The farmer’s market is here again, hurrah! Opening day was bright and sunny, which seemed auspicious. It’s too early for much in the way of vegetables, but we did our best. Our first stop, before we got too weighed down by purchases, was the pancake booth.
Dora’s, a locally based family-run affair, does Swedish pancakes (just like white-flour crepes) with lingonberry butter, sausages, and sometimes homemade pies. Always fantastic.
Once we have our powdered sugar and butter fix, we usually do a full circuit of the market to see who’s there, then go back around to make our purchases. Frog’s Song farm is one of our standbys – for most of the season they have a wonderful selection of potatoes, especially little yellow fingerlings, but sadly not yet this year. We did get some lovely radishes, spinach and salad greens. At Hedlin Farms we got leeks and parsley, and we got a baguette and some fresh mozzarella cheese from Breadfarm and Golden Glen Creamery. Not a bad haul.
No trip to the market is complete without stopping to admire the baskets at the Dunbar Gardens booth. Katherine has made several baskets for us from her home-grown willow and they’re great: sturdy, handsome and sweet-smelling.
We didn’t buy flowers at this booth on this trip (I picked up some allium and peonies from another booth) but it’s always fun to look at their enormous bouquets. We did pick up some new garlic here; later in the season they always have big bags of snap peas as well.
Today the weather is back to cool and drizzly, but it feels a bit more like summer just having been to a farmer’s market. The season has begun!
Food on the Brain 
I really enjoy your blog.
I’m a Bellingham foodie and I was raised on Swedish pancakes. I just couldn’t bear to let the comparison to crepes slide— they’re similar, but authentic Swedish pancakes are a world away in flavor. All that butter. Butter is NEVER on the table for Swedish pancakes in my family because they’re already so rich with it. It was always just lingonberry jam or cinnamon sugar, and peanut butter on the cold leftovers. My mom is a saint for the hours she spends on making them for us.
However…that plate looks darn good, and Bellingham’s market doesn’t have hothouse tomatoes yet…we might have to give your farmer’s market a try one weekend!
I’m with you on the potato cravings. I can’t wait to see baby potatoes!!!
Ah, I was wondering just what the difference was between Swedish pancakes and crepes. These have all that yummy lingonberry butter on them, so it’s hard to tell if the pancake itself is buttery. Leftovers with peanut butter sound awesome.
What’s good at the Bellingham market right now? We sometimes find ourselves up there on a weekend.