More Than Fruits and Veggies at the A-B Farmers Market

My family has belonged to a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) for a dozen years, and my last two offices have been within a block or two of a farmers market. So maybe I can be excused for not attending the Acton-Boxborough Farmers Market for its first three years of existance. But I finally decided to atone for my past transgressions, and on the morning of the first official Sunday of summer, I headed to Pearl Street in West Acton to check it out.

And I have to say I was quite impressed. For one thing, Pearl Street is nice and shady, making it a great location for those hot days of summer. For another, the market has as wide a variety of vendors as I've ever seen at a farmers market. And as some of the booths are run by outfits that are only there every other week or even once a month, you can expect to find something new almost every time you go. And if you think farmers markets are good only for buying fruits and vegetables, be aware that you can get also get anything from fresh baked goods to meat and fish.

I was happy to see that some of the stands at the A-B Farmers Market were operated by companies I've been a customer of in the past, including Turtle Creek Winery and Samira's Homemade Egyptian and Lebanese Food. And many of the vendors were offering free samples, so it was fun to browse and taste some of their handcrafted products.

I wasn't planning on having alcohol before breakfast, but I couldn't resist trying some of the wares from Green Valley Ambrosia, a company that produces mead from local raw honey. If you've never had mead, at roughly 14 percent alcohol by volume, it's more like wine than beer. Green Valley was offering tastes of three meads on this particular day, including the Apple Cyzer, made from 13 varieties of Massachusetts-grown apples, and Bourbon Barrel Buckwheat, which had a distinct oaken flavor.

Next I stopped at Westford's La Bella Dolce for a sample of their famous Sicilian fig cookies, available plain or with icing. The bakery was also selling other goods, from pies to scones and biscotti. Other booths selling baked items at the market included Bagel Alley from Nashua and Mamadou's Artisan Bakery from Winchester.

I also had the opportunity to try some of Nobscot Artisan Cheese's flavored spreadable cheeses, made with cow's milk from Framingham's Eastleigh Farm. And I also sampled some of Pat-O's pickles, from cool dill to spicy hot.

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