I’m back from the farmers’ market ready to settle in for the afternoon with some hot chocolate, book, and cat.  It was a chilly market this morning with the wind blowing a lot of the time–it was more than just breezy–so it feels so good to be indoors.

treasures from the farmers' market

I came home with lots of “finds” from the market:  strawberries, kohlrabi, both white and blue sweet potatoes, cabbage, garlic scapes, and one of my favorite cheeses (Carolina Moon) from Chapel Hill Creamery.  Now for some meal planning!

The weather is still cool enough that I think that the cabbage is going to be joined by some country-style pork ribs in one of my favorite “comfort foods”–braised pork and cabbage. A fair number of the strawberries have already disappeared while I was at the market–breakfast.  I’m still contemplating the fate of the garlic scapes, the sweet potatoes, and the kohlrabi, though some of the kohlrabi may just be eaten as a salad, just dressed with a vinaigrette.  Perhaps the other will find its way into the sauté pan.

I’m still contemplating the garlic scapes–a quick search has turned up a number of possibilities from blogs that I like to read.

I was so pleased to see white sweet potatoes at the market–they’re not as moist as the yellow/orange ones–that’s likely to end up as a baked potato.  I’ve read about blue ones, but this is my first time to try one, so that will be an experiment.  The grower tells me that the blue keeps it color when cooked and that the texture is similar to the white–but that may call for some research and recipe hunting although I might just roast a mix of the white and the blue so that I can taste them  side by side.

The cheese?  Well, that’s likely to be paired with some good bread and a nice robust red wine as my evening snack!