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adventure, bbq, cheese, Chef, city life, clean, cook, cooking, country, delicious, entertaining, explore, family, farm, farmers market, farming, fit, fit soul and spice, food, foodie, fresh food, fresh produce, friends, fruit, garden, garden market, green, herbs, iced tea, lean, manhattan, meat, meat and cheese, natural, nature, nyc, organic, photography, raw, soul, spice, summer, travel, union square
The weather was finally nice enough this past weekend for me to make my first trip of the season over to the Union Square Greenmarket! Packed with vendors carrying everything from produce, bright flowers, and beautiful candles to delicious jams, wines, meats, and cheeses, the Union Square Greenmarket is always a fun adventure for this healthy foodie!
I always start by walking through the entire market one time to explore all of my options. There are so many stands to see and so many options for shopping. The vendors aren’t lined up in any particular order, so I have to get my bearings before making any decisions! I quite enjoy the fact that there’s no particular order of the products available. It’s kind of like a new surprise at every turn!
One word to describe this market: FRESH. I strolled by fresh herbs like basil and parsley, fresh organic apples and strawberries, freshly picked sunflowers and lilies, freshly made cheeses, and sheep’s meat and goat sausage that is packaged as you order. (I don’t normally eat much meat, but I sampled a bite of the pomegranate juice and fresh mint infused goat sausage, and I just couldn’t resist getting some for the BBQ I attended later that evening). Many herb and tea vendors have jugs of freshly made organic iced tea, and you can pay just $1 to make your own cup to go. That was nice to grab mid-shop on such a hot, sunny day. There is also a wine vendor who has fresh, homemade wines for sale at a very reasonable price. They even offer samples of whatever wine you’d like to taste– that was pretty fun, of course! 😉
Samples are kindly offered to Union Square Greenmarket shoppers. And when I say kindly, I mean Costco’s got nothin’ on this place! No, you don’t get big plates of food, just little tastes, but every vendor is ready and willing to show you what they’ve got, and what they’ve got is sure to be something good. Aside from that heavenly little bite of infused sausage and my little wine tasting stop, I also tried a couple of wheat crackers with some different homemade jams and pepper jellies, a bite each of fresh and creamy womanchego cheese and goat cheese, and organic strawberry apple cider. Good thing I hadn’t had a chance to eat yet that day – I had some room for taste testing. 😉
I ended up heading to my BBQ with goodies for all – yummy goat sausage, some womanchego cheese, a jar of hot onion pepper jelly, some maple candy, sweet biscotti, freshly picked sunflowers, and a few bottles of sweet, delicious wine! It’s just too bad I wasn’t very hungry from all that sampling! No worries though, it was just nice to visit and laugh with good friends. An adventurous day led to a very fun night! It was a wonderful way to spend a warm and sunny Saturday. Can’t wait to head back to the Union Square Greenmarket soon!
Stay healthy. Stay Adventurous. Much love. 🙂
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