Is there a more quintessential summer experience than eating a popsicle in the sun, with sweet fruit juices dribbling down your chin? Farmers tailgate markets offer a wealth of popsicle ingredients, including some options for thinking outside the tried and true mold.
tomatoes
Fresh at Farmers Markets This Week
Corn, tomatoes, peppers, tomatillos—it’s officially salsa season at farmers tailgate markets!
Two markets are offering special events capitalizing on salsa fever: West Asheville Tailgate Market’s Pepperpalooza will take place this Tuesday, July 23, featuring a hot pepper eating contest, hot sauce tasting, demonstrations of ristra (a traditional Spanish method for drying peppers), and more. Weaverville Tailgate Market’s salsa competition and fundraiser is the following week, on Wednesday, July 31. Register to enter via the market’s Facebook page—or just show up to taste the contenders and vote your picks.
Fresh at Farmers Markets This Week
The first tomatoes have arrived at farmers tailgate markets! If you acted quickly this past week, you may have snagged an early variety from Thatchmore Farm (North Asheville Tailgate Market, West Asheville Tailgate Market), Full Sun Farm (River Arts District Farmers Market, North Asheville Tailgate Market), Olivette Farm, or Headwaters Market Garden (both at Asheville City Market).
Fresh at Farmers Markets This Week
There’s at least one hue of every color represented at area farmers tailgate markets. Farmers’ booths are vibrant and polychromatic. There’s a saying that goes: “Eat your colors.” Variety in the colors of your diet, may or may not live up to this advice, but it sure will make your fridge drawers look beautiful!
Fresh at Farmers Markets This Week
Fixings for summer salads of all kinds, veggies fit for frying, and so much more can be found at area farmers tailgate markets now. July is high time for everything summer, light, delicious salads and scrumptious fried delights are some highlights this week! Not to mention all the fruits, snacking veggies, root veggies, meats, cheeses, breads, baked goods, and more that are just waiting for you to discover!
Fresh at Farmers Markets This Week
Kohlrabi is a beautiful, unique, and delicious vegetable, that is arguably vastly undervalued and sometimes misunderstood. It has a funny sounding name, a peculiar shape, and it’s a fairly uncommon vegetable in standard American cookbooks. At area farmers markets, that may be changing.
Fresh at Farmers Markets This Week
In our region we have a longer growing season than most other parts of the country. With that said, farmers at area tailgate markets are still employing season extension practices to provide some of our favorite fruits and veggies for as long as possible.
Fresh at Farmers Markets This Week
With all the dry weather throughout the summer, farmers were hoping for rain, but as the adage goes, “be careful what you wish for.” Farmers have not been affected uniformly by the heavy rains that hit the region last week; each farm has different soil type, elevation/gradient of their fields, microclimate (which affected how much rain they got), and growing practices (raised beds, tunnels, etc). The variation in produce affected by the rain at area farmers tailgate markets this week will vary from farm to farm.
Fresh at Farmers Markets This Week
What’s fresh at area farmers tailgate markets this week? With such a diverse and abundant array of produce at markets, it’s hard to include them all! Among vendors’ tables are summer squash, cucumbers, eggplants, potatoes, onions, garlic, okra, tomatoes, peppers, breads, cheeses, artisan products, mushrooms, melons, meats, and more.
Fresh at Farmers Markets This Week
Every month, ASAP has been featuring one seasonal, local item as part of its “Get Local” campaign. August is tomato month, and, boy, is that true at area farmers tailgate markets. There are so many fantastic and flavorful varieties! There are innumerable ways to eat tomatoes, but here’s a couple of pretty exciting ideas that you may not have considered: