rolls?

baked rolls-Lowell Mariannika edMe: It doesn’t matter to me. (In a minute all three were purchased and placed in the cart. Anything still warm was scooped up too.)

This would go on and on. We would buy bacon and smoked pork chops, chicken and roasts, nuts, crazy-named cheeses, olives and pickles, all sorts of fruit and lots of vegetables.

The best part was coming home and “tasting” everything. My mother never stood on protocol when it came to food. We ripped the bags open and sampled the food sometimes with our coats on. Warm bakery items were gone in a few bites with regrets that we didn’t get more. All right, I confess, sometimes the warm bakery items didn’t really make it home intact (or perhaps not at all).

We always bought more than we needed or could reasonably consume. Food was cheaper back then and we shared with others.

We ate well all week. There was no peanut butter and jelly sandwich in our family. You could have home-smoked pink bologna with white specks for lunch slathered with home-made sweet-hot horseradish mustard (guaranteed to clean out your sinuses) on some wonderful foo-foo bread. How good  is that? Or maybe some salami made by the Amish farmers – yum!

This was all before saturated fat was discovered and ruined our eating habits.

Occasionally I still go to the farmers’ market but it isn’t the same without her. I never inherited her concern about dressing up to shop or having every hair in place! Those judgmental church ladies must be long gone.

 

Photo credits: Header is from the West Palm Beach farmer’s market. Yummy looking buns by Lowell Mariannika and horizontal shot of bakery case by annpar. Both courtesy of Flickr.

33 thoughts on “Mom and the farmers’ markets | Tess Tales”

  1. We have several great farmer’s markets in the area. And a truly wonderful bakery with lots of samples. I often take my grandchild, buy a loaf, and then we eat one or two slices in the car. Yum. Happy New Year.

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  2. I walk up to the Culver City farmers’ market almost every Tuesday afternoon… I always buy too much fresh produce as it all looks sooooooo gooooooood! I cook it, freeze it in small batches so I always have something just a defrost away. Recently I discovered chicken sausages that are cooked as I wait with mounds of onions… I’m making myself hungry!!!!

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  3. Kate if you knew how much we love bologna sandwiches!!!! And we rip up bags and sample all the stuff too! And your Mom loved the 5 &10!!!! Love this post about your Mom. My memories of my Mom are very strong at Christmas… every day really. She loved Christmas, she was like a little kid during the holidays.

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  4. This made me smile, not to mention hungry. I love the idea of old ladies squeezing all the produce. It also must have been generational because my mother never went anywhere either unless dressed to the nines…God forbid she forgot her lipstick…Cherries in the Snow, by Revlon.

    Sweet piece there, Kathleen 🙂

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  5. I loved reading your memories of visits to the Farmer’s Market with your mother, Kate. I could probably write something similar about me and my mom, but our visits are to Walmart each Saturday. She likes Walmart for some reason. 🙂
    Merry Christmas to you and your family.

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    • My mother loved our local 5 & 10. They had a snack bar and after browsing for a couple of hours we would have lunch there. It was a wonderful outing. My mom would like Walmart. Lots of stuff and inexpensive.

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  6. There were no farmer’s markets when I was growing up; but then, nearly everyone I knew had a garden of her own to “shop” in. These days, I’m a farmer’s market shopper whenever I can find one. Or a roadside stand — I love those, too.

    The Church-ladies are still there (and always will be) in various judgmental guises; but you’re too cool to be bothered by, or even to notice, them! 🙂

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  7. I love farmers markets, although in our area many of them have turned into mini-craft fairs that also have food. It’s nice to be able to talk to the vendors about their produce – I often end up trying things that would have intimidated me in the supermarket – like dragon fruit.

    It appears that you were well-compensated for your chauffeur duties!

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    • Some places give samples. I’m all about samples. I have found a few new loves through a taste. The vendors at the farmers market changes but around Thanksgiving they have a huge craft show in the adjacent building. Lots of stuff!

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  8. A wonderful recollection to read. You’re mother sounds like the real deal. And thanks for the unintended West Palm Beach suggestion. We’ve been disappointed with the offerings so far in our area, so now I want to look into that one. Very helpful!

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  10. I never went to a farmer’s market with my mom. Every sweet treat was homemade. However, I do remember saturated fat (especially in PA Dutch liverwurst) and in real beef gravy. My Mom finally started wearing pants in the 70s but she never owned jeans either. She was quite a seamstress and I think of her every time I thread my sewing machine. I enjoy your recollections.

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