Bath and Boothbay Farmers Markets, Maine

July 30 and Aug. 4, 2011

permaquid point
market produce photographed at Pemaquid Point

farmers market in Bath, Maine Bath Farmers Market, Thursday, July 30, 2011

farmers market in Boothbay, MaineBoothbay Farmers Market, Saturday, Aug. 4, 2011

On a week-long vacation in Maine, I visited two farmers markets, from among the dozens that spring to life in the summer months. The Maine Federation of Farmers Markets maintains a list of them. On Saturday, I dropped by the well-attended and well-stocked Bath Farmers Market, at its picturesque waterfront site. This market’s bylaws assure that at least 75 percent of what is on each table was grown by the vendor. “Buy-ins” that can account for the remaining quarter of goods sold must be approved in advance, and “may not compete against the produced goods of other members.”

On Thursday, I paid a visit to the Boothbay Farmers Market, located on the town common alongside the main highway into town. This is a market for “farmer produced” goods, the web site’s homepage promises, though the rules explaining how that term is defined aren’t posted.

– Mark Thompson

slide show


What I Bought

four potato varieties

(clockwise from upper left) Red Norland, Yukon gold, all red and all blue potatoes
Price: $5


wild strawberry basket
‘wild’ blueberries
Price: $3/pint

tiny wild blue berries

These tiny, tasty berries are actually semi-wild, judging from the description of the woman who sold them to me at the Boothbay farmers market. They are from a field that is tended by her husband, she said. He harvests berries from the plants every other year, and burns the fields in between, to keep the forest at bay.

 


summer squash

A sampling of summer squash (top), and zucchini with blossom (right)

squash blossom

 

 

Price: $2/bunch for turnips
Both male and female squash blossoms are interchangeably edible. This is a female blossom, with the baby zucchini still attached.
Squash blossom recipes

 


produce
cherry tomatoes, tropea onions and green zebra tomatoes (top), and a sampling of other heirloom tomatoes (below)

heirloom tomatoes

Price: $2.50/bunch for onions
$3.50/pint for cherry tomatoes
$3.50/lb. for heirloom tomatoes


goat cheese in grape leaf
goat cheese wrapped in grape leaves
Price: $6