Vermilion Farmers' Markets

Vermilion's blue skies

I moved into my little apartment in Oberlin last Monday. Three days have passed and I'm still surrounded by boxes and bags thanks to a lovely friend native to the area. She's been introducing me to Amherst and Vermilion's many family-owned farms along Baumhart Road.

Miss K knew I wanted to pick my own strawberries, so she took me to the Aufdenkamp Family Farm yesterday. I found out that strawberry season lasts exactly one month up here. I assumed that I had plenty of time to pick them because I was used to Florida strawberry season, which lasts roughly from December to April. Silly me. So much for carpe fragaria- I'll have to pick the damn things next year.

The absence of strawberries at this particular farm was remedied by these yummy red raspberries, which I devoured the same day:



They were way better than the black raspberries we found. I also bought sweet purple onions, but they didn't look as nice in the photos.

I don't like to function without a daily intake of strawberries, so we drove twenty feet down the road to Krieg's Strawberry Farm and Market in the hopes of finding a field for pickin'. No luck there either! I resorted to strawberries in a cute wooden basket to make myself feel better, and bought a week's worth of produce for $9.00, which is comparable to what I'd spend at Wal Mart. That's quite an accomplishment, by the way. Organic, locally-grown produce typically costs way more than good ol' corporate-grown veggies.



Bonus: I actually received instruction for boiling corn properly from Mrs. Krieg, which I will share with you: bring salted water to a boil, pop the husked corn in the boiling water for 4 to 5 minutes, and then take it out. Add salt and butter to taste, and devour.