Spotsylvania Farmers Market: Visit 1 (Gordon Road)

This morning, I met a lady off Craiglist who purchased a bottle of my Homemade Vanilla Extract.  We met at the Farmers Market off Gordon Road.  I had never been to this particular market and I'd been wanting to go so we decided this to be the meeting place.  

This is officially my favorite local market.  So many vendors and it's spaced out nicely that you don't have to worry about being shoved or tripped.  :)  There's a ton of fresh produce, flowers, baked goods, herbs, ice cream, meats and even food trucks.  :)  You've got to see if for yourself.  It's a Farmers Market heaven.  :)

Here's a picture from the front all the way to the end.

Lots of huge eggplants.  I've never made anything with eggplant so I don't know if I would hate it or love it.  I need to be brave and just buy one and try it for myself.

Beautiful sunflower bunches.  These made me smile.  I want to grow some sunflowers next year.

Orange sunflowers

Raspberries and blackberries

Sweet peppers galore.  So many colors!!!

Chocolate mint.  I was tempted to get one but I honestly didn't know what I would make with it.  Maybe next time?  They were $3 a plant which seems like a great price.  There was even other fresh herbs like basil.

Farm fresh Potatoes

Cucumbers and squash

More squash and some zucchini's

Butternut squash

Pumpkins and gourds

Sweet peppers....I love all the different colors.  :)

I had $22 and made $5 at the entrance for selling a bottle of my Homemade Vanilla.  That gave me $27 in cash to shop with.  I first walked around checking out where various farmers were.  I saw C&T produce which I love so I stopped in there for red and green bell peppers and potatoes.  I then walked about all the way to the end scoping everything out and then did some more shopping walking at each vendor to see what they had.

Here's what I got:

4 potatoes

3 red bell peppers

5 green bell peppers

2 purple peppers

3 sea salt chocolate chip cookies

1 cinnamon roll

I got the cookies and the cinnamon roll from Nancy's Custom Desserts.  I remember them last year at the Farmers Market at the hospital so I know the cookies are delicious.  :)  I split the cinnamon roll with Nate when I got home for breakfast.  It was good but the IKEA cinnamon roll is still my favorite.  LOL

Here's the sea salt chocolate chip cookies for dessert tonight.  :)

I had to get purple peppers.  My favorite color is purple and these were too cute to leave behind.  They were .50 cents each.  :)

Garden Update: Day 174

This past, Thursday I harvested some veggies.

While watering my inside bell pepper plant I noticed one the branches snapped off.  :(  I picked the 2 peppers that were on the broken branch.  They smell like peppers and they are healthy looking.  I'm going to cut them up and use them in a dish.  I'm not going to let them go to waste.

I harvested 3 big boy tomatoes and 1 grape tomato.

Garden Update: Day 173

For my birthday, my BFF got me a new lens for my camera.  My lens had been broken for a while and I needed a new lens desperately.  I used my camera today to take some pictures of my garden and I forgot how much I loved this camera.  :)

Here's the deck garden.

I moved my pumpkin plants outside.  They look kinda frumpy but I hope they spring up a little.  

This is the pie pumpkin.

Here's the jack pumpkins.

I checked on everything and made sure everything had fresh water.  We're having some really nice cool days with no humidity which is good for August.  :)

Here's a grape tomato still needing more time to ripen.

My potato plants are still happy.

Here's the little pots with 1 potato each.  3 pots have sprouts.

As I was taking pictures I saw a furry little guy eating a rotten apple.  LOL

He took off along the fence.  Come back here you thief!!  ahahaha

I walked off the deck to check the tomato plants to see if any were ready to be picked.

Look a ripened grape tomato.  :)

I picked 2 big boy tomatoes and 1 grape tomato.

Then I went back on the deck and found another big boy tomato and another grape tomato that were ready to harvest.  This gives me so far 10 big boy tomatoes total.

I took a few pictures of my peppers too.  The bell peppers are getting really big.  :)  I'm so glad I'm growing them inside so they stay safe from horned caterpillars.

Here's my petite peppers.  This one looks like a heart.

Peppers galore.  :)

Homemade Tomato Sauce

I decided to make homemade tomato sauce with all my tomatoes I've harvested.  I came across this blog through pinterest.  The blogger at Making Of A Home had an easy recipe to follow.

I used some of my Olive Oil I got at the Greek Festival a couple months ago.  I had 11 tomatoes total.

First, in a pot cook up olive oil, yellow onion, and minced garlic.  I didn't know how much to use so I just eye balled.

I washed my my 11 garden fresh tomatoes, and my garden fresh petite peppers.

I chopped up the tomatoes and peppers and added them to the pot after the olive oil, onions, and minced garlic had cooked up for a bit.  I added salt, pepper, and Italian Seasoning.  I also added a few tablespoons of unsalted butter as well.

I let it cook up for a few hours with a lid on.  I did not put this sauce in the blender.  Nate liked it chunky so I figured I would leave it.

 I let the sauce cool and then added to a tupperware.  I plan on using this sauce one day for dinner.  

I'll let you know how it turns out.

While it cooked, I left Nate in charge to watch over the sauce.  My parents, my sister Natalie, my two nephews, my brother and his girlfriend took me to birthday dinner at Mimi's Cafe.  :)

Garden Update: Day 170

I checked on my plants around lunch time today and found 7 tomatoes that were ready for harvest.  YEY  I've now harvested 11 tomatoes from my tomato plants this season.  

Also ready for harvest was squash (#12) and 5 petite peppers.

I figured I would try to make tomato sauce with the tomatoes and peppers.

Foode (Visit 2)

We went to my birthday dinner with my group of friends last night. It was fun!

We went to Foode.  I love this place!  We couldn't sit outside b/c all of those tables were already taken so we sat inside at the big community table.

Nate and I both ordered waters to drink (in ball jars) and the B-P-T Burger.

It's a char-grilled auburnlea farms organic grass-fed burger, benton's bacon, sliced provolone cheese, blenheim organic spinach pesto, sliced blenheim summer tomato.  served with FOODE fries.

Everything was yummy!

Afterwards, we were all going to go bowling but the wait for a lane was like 35 to 45 minutes.  We decided against that and all came back to my house and have birthday cake and to just hang out.  :)

Fredericksburg Farmers Market: Visit 2

Before some work events I had yesterday,  I stopped off and walked around the farmers market.  This is the second time I've been to this location but it's been a long time since I'd been.

It was busy.  Lots of hustle and bustle among the shoppers and farmers.  It was still fun to walk around and check out everything.  There was homemade soaps, honey, lots of fruits and veggies, baked goods, flowers, canned goodies, eggs, meats, and even crabs and seafood.  So much stuff that you're bound to find something while you're there.

I got a good parking spot and headed right over to check everything out.

Cute sign

One farmer had some gourds and pumpkins!!  :)  The little pumpkins made me think about my jack pumpkins I have growing.  I hope mine grow as cute as these.  :)

Bell peppers

Eggplants

Fresh Rolled Oats

Veggies...

Canned tomatoes and pickles.  There was also a huge variety of jams and jellies.

One baker was offering slices of bread.  He gave me a slice of cinnamon bread.  It was delicious!  I ate every crumb!!  :)

I saw these two purple peppers and I had to take their picture.  :)

Fresh watermelon

Fresh Cantalope

I didn't buy anything.  But the time I got back around to where I started a huge rain storm was approaching so I decided to be on my way so I wouldn't get caught in it.  There's another area Farmers Market in the area that I want to try to tackle next weekend.  We'll see.  :)