On the street

Iowa City Farmers' Market

Ah, the Farmers' Market: So much to enjoy. There is the couple who, if you ask, will give you their typed treatise on the many kinds of garlic. There is the woman from whom I buy delectable brownies and the table I always get my bread from. Not to mention the homemade jams, rows of fresh herbs and piles of peppers. Then there are the free samples of juicy, melt-in-your-mouth tomatoes and salsa maker after salsa maker offering tastes of their concoctions on chips.

Earlier in the summer I snatched up asparagus and broccoli. Now, with fall (slowly) taking over, those summer veggies have been replaced with an array of squash. Acorn, butternut, spaghetti and circus squash are just a few of the myriad varieties of this vegetable that can be cooked in so many ways. Whether baked, roasted, grilled or pureed into soups, I love squash.

And there, for me, is the real joy of the Farmers' Market: finding ways to cook up all those vegetables afterward. For me, cooking is therapy, and my cooking is often experimental. It doesn’t always turn-out well (in fact, sometimes it’s downright inedible), but the process is always fun.

That’s why I liked hearing what other Farmers' Market shoppers were planning to cook once they got home Oct. 3. Their answers ranged from things as simple as toast to stir-fries, omelets, and even pad thai. Many people had bought the same things, but they each had different dishes in mind for their dinners. When cooking, the possibilities are practically endless.

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