Mercer Island Farmers Market: Which Vendor is Your Favorite?

The Mercer Island Farmers Market is back! Has been for several weeks, in fact. Note to readers: if you’re following this blog for timely news, you shouldn’t be. I recommend The Mercer Island Reporter for news.

There are a lot of new vendors, including a yogurt stand. The yogurt is sweet. I couldn’t figure out if it was supposed to be lunch or dessert but I liked it.

The music is always my favorite. Last week Joe Ross had the kids going:

And a couple of weeks ago, swamp soul was pretty good too.

Other changes: there’s a guy who sells edible plants. We got some basil to round out our garden. This year they had crafts in June. There were some cool aprons and bird art. Crafts will come back for the Harvest Market, which has a nice enough selection that you can do a bit of Christmas shopping there.

Good returners are the pizza place, lots of the veggie places, and the Master Gardeners, who will patiently look at the cuts from your garden and tell you what they are. Once I saw them look at a cut and say to the presenter, Get out while you still can! Just kidding.

The organizers have done a great job of creating a community gathering place. There’s lunch, there’s ice cream, there’s music, and it’s right next to Mercerdale Park which offers a grassy field and playground. If you have little ones, the nearness of the firehouse and fire engines is an attraction too.

Who’s your favorite vendor at the market? Leave a note in the comments, we’ll do this the unscientific way.

Photos from Harvest Farmers’ Market

On Sunday the Mercer Island Farmers Market did its special pre-Thanksgiving holiday market. A beautiful day for it:

There were some new booths, including arts and crafts with nice gift ideas.

And some good food. In addition to the pizza and the veggie quesadillas that they usually have, Skillet made an appearance:

Want to make it out to another one? You’ll have to wait til spring. Follow the Mercer Island Farmers Market website or Facebook page. By the way, they are applying for beer and wine tasting license. Should be some great new vendors next year.

Last Farmers Market a Wet but Good One

Rain in the morning, sunshine in the afternoon. It was a wet day but the harvest was plentiful at yesterday’s farmer’s market.

That’s it for the season, except for the special special Market on November 20, right before Thanksgiving.

Photos from the Farmers Market

Great weather this weekend brought out the crowds.

Did you know there were no fewer than 3 ice cream vendors at the market? Parfait, Molly Moon’s and Whidbey Island Creamery. Now that’s a farmers market with its priorities right.

A great place to hang out like these folks and listen to the band.

Finally! Farmers Market to Begin Sunday

It may seem like every other farmers market has been open for a month or more. That, in fact, may be the truth. But this Sunday we finally get the Mercer Island Farmers Market back for the summer!

And if you’re ready for something completely different, check out Truck Farm Seattle, which will be there on Sunday.

Yes, it is a garden right in the back of a truck. Find out more on thier Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/TruckFarmSeattle

Parfait Ice Cream Truck Coming to Farmers Market

The Parfait team just emailed to say that their truck will be making its debut at the Mercer Island Farmers Market opening on June 12.

The truck, of course, is only interesting as a vehicle for delicious ice cream:

What they have to say for themselves:
Parfait is Seattle’s only from-scratch, organic ice cream maker and the pioneer of artisan cream on wheels in the Pacific Northwest. Each batch of Parfait ice cream is made from scratch from recipes created by pastry chef and owner Adria Shimada. Her custard base is 100% organic and contains only 4 ingredients: milk, cream, sugar and eggs. Parfait’s dairy, eggs, and produce are all sourced directly from small local farms within 150 miles of Seattle. Shimada’s intention for Parfait is to make ice cream with the same integrity as a high-end French bakery and to re-envision the ice cream truck as an exciting culinary experience, one that offers beautiful, delicious and wholesome desserts.

Every ingredient has been meticulously chosen, from the locally roasted coffee beans to the berries, mint and stone fruit. Shimada and her team hand roll every one of her signature waffle cones and make all of the candy in-house, like the butter toffee for her popular Butter Toffee Crunch flavor. In addition to established favorites like Mint Stracciatella, Fiore French Roast Coffee and Decadent Chocolate, Parfait offers rotating and seasonal flavors including Meyer Lemon, Toasted Hazelnut, Fresh Nectarine, Cinnamon Stick, Orange Star-Anise, Fresh Blueberry, Ballard Bee Honey, Milk Chocolate Chai, and Earl Gray Tea. Parfait also offers seasonal vegan sorbets including Apricot, Raspberry and Pear.

That sounds not bad at all. Check them out and let us know how it is!

BONUS LINK

Video from The Seattle Times of the MIHS band practicing for the London New Year’s Day parade.

Mercer Island Farmers Market to open June 12

Tip via Richard Sprague, former blogger now lost in China with his family:

The 2011 market opening is on June 12 at 10 am.

Sandy Condiotty, board member of the MI Farmers Market, says: There are new vendors to feature: A smoothie maker: you pedal the bike that turns the blender Juice Peddller. And the new ice cream truck Parfait will be giving our market her Sunday spot. A little competition for Molly Moons.

Some of the other vendors you can expect this year (full list):

5 hours instead of 4 this year! The details:

Sundays, 10 am – 3 pm
June 12th – October 9th
Plus, special Harvest Market 11/20/11

More info at the MI Farmers Market Facebook Page. Which posts that they had a successful fundraising dinner Sunday night:
Our Celebration Dinner last night was a huge success. We exceeded our goal of raising $6,000 for this year’s market season. Thank you to the nearly 100 Mercer Island Farmers Market supporters who attended the dinner as well as Lilly’s Restaurant at Aljoya House, the Zack Hartmann Trio, our generous vendors, the many donors to the Silent Auction, and our ever-energetic and enthusiastic volunteers.

And don’t worry, Richard isn’t really lost. He’s there for work and perfectly well oriented.

Order Thanksgiving Turkeys for Pickup at Farmers Market

We emailed the Crown S Ranch of Winthrop, a farmers market regular, to get the story for this weekend. You can pre-order turkeys from them using the contact form on their site.

We are bringing pre-ordered Thanksgiving turkeys, lots of holiday hams and other roasts and then the usual full selection of organic pasture fed beef, pork, poultry and organic eggs.

We hope to see you there!

Kate

Kate Posey
Crown S Ranch
Winthrop WA
www.crown-s-ranch.com

Special Thanksgiving Famers Market This Weekend

Edee Phillips advises us: Spread the word: The Mercer Island Farmers Market is back for a final day of shopping local for Thanksgiving! Same time (11-3) same spot…

Here’s the announcement:

Go to the website to see all the vendors who are coming.

Molly Moon’s at Farmers Market

Rainy day yesterday but there was a payoff for those who made it: