Lilburn Farmer's Market Season Opener

I am kicking off a new season of entries with a visit to my own hometown market in Lilburn. It is set up on a vacant parking lot in the middle of downtown, which was very quaint forty years ago but just looks behind the times now in comparison to downtowns like Marietta or Roswell. But the market is in a new place now, and is the only one within 5 minutes of driving. Previously, although I had not been there, the market was on a stretch of street which allowed people to basically walk up and down, then leave. The new layout on the parking lot is basically a square of vendors within a square of vendors, giving people plenty of room to walk around. The only disadvantage is they moved out from under the trees onto a blacktop. It was 95 degrees this afternoon and it was pretty grueling after an hour. I kinda pity the vendors, even under their tents. I cannot imagine it in July.

There was a diversity of value-added products, from jelly and breads to soaps, teas, cakes, and pickles. There was a guy selling grass fed beef, someone brewing boiled peanuts, and three vendors selling shaved ice. There was a kid about 10 years old with a lemonade stand. There was not a lot of fresh produce, maybe six vendors. I talked broccoli with a woman who had harvested out the last of her farm’s broccoli. Her table was stacked with all things green; onions, kale, broccoli and lettuce. Next to her was a vendor selling tomatoes, watermelons, sweet potatoes and blueberries. She wondered outloud how a “local and organic” farm managed to get watermelons and sweet potatoes this time of the year. This is not the first time I’ve seen this kind of quietly vicious competativeness amongst farmers. Most of the other “local” vendors had tables stacked with zucchinis and squash, although all the yellow squash was very pale, except for the “questionable” vendor who had squash the color of lemons.

After stopping and talking with a few farmers and bakers and a woman who blends tea and a guy who blends spices, I ended up buying a smoked Tuscan herb blend packet of spice, a blend of organic tea called “Summer Sweet”, a pecan-butter bundt with tequila-sugar glaze, some local Snellville honey, and half a dozen South Georgia peaches that were absolutely delicious. Keep those California baseballs you find in the grocery store, whose only relation to real peaches is that they are fuzzy. These market peaches were sweet, rich with flavor, picked at ripeness, soft without being mushy, and running down your chin with juice. Wherever this guy goes with peaches, I will be there!