My Favorite Farmer's Market

On Friday, I had to go into Manhattan for a client meeting.  Fortunately for me, my client's office is in Union Square, so after my meeting I headed straight for the farmer's market to see what goodies were on display.  I like this market because there is such variety.  Vendors selling baked goods, honey, maple syrup, vegetables, fruits, plants, fish, meats, and flowers!  The market is also always crowded.  Can you believe this is a cold December day and not the summer time?  Look at all these people!

This farmer had a nice display of caulflower, broccoli, and brussel sprouts.  Yum!  I felt bad for him because it was cold out! 

Of course, I had to check out the plants.  There were a lot of seasonal plants on display, amaryllis, paperwhites, pointsettias, and your ornamental cabbages and kale.

This caught my eye.  Since my husband loves hot foods, I picked up one of these plants to take home with me.  I love hot peppers too!  And at $2 bucks!  So cheap!  This plant so reminded me of Christmas with it's bright red and green colors!  Instead of a pointsettia, I think I'm going to make this Thai pepper plant into a centerpiece for my holiday dining room table when my family comes over for Christmas dinner.  They will love it!

Inside the tents they had the most gorgeous display of herbs. Check out these 4 inch pots of Rosemary.  Since it was also $2, I picked up one of these to take home also.  I tried 3 times to grow Rosemary from seed and it never worked out for me.  Seedlings would start and then perish.  Buying herb plants is definitely the way to go.  No more wasting time and money on herb seeds.

I also spied these succulents.  I resisted picking up a few of those lovely plants because I just bought a succulent last month.  I'm trying to be good!

This stopped me dead in my tracks!  One vendor had his own hoop house with a heater inside.  Totally awesome!  Who would think you could see a hoop house in the middle of New York City!

Right now, there is also the holiday gift fair all month in Union Square.  I didn't even allow myself to go into the holiday market because I'm on a budget and this fair isn't budget friendly.  There are way too many cute things in there, and I can't afford it, so I bee-lined out of there and took the express bus home.

Here are the plants I brought home from the farmer's market.  All of these for a mere $8!  Talk about bargain!

In addition to the pepper plant and rosemary, I also picked up this Pineapple Sage plant.  It's so fragrant and really does smell like a pineapple.  I've never had an herb plant like this before so I tasted one of the leaves.  Surprisingly, it doesn't taste like a pineapple even though it smells like one.  I have to research what type of recipes use this type of herb.  I can't wait to experiment with new dishes!

I failed miserably with growing dill this summer, so I bought this one because it was so big and healthy looking.  I love fresh dill, so this will go on my kitchen countertop!  I was thinking how wonderful it is to have a farmer's market with such healthy plants available in the month of December.  It's so awesome!