Saturday Food Forage: A Day Late

Yesterday, we again set off on a forage, the results of which were served for dinner today.  This time, though, we were looking for produce.  You may be asking yourself what produce one could possibly find in Wisconsin in February.  Obviously, there isn't the late summer/early fall bounty that attracts so many to the Dane County Farmer's Market, but we went to see what we could see.

WOW!  The first thing that hit me was the smell of breakfast cooking.  Obviously, we passed on the meal made with local eggs, meat, dairy, and produce.  But that was a severe test of my determination.  The line was long for our entire stay, and the aroma was heavenly.  I was seriously jealous of the many folks eating!
There were tons of storage vegetables available.  We bought roughly ten pounds of Melrose apples from Pleasant View Orchards.  Although they had obviously been in storage, the apples tasted delicious!  Very colorful, and a break from what we were expecting.  We also bought sweet potatoes, purple and gold potatoes, some garlic, three lettuce plants, and some herbs. 

The strangest experience, though, was when a gentleman asked me what I did with purple potatoes.  He must have thought I was some kind of moron because my initial response was, "Uh... I just cook them and eat them."  Seemed fairly clear to me.  Then he inquired as to how I cooked them, and I had to confess that my favorite use for purple potatoes is homemade potato chips.  Check them out while they wait to be fried for tonight's dinner!

Overall, it was a great experience, and we'll definitely hit up the Winter Market again in the near future.