Farmer's Market

What a fun little morning!  A couple of friends and I headed up to the farmer's market this morning with the kids. I really had no intentions of buying anything, but some fun things caught my eye that we just had to try.  


Our first stop was a homemade dog biscuit stand.  Of course my little Molly needs some treats!  So, I let the boys each pick out a couple of yummy treats for her.

Molly's yummy treats!

The produce stand was next.  We got some raspberries and gooseberries.  They had purple gooseberries for the kids to taste and they really liked them so, without even thinking I bought the red ones...well I think I messed up cuz Vann says they're much tarter than the purple ones.  Looks like I'll be recipe hunting this afternoon for a way to use red gooseberries.

Red gooseberries and raspberries...yum!

Also at the produce stand, they had popcorn on a cob!  I've never heard of or seen this so, we asked them about it.  I guess it grows this way and usually they take the kernels off the cob.  But they also said you can stick the whole cob in the microwave and let it pop that way.  I said, 'Should I put it in a paper bag?'  He said, 'No, it's more fun to pop it without the bag!'  Ok, well who's gonna clean my microwave??  I'm excited to try it...I'll let ya know how it turns out.

Popcorn...on the cob!

As we were leaving the produce stand, I noticed a honey stand.  Mmmm...honey!  I was looking at all of her honey and was noticing all these different flavors.  I've never seen flavored honey before so, I asked her how she makes all this flavored honey.  Get this...they grow their honey in school buses (to keep bears away from the hives)...so to flavor it they just park the bus in a field of whatever flavor they want to make (cranberry, strawberry, raspberry, whatever!)  I guess the bees will get their pollen from the closest source so, by parking the bus in the field they know what kind of honey the bees are making.  Then when the plants are done flowering they just move the bus...crazy right?!  I was so intrigued I bought two kinds of honey...strawberry and wildflower.  Thank goodness I didn't bring more money with me or I may have bought more!  And they taste so good!!  

Strawberry honey, bee pollen and wildflower honey

After I bought my honey, I noticed she had bee pollen sitting there...what the heck is bee pollen I ask??  Well, I guess it's one of the most nutritious foods on the planet...who knew?!  You're gonna have to google it for yourself, but basically it does everything, except cure disease.  So, I'm gonna give this bee pollen a try and see what happens...keep your eyes peeled for an update in a week or so!

Another look at all of my fun farmer's market items!

On our way out, we stopped by the balloon man and each of the kiddos picked out a balloon animal for him to make...

 Logan (green dinosaur), Mia (pink butterfly), Vann (red dinosaur), Chayce (red elephant) and Jonathan (orange dinosaur)

Then, we walked up to Applebee's for a nice lunch.  We haven't been out to eat in forever so, it was fun treat for the boys.  

On our way back to the car, we stopped by to see the water fountain.  And to our surprise there were a bunch of cute little ducklings and their mama's swimming around!  So, we fed them our left over snack crackers...which they loved.  And you know who also loved them...the giant fish!  It was crazy how many fish were in the water...and they were all huge.  Another fun little treat for the kids to see!

Jonathan, Chayce and Vann

Not a great pic, but if you look close you can see three mama ducks and three baby ducklings!

Overall, a very fun morning with some great friends!