Having family on the west coast is at once both a blessing
and a curse. The curse is the distance factor and the oftentimes painful
process of connecting for the holidays… or any other time for that matter.
The blessing part is actually plural, since there are – except for the
concern about earthquakes (their concern in coming here is tornadoes and
snowstorms) – numerous delights to be found there. Having lived there, one
of my favorite things was the availability of fresh seafood and fresh
vegetables. Granted, we can get those things here at the local supermarkets
and a few specialty stores and they are fairly good, but they have to be
shipped here from somewhere else, be it South America or somewhere else –
even California. That takes time. And I don’t care what you say, they are
never quite as good and certainly not as fresh as right out of the garden or
right out of the ocean.
I for one will not trade the Midwest's changing seasons for anything, but I
do miss the fresh seafood and fresh vegetables. In northern California, the
Farmer’s Markets – available on a weekly basis for much of the year – have
always been a favorite place for me to visit. So I always thought I had to
suffer through the winter (and most of the summer), until my tiny garden
started to produce some long-awaited bounty. For those of us who were
previously ignorant (in a scientific sense, meaning “without knowledge”), we
can now rejoice. If you were not aware of the local Farmer’s Markets
available, raise your hands please. I’m just kidding of course. You don’t
need to admit that you didn’t know. But whether you didn’t know… or did know
and haven’t yet paid a visit, you should definitely plan a trip… before time
and the season once again run away from Old Man Winter.
I will shamelessly admit that I was unaware
of this resource until this past weekend, when I
discovered three of the many local markets available on a weekly basis that are
all open to the public from roughly June through October. Each is available on a
different day, so it is easy to attend one or more, depending on the scheduling
problems that you may encounter. On Friday, I stopped to check the Market in
St. Charles. Located adjacent to the Methodist Church on the corner of Main
Street (Route 64) and 4th Avenue, the Market was a smallish assembly of
booths that occupied the majority of both sides of the street. But as they
say… size does not matter. Here can be found a fine collection of freshly
baked goods, cheeses, coffees, potted and cut flowers, vegetables, fruits,
poultry, meat, eggs and crafts. The most important thing that I observed was
that almost all of the signs on the vendors’ booths indicated that the
products were herbicide and pesticide free, hormone free and
organically grown. Many of
the items were home grown right here in Kane County. Now that I like! This
market is open from 7:00am until 1:00pm every Friday from June through
October.
Saturday morning, I decided to check the Farmers Market in Batavia and do a
bit of comparison. This Market is open from June through October as well;
the times were a bit shorter: from 8:00am until noon. Located on north Water
Street (just east of the Library building), the Market was similar to the
one in St. Charles, but had fewer vendors and
items available (at least on the day that I visited). I did notice that there
were a few of the same vendors that I saw in St. Charles and a few different
ones as well. Perhaps the number of vendors in Batavia
increases with the passing of summer as more fruits and vegetables
ripen on local farms.
Since I had visited the other two Markets, I had decided that Sunday morning
would necessarily involve a short trip to Geneva
to see what the French Market there had to offer (why the difference in
name, I am unsure, but I heard at least one vendor
speaking French on a cell phone...). The Market in Geneva is located in
the large parking lot just north of the Metra train station
and is open from 9:00am until 2:00pm from June through October.
Of course this had to be the absolutely hottest day of the season so far -
it was 940 at 10:00am - but away we went. Although the
power seemed to be down on the east side of Third Street, the vendors in the
Market on the west side seemed to have it and were busily going about their
work. Everyone by the way, even those just standing in one place,
seemed to be perspiring profusely. Neither did anyone appear to be
bothered by the heat.
Again there were a few of the same vendors
that I had seen earlier in the weekend, but many were totally different.
The Market in Geneva was about three times the size (30 or so vendors) of the one in Batavia
and not quite twice the size of the St. Charles venue. Geneva seemed
to be a bit more upscale, offering clothes items and more jewelry, as well
as paintings and other artifacts, table linens, placemats and sauces.
There were lots of fresh produce (onions, potatoes, peppers, potatoes, etc)
and there seemed to be more flower varieties. Something that I found
to be noticeably absent from the other two Markets were samples. While
it may not be necessary and is probably a matter of preference -
marketing-wise - I like the idea of being able to sample something prior to
making a purchase, especially if the item is food! Everything looked
very fresh, the vendors were all very nice (in spite of the weather..
although it was still early in the morning) and we decided to sample a few
items and purchase a few as well. We sampled some excellent peaches
from Michigan (huge blueberries and other fresh fruit was there as well),
some dipping sauces and bread and purchased some egg rolls to munch on while
we were there.
I purchased some Black Angus steaks, cheese, green beans and cherries from
the St. Charles Market, sweet corn, peaches and beets from the Batavia
market and long stem fresh roses (only $1 per stem!), French bread
baguettes, croissants and special spices to make a homemade dipping sauce
from the Geneva Market. The steak (from Schramer’s Black Angus farm in Maple
Park) was tender and flavorful and one of the best
I have had. The cherries (from Michigan) were some
of the sweetest and juiciest, the beans (locally grown)
some of the most tender and flavorful, the corn (also
locally grown) was to die for, the peaches (from
Michigan) plump and tasty, the bread (from
Provence Imports in Wood Dale) fresh and crusty… In fact, everything was
incredibly good. I will say that a few of
the prices were a tad higher than I had expected. But
they weren't outrageous, and it was difficult to keep from making larger
purchases - I tried to buy only what I needed at the time. After all,
isn't that why one visits such a Market?
The bottom line is this: These
markets are fun to attend, are a great idea and a great source of fresh food
and other items, and certainly offer an excellent reason to get out and
about and enjoy some more of what the Fox Valley has to offer.
