Farmer’s Market & CSA Series {Week 7}07 / 24 / 16

This summer produce, it just keeps on getting better.

This week we had our first dose of cherry tomatoes. The kind that taste like a piece of candy gushing into your mouth. The kind that require the strongest of willpower to not eat within 2 minutes of acquiring them.

Farmer's Market & CSA Series {Week 7} | Things I Made Today

Last week, we attended an event that brought together local chefs, artists, and people who like good food and beer (hi there!). The event was put on by Underground Food Collective in conjunction with Goose Island, The Apartment Project, and Drink Tank. During what is likely one of the worst summer storms I’ve experienced, we ran between Forequarter and The Apartment Project—three times—to sample food expertly paired with Goose Island beers and to experience the quirky art that is The Apartment Project.

While everything about the event was so perfectly Madison, the part that stuck out the most to me was sampling a raw flight of radishes, cherry tomatoes, and carrots. Despite the fact that—at least during the growing season—we get most of our vegetables straight from a farm, it is so rare that I stop and appreciate a single raw ingredient for all that it is.

The spiciness of a radish, the sweetness of a tomato, and the pure earthy taste of a carrot. These are the ingredients that make up our meals, and they don’t need much work—really any work—to make them truly special. It was just a little reminder about how much CSAs and farmer’s markets and other local sources of food matter. Nothing tastes better than when it’s pulled straight out of the ground or straight off a vine and immediately eaten.

On that note, dinner ideas:

Cucumbers