Features this Month:

• Do Something Great: Run a Race this Summer!
• Visit a Farmer's Market (Here's a List)
• Nutritional Recipe: Cheesy Stuffed Shells

Visit a Farmer's Market (Here's a List)

With summertime approaching, a great way to get your family outdoors and spending time together is to plan a trip to your local farmer’s market. Going to a farmer’s market as a family is a great way to turn what used to be a tedious trip to the supermarket into an experience where everyone is involved with meal planning and healthy eating choices.

In case that’s not enough to get you out to the market, here’s four more reasons why shopping at a local farmer’s market is simply excellent.

• Local foods taste better.
  Local food is fresher and tastes better than food that been trucked or flown in from thousands of miles away. Think you can't taste the difference between lettuce picked yesterday and lettuce picked last week, factory-washed, and sealed in plastic? You can.
• Local foods are better for the local economy.
  Money spent with local farmers, growers, and artisans all stays close to home, working to build your local economy instead of being handed over to a corporation in another city, state, or country. Since the food moves through fewer hands, more of the money you spend tends to get to the people growing it.
• Local foods create community.
  Knowing where your food is from connects you to the people who raise and grow it. Instead of having a single relationship--to a big supermarket--you develop smaller connections to more food sources: vendors at the farmers' market, the local cheese shop, your favorite butcher, the co-op that sells local eggs, a local café that roasts coffee.
• Local foods are better for the environment.
  Some foods bought at large supermarkets are shipped thousands of miles before they arrive on your table. Local farmers who follow organic and sustainable growing practices minimize your food's environmental impact. The environmental question of where you food comes from is bigger than its "carbon footprint." By buying foods grown and raised closer to where you live, you help maintain farmland and green space in your area.

Ready yet? If that’s a yes, here are some tips for first-time farmer’s market shoppers:

1. Know Your Seasons
   If you know a bit of what to expect when you get there, making decisions at each stall is much easier. Learn what grows in your area when and don’t be afraid to ask growers about what will be coming to market in upcoming weeks.
2. Go Early or Go Late
   For the best selection, go early. The best goods go first. Popular-but-limited items may even sell out before the day is done. For the best deals, go late. Farmers and other vendors usually prefer to discount products instead of loading them back up and schlepping them home.
3. Bring Big Bags and Small Change
   Some vendors offer bags, but they tend to be thin and flimsy plastic ones that groan under the pressure of any substantial produce purchase. Make sure everything gets home without spilling or breaking by bringing your own sturdy bags. Although vendors will make change, purchases will go easier and faster if you have exact (or close to exact) change.
4. Have a Plan
   Since you know what you’re likely to find at the market, you can do a bit of meal planning and shop accordingly. For example, if local asparagus has just come into season and you can’t get enough, you know you’ll want to eat some steamed, some cooked into a soup, and some sliced raw in a salad. So you’ll know both how many bunches of asparagus to buy and that you’ll also need some spring onions or herbs to add to the soup and some salad greens.
5. Plan For Spontaneity
   Yes, you’ll fair better if you plan your trip to the market. However, you need to leave a bit of wiggle room for those cipollini onions you didn’t know would be at market so early, or the golden raspberries you’ve never tried before. Trying new things is part of the fun of going to farmers’ markets.
6. Be Prepared to Clean Vegetables Once You Get Home.
   Most often, food comes to the markets without being processed first. Carrots come whole and unpeeled. Beets still have greens (and dirt) attached. Learning to handle just-harvested produce can take some getting used to, but the superior flavor is worth the adjustment.
7. Get Advice
   If you find a vegetable that’s new to you and want to give it a try, ask the farmer how to prepare it. For the best tips specifically ask how they like to eat it.

Metro Detroit Farmer’s Market Locations:

Livingston County

Brighton
North First Street at Main, downtown Brighton
Saturdays through October
Information: 810-955-1471

Macomb County

Mount Clemens
North River Road (west of I-94)
Fridays and Saturdays through November
Information: 586-493-7600; www.mountclemensfarmersmarket.com

Warren Farms
City Square Park, Warren
Sundays through October
Information: www.warrenfarmersmarket.org

Oakland County

Birmingham
North Old Woodward, north of Harmon Street
Sundays through October
Information: 248-433-3550

Clarkston
Across from Depot Park, downtown Clarkston
Saturdays through September
Information: 248-821-4769; www.clarkstonfarmersmarket.org

Farmington
Grand River at Grove Street
Saturdays through October
Information: 248-473-7276; www.downtownfarmington.org

Oakland County (Waterford Township)
2350 Pontiac Lake Rd., in Waterford Township
Saturdays and Sundays year-rounde; Tuesdays and Thursdays through December
Information: 248-858-5495; www.oakgov.com/cmarket

Ortonville
Crossman Park, downtown Friday evenings through September
Information: 248-240-0907

Rochester
East Third at Water Street
Saturdays Through October
Information: 248-656-0060

Royal Oak
316 E. Eleven Mile Rd. at Troy Street
Saturdays and Sundays year-round, Fridays through December
Information: 248-246-3276; www.ci.royal-oak.mi.us

Walled Lake
1499 E. Maple Road
Wednesday mornings through October
Information: 248-624-4847

Wayne County

Belleville
East Huron River Drive at Liberty Street; Victory Park Saturday mornings through October
Information: 734-699-2034

Eastern Market
Russell Street between Mack and Gratiot
Monday through Saturday year-round
Information: 313-833-9300; www.detroiteasternmarket.com

Highland Park
Woodward Avenue
Saturdays
Information: 313-422-8730

Lincoln Park Fort-Visger
Southfield Road between Fort Park and Lafayette
Sundays through October
Information: 313-386-1800, ext. 269

Livonia
29350 W. Chicago at Middlebelt
Saturday mornings through October
Information: 734-261-3602

Northville
Corner of Seven Mile Road and Center Street, downtown Northville
Thursdays through October
Information: 248-349-7640

Northwest Detroit
15000 Southfield Rd.
Thursdays through October
Information: 313-387-4732, ext. 103; www.grdc.org

Plymouth
Downtown Plymouth across from the park
Saturdays through October
Information: 734-453-1540

West Park
15200 Kercheval, Grosse Pointe Park
Saturdays through September
Information: 313-822-2812, ext. 200; www.grossepointepark.org

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