Ithaca Farmer's Market

Since arriving at university two years ago, I've been meaning to go to the Farmer's Market. It only takes around 10 minutes by car, but even that is somewhat inaccessible for car-less college students (it would probably take 2 hours with the Ithaca bus system). Since last weekend was the first breather I've had in awhile, A and I headed down to the Steamboat Landing for some good ol' saturday morning browsing. It's also been getting progressively colder, so we didn't want to miss the last bounty of produce before the season is over.


Upstate New York is known for the apples, and that became a recurring theme for many vendors.


Squash and other winter vegetables were making their debut, with the early arrival of the cold this year.


We started getting pretty hungry, so we hit up Solaz, the breakfast burrito stand that A highly lauded. We ordered the special, which came with creamy scrambled eggs, cheese, home fries, and sausage. The hearty and meltingly-soft burrito wasn't too photogenic--but it was tasty.


Cambodian food vendor, who offered some curry, noodles, and banana fritters.


..and his wife, who skillfully handled the two fryers.


I had in mind to find something healthy that would help me stay awake besides my usual cup of joe, when I came upon this honey stand. They had some interesting flavors - amaretto, lavender, buckwheat - but even more interesting was my conversation with a fellow shopper. She mentioned that honey was indeed a good replacement for caffeine, but that truck drivers had even more effective tricks for staying awake. Of course, she also had quite a different notion of "legal."


We then came across Macro-Mama, which sold a variety of organic salads and other macrobiotic things, but we focused more (solely) on the desserts. I couldn't take my eyes off the pie, which had quite a good height and apple to crust ratio.


A good 3 inches tall, I'd say.


We then came across Jung Ching Foods, where we met, presumably, Ms. Jung Ching herself. She sells a variety of egg rolls, dumplings, potstickers, and dim sum.


A and I decided to go for the shrimp dumplings, which were hearty and thankfully non-MSGified.


Apples, which are apparently measured in pecks


Some more apples


Pastries


Samosas, in some interesting flavors


Pulled pork sandwich, apparently slow smoked over hickory for 14 hours.


This produce vendor had some of the cleanest vegetables I've seen. The bok choy was practically snow white, and the swiss chard was so fresh I bought up a bundle.


We then came across a vendor with Japanese food - gyoza, curry, yakitori, among other things.


And we got the curry chicken, which was just we needed on that cold fall day.


Brioches and other goods


Since we were still cold and hungry, we visited a soup vendor where I ordered the vegetable medley - quite the health-conscious blend of swiss chard, green beans, celery, and carrots.



The Ithaca Farmer's Market offers a good variety of fresh produce as well as some interesting prepared foods. It is considerably different from the Ferry Building Farmer's Market with a style very distinct to Ithaca, complete with vendors selling unique wood etchings and even silk scrolls. Not only is it a great way to spend an afternoon, it's a way to support some of the nicest, hardest working individuals running those stands.

Hours:
Dewitt Park
May - Oct: Tue 9 - 2pm

Steamboat Landing
April - Oct: Sat 9 - 3pm
Nov - Dec: 10 - 3pm
May - Oct: Sun 10 - 3pm
June 2 - Sept 1: Thu 3 - 7pm