The McKinney Farmer's Market

One of my favorite things about summer is the farmer's market. And being in a new city means that it's time to explore a new one - the McKinney Farmer's Market! On Saturday, I grabbed my favorite market bag, and when we stepped into the historic Chestnut Square, we found a vibrant, bustling market.

The area is filled with booths and vendors offering Texas produce. I can't tell you how my heart sings seeing things like fresh shelled butterbeans and purple hull peas, okra, and Texas peaches. There was also plenty of watermelon, tomatoes, squash, cantaloupe, corn, and 7 garlic varieties! We found fresh goat cheese, locally roasted coffee, local honeys, jams and pickled vegetables, jerky, meat, and maybe most exciting of all, homemade tamales from The Tamale Company. A local musician serenaded the crowd with his guitar, and there were even pony rides for kids!

We came home with quite a haul! San Marzano tomatoes and jalapenos for fresh salsa, juicy heirloom tomatoes, butterbeans and purple hull peas, okra that I'm using for Greek-Style Okra and Tomatoes with Feta, Chet's Italian garlic, a mild variety, for salsa and pesto, ears of corn for the grill and for these Corn and Squash Fritters, wildflower honey, green chile chicken tamales, peaches that will become peach cobbler, rosemary garlic goat cheese, Lucido's apricot jam, and Coffee Del Rey coffee beans.

I'm so tickled to have such a great market in our new city, and for once I'm thankful that we have a puppy that wakes us up at the crack of dawn these days, so I can actually get there when it opens at 8:00 rather than sleepily dragging in at 11:00 right before it closes at noon. And this has been such a fun week of meals as I work on putting everything to good use! Now that I think of it, it's almost time to restock!