Just Picked

Just Picked



I've been eagerly anticipating the beginning of the local farmers' markets and today, at last, the first one started.

East Tennessee is largely rural -- and should be. It has wonderfully fertile valleys, lots of rain and plenty of sun, and a fairly mild climate. It's great farming country. Given this, I am baffled by the dearth of locally grown produce and places to buy it.

One supermarket claims to offer local produce, but the offerings are sparse and not much better than the stuff from Florida or California. There are a few produce markets around offering local veggies, but none convenient to me and the variety is poor. And then there are four small farmers' markets during the summer. Each consists of six to a dozen trucks/tents so, although the quality at these is excellent, the variety is only fair. They are the best bet, but they're only open once a week, during the week, for very limited hours. In fact, if I had a real job with standard hours there would only be one I could shop at.

Ah well. I don't have a real job so at 3:00 this afternoon I showed up to see what they had.

Not much.

But I expected that. It's still too early for almost everything and all but one of the vendors were selling tomato, pepper, and other seedlings for planting instead of eating. Fortunately the exception had some beautiful lettuce and spinach picked within the hour.

I bought some baby lettuce and had it for dinner dressed with a bright Spanish olive oil and a light drizzle of pear vinegar.

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I've got to figure out something to do about the food situation here in Knoxville. The community is relatively affluent and well-educated and should be able to support a decent farmers' market on the weekend. And I've got to do something to help the only butcher shop in town survive.

Come, Sancho, I see a giant.