Worthington Farmer’s Market

Every summer I have high hopes (or at least I jot it on my summer 'To Do’ List) of going to a Farmer’s Market having only attended the Hilliard one a few times. Since most of them seem to be during the week and aren’t open too late, that’s been my excuse for not going. However, a couple weekends ago I did some research and made a list of where all the local markets are and the hours they’re open. Although it’s still a bit early in the summer for some of them, others, like the Worthington Farmer’s Market are open.

Probably our main reason for going was so I could see where the Griswold Senior Center is located since I plan to drive out there on Thursday to attend my artist friend’s lecture there. Since gasoline is now $2.90 a gallon, I hated to waste the gas without visiting somewhere in Worthington while I was there. By the way, downtown Worthington has charm coming out of its ears and it’s only a shame we don’t visit there more often.

The Farmer’s Market is held in the square every Saturday from 8am until 1pm. By the time we arrived it was getting near 11am, so we didn’t have a lot of time, but my husband Andrew doesn’t like to linger anyway, so he’s good at keeping to a schedule.

What seems fairly typical these days is that a Farmer’s Market isn’t solely about fruits and vegetables. There were probably as many, if not more, stands selling bread and pastries, which kind of corrupts the whole reason for going. However, my husband, my moral compass, kept me on the straight and narrow. All we bought of that sort of thing was: a jar of rhubarb blackberry jam with limoncello, a packet of biscotti, a small pie, (which I should have photographed before we cut into it)

and a box of gourmet chocolates (almost too pretty to eat!).

As far as nutritional items, we bought a small basket of strawberries, a small head of lettuce, a bundle of asparagus, a block of cheese made from sheep’s milk, a package of butternut squash raviolis, a bag of chocolate cherry coffee (and an ice coffee from a different vendor), and a wooden sign that says, “Coffee Keeps Me Going Until It’s Acceptable to Drink Wine.” 

(After reading this Andrew commented that the items I have listed under nutritional items really aren’t that healthy; true, but let’s not quibble : )

What was as much fun to me as buying lots of lovely sustenance, was talking to the various vendors. That’s partly why we bought the pie. Andrew said he felt he had to buy something after the long chat I had with the lady selling various pastries. She explained that her two teen/tweenie aged children helped her bake, as boredom has set in for them already (from being on summer break from school). I congratulated them on their efforts as our pie (mixed berry with a lattice crust) is so cute and tasty! I told her about helping out in the garden while growing up and how much I hated raking up apples since there were always so many yellow jackets buzzing around the sometimes rotting fruit. Plus, I never liked apple dumplings (still don’t), or applesauce (I’ve come around on this one), which is where most of the apples ended up. Had we had more ambition we probably could have started our own apple pie business, but the thought never once occurred to us. Anyway….

Andrew and I got to split a chocolate glazed donut from another vendor gratis as he gave us one as a free sample.

That was certainly a nice compliment to my ice coffee. We also sampled various breads. In return (for not buying anything), I told some of the vendors about the annual Bread Festival held in October in nearby Dublin. Since it will only be the third year for it this fall, it’s still new enough none of them had ever heard of it, but said they’ll look it up. I hope to see some of them there (and maybe then I’ll buy some of their starchy goodness).

At any rate, it was a lot of fun and I think we scored some nice produce and goodies to enjoy over the next few weeks. I look forward to attending again, and will definitely make sure to arrive a lot sooner (and bring plenty of cash, though you can use your credit card at a lot of the booths).