What are you doing Saturday Morning?

What are you doing Saturday morning? Here’s an idea – let’s go to the Fernandina Farmers Market, held every Saturday from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. I like those hours. You don’t have to get up early to get the good stuff. Parking is free and plentiful.

Located at the corner of Centre Street and 7th Street north, right in the heart of Fernandina Beach’s historic district, on June 6th the blueberry growers are expected to start showing up. Yes, it is blueberry season! One June 13, the Sweet Grass Cow & Goat Cheeses will be one of the booths.

Always there are landscape plants for sale, many native plants and beautiful blooming things that I want to take home with me. You’ll find prepared foods for lunch, Growers Alliance organic shade bean coffee (yes, they give sample coffee drinks!), honey vendors, craft persons and often live music.

Ah, what a great way to start a Saturday morning. In my book “50 Great Walks in Florida”, Chapter 11 is A Stroll Through History: The Historic Downtown Fernandina Beach Centre Street Stroll and Chapter 12 is Nature’s Classroom: Willow Pond Nature Trail, Fort Clinch State Park

Saturday mornings in Gainesville let’s visit the Alachua County Farmers’ Market, the only Grower’s Only Market in North-Central Florida (that is a lot of “only”). All the produce is grown within 50 miles of the market and you get the meet the farmer.

This is “buy local” taken seriously. The market is in an open-air metal pavilion. Hours are every Saturday from 8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. or until the produce is gone, whichever comes first. If you are going to GPS it, the address is 5920 N.W. 13th Street, Gainesville.

Then take a walk in Kanapaha Botanical Gardens (Chapter 16: Wander through a Garden of Eden) and take a gander at the historic buildings on the University of Florida campus (Chapter 15: A Walk on the Gothic Side)

Saturday Summer Market is a big attraction in downtown St. Petersburg, starting Saturday, June 6 and continuing every Saturday through September 16. Hours are 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Location is the Mahaffey Theater parking garage, 400 First St. S., St. Petersburg.

What you’ll find: regular and organic produce and fruit, baked goods, plants, flowers orchids, fresh herbs, prepared foods and hand-crafted wares. Fun!

St. Pete is a Bonus Point in Chapter 34: A Walk for Everyone: Fort DeSoto County Park, Tierra Verde.

Downtown Market happens in Tallahassee every Saturday from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. March through November. This takes place on the chain of green parks in Park Avenue Historic District, just a few blocks from the capital.

This is a lively market. You’ll meet local artisans (I have a piece of fused glass all the more special because I met the artist), see lots of artwork alongside local produce and heaering live music is a given. Don’t have breakfast or lunch before you come – because you’ll find everything from muffins to soup and salad.

The chain of parks are covered in Chapter 2: Step into History: Park Avenue Historic District, Tallahassee.

For a list of community farmer’s markets all over Florida, check out this Web site.

When you go to farmer’s markets, you are supporting your local economy, getting an artistic eyeful and having an adventure.

Who said there was nothing to do in the summertime? Sure there is. Spend your morning at a farmer’s market then open up your copy of my book. Great walks are calling. Enjoy

Lucy Beebe Tobias is the author of “50 Great Walks in Florida”, University Press of Florida, 2008, and the Authentic Florida Expert for VISIT FLORIDA.

Fresh Tomatoes from the Garden, yum

Something special sat on my kitchen windowsill this week – The first ripe tomato from the garden! It didn’t last long. Ended up sliced in a salad. Organically grown, red and delicious, there’s another one sitting on the windowsill now. What a blessing! Thank you Lord.

This year the whole growing veggies thing started when the price of gas shot up like a geyser. I’d better grow close to home, I thought and promptly started sowing seeds and seedlings in containers and in the ground.

Of course, the big planter that you saw when this adventure started (see spring blog below) got seeds and seedlings that have grown and overflowed as you can see from the recent photo.

That yellow flower? It is a squash blossom. Quite lovely. When the morning sun rises, the flower opens. As the heat of the day progresses, it closes up tight. Squash flowers are good to eat. Pick them fresh and open and add at the last minute to scrambled eggs for a sweet delicate flavor. The small white flowers you see are from the arugula gone to seed. I read this week that arugula blossoms are good to eat. Perhaps with the new tomato!

Between gas prices rising and the recession (yes, it is here) growing food in your yard and going to local farmer’s markets is starting to look VERY attractive.

I love farmer’s markets, especially ones with organic food. Why put pesticides in your tummy?

In Ocala a farmers market has started at Circle Square on SR 200 every Thursday from 8 a.m. to noon. Wahoo! Something nearby. We went the first day they opened and I came home with . . . .an olive tree. Yes, I know. It is not produce. But someday there will be olives.

If you want to know where the Florida Community Farmer’s Markets are, go to the Florida Agriculture site and look up your county. Some markets are expanded and have farmers and craftspeople and cooked food and . . .well, they are just an adventure. Stroll slowly and be enthralled. You may find something homemade or homegrown with your name on it.

I was in Tallahassee last weekend, staying high up in a hotel overlooking the chain of parks. On Friday night the park below was springtime green with big oak trees. The next morning, as if by magic, the same park still had the trees but you could hardly see the green grass. Tents had sprung up everywhere, an instant city. Craftspeople, farmers, food vendors and even a horse and carriage showed up to give people rides around the parks the old fashioned way. One of the crafts was a lady making beautiful baskets out of pine needles.

The Downtown Market Place happens every Saturday from March through November.

Fernandina Beach has a Farmer’s Market on Saturdays in the historic district. This is a lovely stroll anytime and the market makes it even more special. Funny thing about local markets – you meet people growing plants, raising food, making jams who turn out to live not so far from you and usually know someone you know. It’s called connections. We need them. Buying locally means using less gas and supporting your home community.

While all of that works for me, it may also be what can happen organically when the distribution system breaks down. Did you know that any given grocery store has about two days worth of goods? I didn’t until I read my son Martin’s review in his blog DeepGreenCrystals of the book “World Made By Hand: A Novel” by James Howard Kunstler who thinks the post industrial world will arrive as a slow steady slide. Martin gave it five stars. Yes, this is a pessimistic subject but it doesn’t hurt to ask the question “What if?” Well, what if there were no grocery stores? We’d be back to the way people did business – farmer’s markets, co-operatives, barter and trade, neighbors helping neighbors.

Maybe if we did more of that right now, the slow slide will be put off for a very long time. In fact, growing vegetables and using farmer’s market could be a whole new world for us and squash blossoms are definitely part of the equation. So are ripe tomatoes fresh from the garden. Yum.

Lucy Beebe Tobias is a freelance writer, artist and photographer in Ocala, Florida. Her book “50 Great Walks in Florida” is part of the Wild Florida series published by University Press of Florida