It was a rainy day. A pity for the very very touristy but still very pleasant town of Provincetown. The whole town reminds me of a possible American equivalent of a European medieval one like Rothenburg ob der Tauber, which could have been invented for tourists, just far more liberal.

By accident we tumbled upon the farmers market which stretched along the road next to the beautiful Town Hall. There were probably not more than a dozen stands and despite the rain with quite a few buyers.

Vegetables and fruits were dominant, but meat (beef, pork, lamb & chicken) out of Vermont was also available from a friendly vendor. As a highlight there was a guy who demonstrated spinning of threads, kind of Gandhi like style, but more comfortable on a chair. The guy selling mushrooms was either sold out or did not want to show too much of his produce.

I like a lot the one veggie stand which display its merchandise on a shelf were the shelves themselves were made of wood in a shape of barrels cut in half (the picture shows what I really mean).

It was rainy, so we left a bit faster than necessary.

All in all:  Fairly small farmers’ market, nothing wrong about it.

A little link list:

• Listing of location, vendors & products – not sure if up to date from farmfresh.org
• Nice blog post from serious eats

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The weather was not so nice, still the farmers’ market in Orleans (Cape Cod, Massachusetts) was busy. Busy in the sense that there was some nice live music and all visitors seemed to be part of a family or of the same vibe. The more than 2 dozen were placed almost like an open corral, the 2 musicians in the center were underlining this.

Since the weather was not so friendly, it was good to have a stand with organic & probably fair trade coffee. This drink is a fair proxy for the rest of the market: focused on organic food, not only vegetarian, almost giving the feeling of a modern version of a flower power meeting – with clean air, instead of the smell of the “good old days”.

In contrast to public markets in general or European markets, the stands did not display their produce in a lush way, there was always a little bit of this and a little bit of that. This almost gave the impression that the producers just had a hobby, which certainly was not the case after having talked to some.

In terms of products all the basics were available: vegetables of all kinds, beef & poultry meat stored in coolers, jelly (e.g. peach bourbon), bakery goods, and so on. One stand also had purslane, something which is rather uncommon. The vendor gave some good tips on how to use it – sautéed in butter and or in small pieces on salads. Sounds good. Surprising was a stand with nice vegetable juices like cucumber mixed with some other nice flavors. Unfortunately the quart (?) was about 12$, so I did not try it. Now I am regretting it as I do not know if it was worth it or not.

Hopefully the live music is always as nice at it was that day, then a visit will always be a pleasant experience.

All in all: A pleasant market with the basics a farmers’ market should offer and some modern flower power feeling, but not on the cheap

A little link list:

• The official website of the Orleans farmers’ market
• A little blog post from Seasonal Chef

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