Some people look at Thanksgiving as the transition point from fall to winter, when we stop thinking about falling leaves and turkey, and start gearing up for Christmas trees, snow and bitterly cold temperatures.
I mark the changing of the seasons with the Rye Farmers’ Market. Every Sunday from June to late November, the vendors show up like clockwork in the parking lot on Theodore Fremd Ave. During the summer when the triathlon team and I came back from our early morning Sunday rides, we’d ride down Theodore Fremd and there they’d be, selling their stuff (you could always hear the pickle guy). Famished, I’d swing by afterwards to pick up fruit or a loaf of fresh bread.
What’s that saying about the Post Office: “Through rain, sleet and snow…”? Posties have nothing on farmers’ market vendors; it can be 100 degrees out, torrentially downpouring, or verging on a Category 3 hurricane, and they’re still out there. Those guys are tough.
On a bone-chilling recent Sunday, I made my way over to Theodore Fremd for the last market of the season. It was cold — the vendors were doing the “I’m so bundled up I look like Ralphie from A Christmas Story and have to turn my whole body to talk to you” thing — even the pickle guy looked uncomfortable. First I stopped by the Migliorelli Farm stand for honeycrisp apples and fennel.
I’d already decided I was making Pasta e Fagiole soup, and needed two key elements: bread for dunking, and cheese to grate on top. The bread I got from Bread Alone Bakery.
(That’s not mold by the way; I’d just chopped parsley on the same cutting board. Don’t want to give Bread Alone a bad rep…)
This Smokey Shepherd pecorino came from Valley Shepherd Creamery.
And that was all I needed, just a few fresh and local ingredients to complete a comforting, cold-weather soup.
It’ll be strange driving down Theodore Fremd this Sunday and seeing an empty parking lot. No doubt, winter has arrived. But I know the vendors will be back next June, and I’ll look forward to once again getting my fix of farm fresh tomatoes and strawberries.
See you next summer.
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Tags: farmers' market, rye, soup