This past Sunday, I traveled to the Beacon Farmer’s Market to see what is in season and stock up on some goodies for my house. The Market is at the Beacon train station, across the parking lot from the tracks right on the edge of the Hudson River. I arrived to the Market a few minutes before it opened at 10AM, and to kill some time wandered into the Pete & Toshi Seeger waterfront park.

It was cold and drizzly, and a cold wind was whipping off of the water so after taking a few pictures at the edge of the water I quickly turned back to the Market. Due to the weather, the Market was almost completely devoid of visitors, which meant that I was able to strike up many in-depth conversations with vendors.

I first stopped by the “New Confectioner” tent that was advertising vegan sorbet but was selling peanut butter. (And my love of peanut butter took over – I couldn’t help myself, I bought a tub.) I chatted with the vendor, J. Spica, for a while about Vassar (he has a radio program on WVKR!) and my plans post-graduation. He shared with me that he was a lineman and retired to start this business, but that his real dream is to go to the CIA and take his cooking “to the next level.” I wished I had the opportunity to try his frozen desserts, but I guess I’ll just have to come back on a sunnier day.

Next I sauntered over to the “Common Ground Farm” tent and bought a bag of mixed salad greens, including some baby kale and a new green that I had never tried before, called “mizuna.” An Asian green, it has a mild peppery taste similar but milder than arugula. Common Ground also had “microgreens” for sale, which are essentially the harvested shoots of salad greens. The vendor that I talked to noted how they have a high density of nutrients for their small size and are extra crunchy, making them a great addition in salads, or on soup or sandwiches. She reiterated what we’ve heard from other vegetable farms recently: that at this point in the season, not much is growing besides early greens.

Next, I stopped by “All you Knead,” which offered pastries and loaves of freshly baked bread. I grabbed a cherry-cheese pastry (apparently the most popular pastry at the Farmer’s Market) and a loaf of sourdough bread. Both were delicious (despite my best intentions, once I brought the loaf of bread home it was gone by Monday morning!).

I finally visited the “Fishkill Farms” tent. Similar to “Common Ground,” they were offering mustard greens and kale, but also had potatoes and apples. I picked up a bunch of mustard greens (I really should describe it as a bouquet  since the presentation of various strains of mustard greens bunched together was so beautiful!), and asked about how Fishkill can be offering fresh apples to its customers in late April. The vendor explained that the apples he was selling had been picked in September or October like the rest of the apples, and kept in cold storage (at a temperature lower than fridge, but not frozen) to be sold throughout the year. He noted that some apples actually improve with time in cold storage as this long-term storage can allow sugars in some of the apples to develop.

I left the Market chilled and pretty damp, but with some greens and baked goodies that I was excited to bring back to my house. I can’t wait for another chance to venture down again (and hopefully not in the rain this time!).