I know what you’re thinking, “but don’t you get farm-fresh veggies delivered by your CSA each and every week?” Yes, I do but what can I say, I’m a greedy geek. Sometimes the CSA just doesn’t provide everything I want to eat each week. I know this may come as a shock, but what else can I say. Each and every Tuesday I drive out to Lexington for this wonderful farmer’s market. I’m addicted and I’m not ashamed.

How could I resist this? Flowers, fruits, vegetables, breads, fresh meats – my head usually explodes when I get there. Strangely, I don’t end up leaving with much at all.

This stall is pretty much the reason why I make the trek to Lexington each week: Local, grass-fed beef. Yes, it is more expensive, but happy local cows are worth my hard-earned dough. It really does taste better and I hear it’s supposed to be better for you, too! I’m working my way through the list, I’ve tried: rib-eye, sandwich steak, london broil, ground beef, kabobs, and the short ribs. I’m not sure I’ll ever make it to the tongue or the liver.

Perennials for sale? Are you kidding me? This place really does have everything!

I couldn’t pass up the table of berries. Say goodbye to strawberry season and hello to raspberry and blueberry time! I walked away with one of each here. This guy was even selling sour cherries, something I’ve never seen sold in a New England supermarket.

The market is quickly changing over to summertime staples like tomatoes and corn while the spring greens are slowly on their way out. The market really helps to show you what’s in season (and what isn’t in season but being sold at the grocery store anyways).

If you’re interested in checking this place out, all of their information (including who’s going to be there) is located on their website: www.lexingtonfarmersmarket.org

Is it Tuesday yet?

Summer is almost here and berries are beginning to invade the markets. On a recent trip to the market, the eater and I were compelled to pick up some cherries, raspberries, and blueberries. We originally were just going to greedily eat them out of the container, but on the way home I decided that I could concoct a few interesting little mini-tarts.

I always enjoy making mini-pastries like these because it gives me a chance to experiment. It only takes a few minutes to bake up the tart shells and only a few more minutes to complete them with your filling of choice. If the experiment is a failure, the investment is small and you don’t overwhelm your tasters; if it is a success, the tasters will be craving for more.

Here’s a few easy and safe combinations I came up with:

The raspberries got paired with some English thyme that is growing on my back deck. I mixed the thyme into some pastry cream and topped each tart with the biggest raspberries I’ve seen. The thyme gave the slightest hint of herb flavor without overpowering the raspberries. I honestly think I could have tripled the herbs in these and the raspberries would have still been the major player here.

There’s not much to these other than cherries and chocolate. These tarts got a kiss of chocolate ganache that was topped off with a halved cherry. I like to halve the cherry like this so you can see that you are getting the whole cherry, stone and all, and don’t bit down on something unexpected.

This was probably my favorite of the bunch; blueberries and sage. The sage was also growing on my back deck. It, too, was also chopped and mixed into the pastry cream. I purposely went light on the sage because it was very strong when I ate a test leaf. These probably could have taken a little bit more sage since there were four berries per tart but they were pretty good just the way they were.

The last ones, without a closeup, was a fun mini-cookiepie. I had some leftover filling that I was saving in the fridge that I decided to use up on a few of these tarts. They came out as expected: small-cookie-goodness.

These were an overall success, even if it was just for the eater and I. I think I made twenty tarts total, five of each, I’m sure they will disappear very soon.

You can tell what time of year it is just by all the berries I’m seeing lately. Last week the CSA delivered strawberries, this week I got mullberries. I’m not the only one with berries on my mind:

Peabody makes a blackberry jam cake

The pastry girl makes a black cherry clafouti

Helen makes some blueberry tartlets and a berry salad

Laura adds some raspberries to here wonderful sorbet

Brilynn puts together a strawberry mango ice cream

Finally, the geeks show us that berries can be savory with their cherry ginger chicken

Anyone else using up their summer berries? Leave me a comment if you’re posting about anything berry related. Hopefully you will all enjoy the berry season while it lasts.