Walking back from a meeting on Friday morning with The Gramercy Park Hotel’s publicist (the best kind of meeting - eating a properly excellent breakfast on the lovely topfloor terrace),
I hit Union Square, and the open air Farmers Market where I used to buy my weekly vitamin supplies when I lived in the East Village in 2007/2008. Nothing much has changed: It’s still full of stalls selling everything from purple carrots to antibiotic-free, grass-fed beef (important in a country when the pumped up corn-stuffed cow reigns supreme). There is local honey, home made jam, Long Island wine, delicious straight-from-the-farm cheese and properly good artisan bread, and so, so much more.
I was drawn as a bee to honey to the luxuriantly bearded farmer selling his own Vermont maple syrup.
And one of those flasks may possibly have come home with me, wrapped carefully in a sweater in the depths of my case. $8 — a bargain, when you consider the cost of maple syrup in England. And this was bottled by the farmer, thereby putting the profit straight back in his hands, not those of the multi-nationals.
I wandered on, past the seasonal mums — with which Americans seem to be obsessed — New Jersey is currently one big explosion of chrysanthemum right now, and the heaping piles of apples.
and had a lovely chat with a very elderly gentleman about the best way to cook kohlrabi. We decided raw and thinly sliced, like fennel in a salad maybe, or stir fried. (Yoann would be horrified = n France they are cattle food.)
Even if you are hotel-bound, the market is a wonderful place to browse, and I can highly recommend the Vermont maple candy — what we call fudge in the UK — which has a sign saying “buy as little as you want”.
Union Square Greenmarket
North and west sides of Union Square Park. Open Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday
8:00 a.m. — 6:00 p.m. http://www.grownyc.org/unionsquaregreenmarket
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I love Union Square market — the hot apple cider is fantastic! I could do with a cupful right now.
Mmm, that maple syrup sounds fab. I grew up in Pennsylvania and remember going to maple festivals in the fall (autumn). Could cot believe how expensive it is over here.
Dear LLG
I love a Farmers Market arrangement, and those potatoes look the Business. I think you need to visit Australia. Although maybe not now– it was 36 degrees at 8pm last night and BOILING hot. I miss your Mum’s blog-can you encourage her to get back on the bandwagon? x
Kohlrabi is delicious, I come from Slovakia and we used it eat it raw, picked from the garden and peeled.