On a mid-August day, with intermittent rain we cut across New York's Union Square Greenmarket on our way to lunch. It's a very city market, tucked in between busy streets, a park and subway entrances, but it's also a genuine farmers' market, with every week bringing seasonal change in what's available.
And mid-August is an interesting time for the market; the hopeful young greens of spring no longer dominate, the bedding plants are gone, but there's a plentiful supply of tree fruits, vegetables, and even the very first of the new crop of apples, with more varieties to come each week.
But tomatoes, and especially the ugly, juicy, hard-to-believe-how-good-they-smell-and-taste ones, were very much ahead of the apples today. In the mix, well-known varieties and some like Orange Strawberry, White Beauty, Hawaiian Pineapple and Cherokee Purple that are grown mainly for farm markets.
But the other vegetables were also showing their colors and variety, too...
But when you're on the way to a Restaurant Week lunch, you can't take it all with you, and our two shopping bags went home with a variety of peaches, apricots, and a handful of the apples.
In New York? The city has many weekly markets, but Union Square, at 17th Street and Broadway in Manhattan is the biggest. It operates Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday from about 7 am until late afternoon. There are plenty of benches behind it in Union Square Park; it's a great place to sit and enjoy the bounty.
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