Part of the city’s green market program, the McCarren Park green market graces the corner of Lorimer and Driggs every Saturday, affording a quality, reasonably priced alternative to bland, expensive supermarket fare. This market has become a fixture of my weekend routine, and the need to get there while the selection is still good is the most pressing factor getting me out of bed before noon.

The following are a few of the regular highlights of the past month:

Osczepinski Farms

Stanley Osczepinski’s crew have been here each week this summer, bringing an overwhelming variety of crops down from his 70-acre Goshen farm; some of the better purchases I’ve made include a $1.50 massive bunch of basil, 3/$1 ears of sweet corn, and all sorts of different breeds of onions and peppers. The tomatoes, while clearly very fresh, have a tendency not to transport well, so I’ve found they usually need to be eaten within a day or two at the outside.

Ronnybrook Farm

After a few weeks, I’m pretty sure the exceptionally friendly people at the Ronnybrook table are beginning to recognize me. I’ve been consistently picking up the flavored drinkable yogurt; this (extremely popular in Asia) trend hasn’t really caught on in this country, but I’ve loved these drinks for years, and Ronnybrook makes them extremely well. The wide ice cream selection is appealing; most recent weeks, I’ve avoided it, knowing I’d never make it the 6-7 blocks back to my apartment without having a container of liquid, but this last weekend, I picked up a quart of the Maple Vanilla Yogurt and a pint of the Ginger Creme Brulee. I found the yogurt a bit too liquid for my tastes, although I’ll probably continue to prefer it over the sugary commercial yogurts, but the ginger ice cream is a spicy joy of a dessert that would pair amazingly with a warm slice of apple pie.

Dines Farms

The boneless ribeye steak from the friendly, talkative man from Dines Farms was quite possibly the best steak I’ve ever eaten; see here for more on that. Dines Farms brings a full selection of meats to the market, all natural / pasture raised (not organic, but still better than most of what you’ll see in a supermarket).

Red Jacket Orchards

The staff at the Red Jacket Orchards stand are a rare exception to the rule here; they’ve often been standoffish and scowling, a sharp contrast to all the other vendors here. The apples, peaches, and nectarines are usually decent, although occasionally disappointing. Unfortunately, none of the cider options are available without preservatives.

This entry was posted by Chris on Sunday, August 21st, 2005 and is filed under Misc. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.