Well, it's time to firmly grab hold and pull the foot from my big, lazy, judgmental mouth.
If you get here late, you're going to be singing the same tune I whined all last year. At 8am, a ridiculously early hour for me on a Saturday morning, the drive and fight to park will be well worth it - you might catch Mushroom Dude before he sells out, or get to buy insane asparagus from a farm 30 miles away for cheaper than you've ever seen. Heads of lettuce, for 2 bucks, almost too beautiful to eat. Hungry? Grab a brekkie 'rito from the Harvest Moon Grille truck and drown it in top notch homemade sauce, for 6 bucks. Or just stroll and sample cheese biscuits, spreads and salsas of all kinds, goat cheese, you know.
Greens shed blew up this year - rare herbs, strange ornamentals, growers are getting specific with what they're growing, and that's rad. If you're worried about your Tarragon fairing poorly while you shop, most will let you pay and leave your babies, no problem.
Yeah, the resellers I mentioned before are here and pushing tomatoes, onions, cukes, waxed and transported 2ooo miles from their places of origin, but there's also fresh curry leaves, chinese chives, other awesome things that can be rough to source in our fair city. They serve their purpose. And they're here every day, year round, and cheaper than any brick and mortar in town.
After stalking it for 3 weeks, I finally bought a handmade cutting board off of Robert Waddel. It's the nicest one I've ever owned, and I baby it (as per his advice). It'll last me longer than any BB&B board, for sure, and it's frickin' gorgeous. Cheese spreads look amazing on it. And it was 70 bucks.
People are talkative, excited, happy. You're going to see people you know. You'll see every kind of reusable bag ever invented, overhear conversations about DIY solar paneling, this year's garden, a sick recipe.
Sorry I'm a lazy jerk, CRFM. If I spend a ton of money here every Saturday 'till winter, will you forgive me?