Last Saturday turned out to be a pretty nice day overall and it was a good thing for the farmers because they were fully loaded with gorgeous fruits and vegetables piled high, stall after stall. Aside from the melons, corn, tomatoes, summer squash, peppers, beans, basil, beets, eggplants and onions — the winter squash, gourds and pumpkins are beginning to make an appearance. The Moore Family farm had a full table of massive French pumpkins that I plan to stock up on this weekend.
One sometimes overlooked great little treasure at the market is the ubiquitous potato. With all the brightly colored squashes, peppers and tomatoes, the potatoes tend to fall into the background and, oftentimes on a limited market budget, get passed over. Although almost all the farmers at the market sell potatoes for a good part of the summer, it would be unfortunate not to take advantage of all the wonderful varieties and their respective flavors, colors and uses. The following is a run-down of the farmers who sell potatoes and the varieties they sell.
Shady Hill Farm
Yukon Gold: light yellow, tasty, medium-dry flesh suitable for any cooking style.
Red Potatoes: orange red skin and yellow flesh that cooks up fluffy and flaky suitable for mashing, boiling or baking.
Blue Moon Farm
Organic Sangre: red-skinned potato with white flesh, great for mashing.
Organic French Fingerling: pink-ish skin with creamy yellow flesh, gourmet flavor and texture.
Organic Satina: pretty yellow skinned potato with buttery yellow flesh and excellent flavor, good for mashing or roasting.
Organic All Blue: deep blue skin, excellent for frying, baking or colorful chips.
Moore Family Farm
Red Norland: great red potato for baking, boiling or roasting with a red skin and white flesh.
Yukon Gold: see above
First Fruits
Sweet Potatoes: small reddish-orange potatoes with a sweet orange flesh, great for baking
Tohmanous Farm
French Fingerling: see above
Corola: creamy yellow flesh and excellent flavor, great for soups, boiling or frying
All Blue: see above
Roth Countryside Produce
Kennebec Potatoes: oval, large potatoes excellent for baking.
The Market at the Square runs every Saturday from 7 a.m. to noon, rain or shine now through November 8th. It is located in the parking lot of Urbana Square Mall on the corners of Vine and Illinois Streets.