Union Square is a food shopper's paradise. Between Trader Joe's and Whole Foods which are a block away from each other, it is a tug of war when it comes to produce and groceries. Skip that and stroll through the Square on a Saturday or Wednesday and you have the largest open-air Greenmarket in the City where regional growers many from Upstate NY, some all the way from Vermont, bring their goods to sell.There are a few of these Greenmarkets in the City but at Union Square it is a year-round bounty and it is the largest. How does Greenmarket differ from other Farmers' Markets? Well, I learned that Greenmarket allows only producers, so farmer co-ops are not allowed. In other words, only those who produce their own carrots, fish, lamb, eggs, etc. can sell at Greenmarkets.
The first sign of Spring, or so I thought, 67 degrees and sunny, so I dragged Chong to the Square on a beautiful Saturday. Since we went by car, the irritating part is finding a spot to park, but we managed with an hour's limit on the muni-meter ticket. We wandered through the market with tents upon tents of produce, meats, cheeses & dairy, plants and flowers, etc., most of which are organically grown.
There's a variety of veggies one can choose from, I didn't know there are so many types of potatoes; pick your way through blue potatoes, yukon gold, fingerlings and I counted almost a dozen varieties in one stall. That was Spuds 101 for me. And all the varieties of apples - the Mutsu variety I'm seeing for the first time. Where and how do they grow them this time of year? Check out the lettuces and salad greens, the wonderful colors of the carrots, eggplants, tomatoes and lately some Asian vegetables. It is amazing.
Often you'll see chefs from the nearby Gramercy neighborhood, doing their marketing here. Some of the best restaurants are in this area and I guess they mean "market fresh" when they say so on their menus. This Greenmarket is where the yuppies from the Village and the Lower East Side shop, I bumped into one tall guy who picked up a parsnip-looking vegetable called celeriac. I've never used that in my cooking before, so I asked him about it and he gave me tips for its use in soups. The Jerusalem artichoke is another root I have not tried which I must do so before I die; I see fellows just grabbing them by the handful, not even minding the prices so it must really be good. Men, women with their dogs in tow, everyone's enjoying the stroll.
My favorite stands are the artisan organic cheeses and of course, the flowers and plants. There's also an Amish farmer who sells cheese curds that are shaped like gumballs and are fun to snack on. There's Beth's Farm Kitchen that specializes in jellies and jams. I wouldn't try her garlic and rosemary, but the rest are simply of homemade quality.
Don't forget the Penn Dutch Pretzels - 3 whole pretzels for a $1.00 and they sell the broken ones in small snack bags for $2.50. Now that's an up from what used to be $1.75 as I remember. They are so irresistible, I just had to munch on them while strolling around.
For drinks, one can have a shot of wheat grass juice. Yeah, you read it right, grass! Healthy, but I wouldn't go that far. I'm happy with a cup of scalding hot cider fresh from the pot, which took a few minutes to fairly cool down for me to take a sip of. There was a long line for the old-fashioned freshly bottled organic milk. You can tell these people are regulars here at the market, they bring back their empty bottles by the bags.
This is just a sight to see, the farmers have identified their booths with signs that describe their farms and the process they have adopted in growing their crops. They even give out recipes. Names like Flying Pigs Farms that supplies the restraurants and the market with fresh pork , 3-Corner Field Farms that sells pasture-raised lambs, yogurt and cheeses, sheep milk soaps and wools, the Amish farmers from Pennsylvania Dutch County and the list goes on.
This time of year, the flower vendors sell branches of cherry blossom ready to force bloom. What you do is recut the ends of the twigs on a slant and hammer the woody ends so they look mashed. This helps the branch take up water to nourish the buds. Placed on a tall vase of warm water, it's an early Spring touch to your home. The blossoms last two to three weeks, cherry and apples are excellent for this. I love it.
Greenmarket shopping is my favorite chore, strolling about is so much fun and wherever I go I look for them. California is well-known for its Farmers' Markets and I've been to some. The Union Square Market also reminds me of the Marche Place D'Aligre in Paris where I went nuts shopping and saved some money for eats while on tour. It was awesome, their aromatic muscat grapes are sugar-sweet and the Ficelle baguettes and cheeses, wow! That sustained me on our loooooooong walks exploring the city on our own and often times getting lost in the process. The European open-air markets are among the best.
It's as if we did not have enough of our foodie shot for the day, on the way to the car we browsed at the supermarket Garden of Eden and wow, what a store! It's got everything and the produce are just as fresh as those outside at the market but of course more pricey.So what happens at the end of the market day? The Greenmarket feeds the hungry, but not just those who can afford to buy the goods. The unsold food and produce are donated to City Harvest, a non-profit organization dedicated to picking up food and supplies from hotels, restaurants, bakeries, cafeterias, etc., for distribution to the poor and hungry. Their trucks are everywhere and that's always a good thing to see.
And so goes the "food chain", nothing goes to waste, the way it should be. Oh....food glorious food.
