Sorauren Farmers' Market (May 23, 2016)

I'm possibly finally resigned to being back from vacation. Amelia and I went on a pretty epic road trip. We drove out to Rochester, NY for Computers and Writing 2016 (Tweet index in progress), stopping in Ohio to indulge at Jeni's Splendid Ice Cream. After the conference, Jen joined us for an afternoon at the Strong Museum of Play, which was possibly (and unsurprisingly) the most fun museum I have ever visited. And then Amelia and I had dinner at The Owl House, and that's when I found out Amelia had never tried fiddleheads before. FIDDLEHEADS.

The second leg of our vacation was six days in the Toronto area, occupying the spare rooms of various relatives of mine. And in addition to museums and yoga-in-museums, we also made a point to swing by the Sorauren Farmers' Market, which was pretty great.



It was a small, hippie-type of market, up to and including Mylk and Rescue Dogs, which served all-tempeh hot dogs. Since, at the time, we were staying in a house with a pretty amazing kitchen, we decided to shop for the purpose of cooking. Because seriously, look at this kitchen:



And we lucked out at the market, finding pasta made with Red Fife flour, a Canadian heritage wheat, locally made tofu from Ying Ying Soy Food, goat fresco cheese (a soft cheese, almost as salty as feta), fiddleheads, and ramps (seen below, masquerading as wild leeks).









Once we got back to the house, we had access to the potted herb garden, too! Lots of choices, though I think we only used parsley in this instance.



We had both sweet-and-sour and sweet-and-spicy tofu to eat. I chopped up the ramp greens to do quick stir-fries for both of them. This one's the sweet-and-sour, I think:



With the rest of our purchases, we opted to make a pasta salad. We boiled the pasta and set that aside. I chopped up and sauteed the white parts of the ramps, then blanched the fiddleheads.







Amelia whipped up a salad dressing using mustard, lemon juice, a bit of mayo, and a few other spices.





I chopped up some tomatoes and crumbled the goat cheese, and then we mixed them all together!





It was a pretty delicious dinner.



Vacation farmers' market win! I've occasionally had the opportunity to go to other farmers' markets--Boise was especially wonderful--but don't usually get to cook right afterwards. Something to consider for future vacations, I suppose.