Orleans Farmers Market, Orleans, Mass. (Cape Cod)

Saturday, Oct. 13, 2012

farmers market produce on the beach in cape cod
Squash and cranberries from the market,
photographed on the dunes of a nearby Cape Cod beach

Orleans Mass. farmers market
The Orleans Farmers’ Market, which was launched in 1994 by a handful of vendors, now has over 30 farmers, fishermen and other Cape Cod-based producers of food and other local products. The market has a month to go for this season, its 19th year. It is scheduled to run through Nov. 17, weather permitting, and will reopen in mid May of next year. This market is a member of the Federation of Mass Farmers Markets.

For more about farming on Cape Cod, read my interview with a Cape Cod chef who uses locally grown produce year round. And here’s my report on visit a couple of summers ago to a farmers market on Nantucket.


What I Bought

blue hubbard, butternut and acorn squash
(from left to right) baby blue hubbard, butternut and acorn squash
Price: $1.25/lb.

These winter squash are from Cape Cod Organic Farm in Barnstable.


cranberries
cranberries

Price: $3/lb.

Recipes: savory ways to use cranberries


heirloom tomatoes
heirloom tomatoes

Price: $3/lb.

It got down into the 30s on Cape Cod last night, which is less than optimal for growing tomatoes, to put it mildly. But there were still plenty of locally grown tomatoes at the market today, including these end-of-season specimens from Cape Cod Organic Farm. They certainly looked past their prime, but they tasted great.


potatoes
red and fingerling potatoes, and cortland onions

Price: $3.50/lb. for the onions
$3/lb. for fingerling potatoes
$1.50/lb. for red potatoes


garlic varieties
Persian Star, Ontario Purple Trillium and Pyong Vang garlic

Price: $15/lb.

 The Bon Terra Nurseries table had an array of dozens of varieties of garlic, which is just a sample of the total of 95 varieties that are grown on the farm. The purple trillium is one of the hottest of all garlic varieties while the other two are at the milder end of the spectrum, according the Clare Bergh, the proprietor.


eggplant varieties
eggplant

Price: $4/lb.


apple varieties
Northern Spy, Red Cortland and Empire apples

Price: $1/each