week 36: market bop
this week on the little dream farm
Every now and then we have a weekend at home on the farm with nothing on the agenda so we add one of our favorite things to it…
Local market bopping!
And I’ve included a section in today’s Farm Note just for you with some resources and tips for finding great local goodies right where you are.
Before I tell you about market bopping (haha I love how that sounds—so fun!) let me tell you about my favorite Vitamin D supplement as we head into the fall and winter months.
Vitamin D promotes calcium absorption in the gut and aids in building and maintaining healthy bones. There are a number of foods that contain vitamin D and most people in the world meet at least some of the daily vitamin D needs through sun exposure. Even still, vitamin D deficiency is common all around the globe.
Especially here in the northeast where the winters are long and cold, it’s often too cold to have your skin exposed to the sun long enough to get adequate vitamin D, and the sun’s UVB rays in the winter months aren’t strong enough anyhow. As a result, by the end of a long winter many people feel the effects of vitamin D insufficiency or deficiency—some of those symptoms presenting as fatigue, poor sleep, bone pain or general achiness, sadness or depression, hair loss, muscle weakness, loss of appetite, and getting sick more easily.
Chris and I both supplement with a daily liposomal Vitamin D3 + K2 + CoQ10. Liposomal supplements protect the encapsulated ingredients from gastric digestion, which helps increase intestinal absorption and thus increases the supplements bioavailability.
This supplement comes in a glass bottle, orange flavored, and you shake it and pump 12 pumps onto a spoon and take it orally daily—for us, we take it after our first meal.
We take this from September to May to keep our vitamin D levels in check and we love it!
Grab your first bottle and get 15% off with this link!
And now onto the Farm Note…
I’m pleased to report it was a quiet week here on the farm!
We’ve got the rat infestation totally under control and haven’t seen any rats in almost two weeks now.
We’re slowly breaking down the gardens for the season and starting to wind some things down outside to give us some room to focus on tear down and storage of the dahlias in late-October or early November.
The donkeys had their hooves trimmed this week and our farrier Shawn said he can’t believe how good both Molly-Max and Dominic look and that Molly-Max’s hooves—and just his all around health and wellbeing—that this is the best he’s been yet. We’re always happy to hear that and we’re so proud of Maxy!
SO!
With a thankfully quiet week here on the farm and no major chores on the docket, we spent our Saturday knocking out a good workout together at the gym, cleaning the house and doing a few little chores outside, and then we showered up and headed out for some market bopping!
What’s market bopping, you ask?
Well, we’ve got a few favorite local markets all within about 30 minutes of one another, so this weekend we bopped around to four of them!
We get almost all of our meats (beef, chicken, pork, turkey, lamb) from a nearby regenerative organic pasture-raised farmer here locally in the next town over.
And we still go to the local grocery store (up here it’s Hannaford, which started out in the 1880s as a produce cart at the Portland, ME waterfront—gotta love that!) for most of our staples.
But we love nothing more than stopping by each of these local markets and picking up fresh produce, snacks, fresh bread, local cheeses, raw milk, local butter, local honey, Vermont maple syrup, charcuterie from nearby farms and producers, and anything new we can get our hands on!
Here’s a rundown of where we went and what we got!
Clear Brook Farm - in Shaftsbury, Vermont
On this most recent trip to Clear Brook Farm we picked up some pizza crusts, humus, and baba ganoush (Earth Sky Time Farm in Vermont), some yogurt (Gammelgarden Creamery in Vermont), and some apple cider (The Farm at Kristy’s Barn in New York) all from nearby farms and some of our favorite crackers from a Vermont-based company, Castleton Crackers.
Berle Farm - in Hoosick Falls, New York
This week at Berle Farm we grabbed our usual raw milk…I’ve got to show you the cream on top, it’s heaven! We picked up some of their very own cheese, some organic dried tart cherries, roasted maple peanuts (Buck Hill Farm, New York), rosemary crackers from Bristol Bakery/Onesto, a Vermont-based company, and Taza chocolate made in Massachusetts.
Bernard Farm - in Cambridge, New York
This week at Bernard Farm we grabbed some of their own grown carrots (for dipping in the humus and baba ganoush from Clear Brook!), some local honey (Burnside Bees, New York), two of the most amazing packs of sausages, one is pork sausage with curry and the other is traditional English-style pork sausages) (Jacuterie, New York), coffee bean granola bark from Small Bath Organics based in Vermont (notice how Chris tore into that before we even made it home!), and fermented red wine vinegar from American Vinegar Works based in Massachusetts.
Clutch Market - in Greenwich, New York
This week at Clutch Market we grabbed fresh everything sourdough bagels (Three Little Birds Home Bakery, New York), cheese bread (Argyle Cheese Farmer, New York), half n’ half (Battenkill Valley Creamery, New York), and fresh pasta from Trenchers Farmhouse based in Vermont.
Food is definitely my and Chris’ love language, so we’re in heaven getting to live in a place where we’re surrounded by such incredible farmers and growers and producers.
We came home from our market bopping and promptly made ourselves toasted bagels with our favorite Kate’s Homemade Butter (from Maine!) and put away all our yummy goodies to enjoy over the next few weeks.
My hope is that this post gives you some inspiration to look around in your community for local markets and places where you can discover and try more of the things produced near and around where you live.
If you happen to do this already…please tell us all about it in the comments today. If you’d like to start, and you find some places to try…let us know that! We can’t wait to hear about what you discover!
Now, something for you!
Here are a few resources that may be of interest to you!
Eat Wild
One of my favorite websites to share with people who are looking to eat more local, organic, pasture-raised, or regenerative meats, eggs, and dairy, is Eat Wild.
On this site you can click on your state (here in the US) and find farms listed within this registry. Even if a particular farm isn’t super close to you, be sure to check them out and see if they happen to offer delivery locations or pickup options that are closer to you. Lots of farms do these days!
Ayers Valley Farm
If I didn’t have a regenerative organic farm just down the road from us, I’d order all my meats from Ayers Valley Farm in Russellville, Ohio. I’ve been following ranchers Taylor and her husband Josh for several years now and they inspire me so much. It makes me really proud to see young farmers who understand and care about regenerative farming and care enough to farm in this manner—in the way that is best for the animals, best for the land, and best for your health. Check out their website, place an order (they ship nationwide!) and be sure to follow them on Instagram and tell them I sent you! You’ll learn so much from them.
Department of Agriculture
Looking for a list of farmers’ markets in your area? Your state’s Ag dept generally has a list of farmers’ markets across your state by county. Search: “[Your State] Department of Agriculture Farmers’ Markets”.
Shopping Tip!
Whenever you’re in a local market or at the grocery store looking at local items or at a farmers’ market, be sure to flip over the products you look at and read labels to see just where what you’re buying is made. It’s so fun to discover farmers and growers and producers that are local to you—some things you may have been enjoying and didn’t even know it was local, or some things you might be buying that aren’t local and you could easily make a swap to something local! The key is getting curious and have some fun reading the labels!
Hopefully some of these resources listed here help you make your own little hauls!!
I have a local farm where I get all my veggies over the summer months! They open in May and close the first week of November. I miss them over the winter because their produce is so good! They grow most of it but they also bring in items from other local farms that don’t have markets. I’ve been going to this farm for about 5-6 years now and they’re such a great Italian family! They all work together to make sure the farm and their market run smoothly. I recommend them to so many people!
Very cool! Everything looks so yummy! Thank you for the resources. Love all the pictures of the quaint, neat and beautiful country markets! ❤️