Kids Cuisine

Today was an exciting day for our family, as this afternoon marked the opening of the long-awaited farmer’s market for the season.  This year’s market is extra special for us because for the first time ever, we don’t have to hop in the car and drive at least 15 miles away to find fresh produce.  Today, we could walk a mere three blocks and discover what local vendors had been working on. As we came around the corner and spied a few awnings, our paces quickened, and we started to get excited — what would we find at this new local farmer’s market?  We each had visions of what we were hoping to find.  Zander was hoping to find some fresh sugar snap peas, Abigail was on the lookout for fresh berries, and I was really hoping for any fresh produce that my garden was not already producing for me — I was looking for dinner.

I will confess to being a little disappointed with our first run to the market.  Clearly, the growing season is on a cusp, ready to break open, because there was very little there.  There were meat vendors and a stand with garden plants ready to go into the ground.  I felt disappointed, and at first debated just turning around and heading for home, when my son spied the broccoli.  We had picked the tiniest head of broccoli from my garden yesterday, and the kids devoured it, so when he pointed to the small head of broccoli and asked if he could have it for a snack, I turned over a mere 75 cents for his dose of daily happiness.  We then stopped at a bake sale stand, where we purchased some homemade cinnamon rolls and some seasoned pretzels.  Emboldened by my purchases, the kids then took over and strolled carefully past each stand, eying up the goods offered when they saw the little honey bears.

My daughter begged for a honey bear, which I was only too happy to buy, as it came from just a few miles down the road.  Then, someone else asked if we would like to sample some cheese.  I looked up, and there we were, at a goat farm’s stand.  Both kids eagerly grinned and held out their hands for a taste.  I thought about warning them, as I am not a fan of goat cheese at all.  One taste, and they both looked at me, proclaiming it the best cheese ever, and could we please get some to take home?

Seriously? Who are you and what have you done to my children?

It was my turn to taste this freshly made goat cheese, so I put my best smile on and popped a piece in my mouth.  As it turned out, this cheese was delightful! It had very little of the punky goat flavor that I just don’t care for.  The whole while, the farmer was just grinning at us, and then offered my kids a sample of goat yogurt.  Oh, I knew they wouldn’t like that — I tried goat yogurt once not that long ago.  And once again, they proved me completely wrong.  Both kids loved the vanilla goat yogurt that was poured for them.  This local farm makes their yogurt without additives, so it is more of a European style and more runny than the traditional yogurt we’re used to.  We left that stand with our honey, some goat cheese, and a promise to return next week for some freshly made yogurt. I suspect we’ve made some new friends.

On the walk home, the kids finished up the remains of their yogurt and then both proceeded to tell me that this goat yogurt was way better than any other yogurt they’ve ever had.  They thought it was so much more creamy, and had a better tart flavor than the yogurt they’re used to.   My daughter then proceeded to tell me that I could buy goat dairy products for them, and that she’d really like to try to drink goat milk sometime, to see if it’s better than her favorite organic cows’ milk.

While my first impression of our new farmer’s market could have been a bad one, I’m already looking forward to next week.  By spending the little we did at the places that were there, we were telling them how glad we were to see them.  We were asking them with our purchases to please come back next week.  I learned that even with the smallest experiences, there are things that will always surprise me about my children, and I think they even surprised themselves.