Hometown Visit: North Market

One of the best things in Columbus is the North Market. It's been around for a very long time, but the current location opened in 1995 in a renovated warehouse. There are permanent stalls inside, and on summer weekends farmers set up outside.  The new building has a great rooster sign:

  

Jeni's Ice Cream is still there of course, and doing very well. After our trip I found out it's being distributed nationwide, including to Zupan's Markets here in Portland. I might have to check out if they carry any of the sorbets next time I'm near one. Her flavors are amazing and creative. She now has a case full of very fancy ice cream treats, pictured above, like ice cream sandwiches with macaroons, and terrine. Plus she came out with a cookbook recently. Very cool to see her doing so well.

 

It was delightful to find it hasn't changed much since we moved away. Most of the vendors I remember are still there, including Pastaria, with all the same dishes. I used to get the Pasta Arribiata, which has anise seeds in the sauce. It's very good. The day we visited we stopped for good coffee from A Touch of Earth and treats from a new booth, Expressly..., with vegan baked goods. 

One unfortunate change we did notice is that one of our favorite vegan friendly soup places, Benevolence, is no longer operating. They ran a small booth (where Expressly... is now, at least there are still vegan baked goods in the same spot!) in the market and a separate shop around the corner. Their soup was amazing and I'm sad that they are no longer around. We ended up eating at our other old standby in the area, Barley's Brewing Company. They have a really nice space with tin ceilings, and the veggie burger & fries are very good. Okay, now I'm hungry.

Christmas Decorations!

 

I had a few reasons I wanted to get the tree up right away this year. First I was very excited to try out the tree topper I got at the Chriskindlmarket in Chicago, and second, I'll be out of town again soon. So all the decorating happened almost as soon as I got home. We have a little tree so it is easy for me to deal with on my own. I'm also excited to have an advent calendar this year for the first time in a while (thanks Dad!) also from the Chriskindlmarket. It's of Rothenberg, Germany, which is a Medieval town between Frankfurt and Munich. I had to look that up, I've never been...maybe someday.

 

Yesterday we walked through the PSU market and picked up a wreath. It was very hard to choose. I still had a tough time once we decided which booth we wanted one from. This booth had peppers in a lot of the wreaths, and several wreaths had moss-covered twigs which I seriously considered. I really liked the one that was just moss-covered twigs, it just seemed perfectly Pacific Northwest. However we decided to go with a bit more variety. I really like the purples and reds in the one we came home with! 

Saturday Market: Perfect Fall Day

There's so much stuff at the PSU Saturday Market right now. And yesterday was the perfect fall weather. Leaves in the trees, falling from the trees, all over the ground and kids throwing them at their parents. Pretty and entertaining!

 

I was so excited to start seeing some seasonal decor items like the Indian corn and the pepper wreaths! I love when the wreaths come out at the market. The arrangements are amazing, and the prices are pretty low. Of course then you have to pick out your favorite... I also really love that the price tags were on doilies!

Those cipollini onions were a really fun, flat shape extremely satisfying to hold in your palm. 

 

We've been really fascinated by the wide variety of squash, and especially like one vendor who does a very through job labeling and describing each type. This week we took home the "cream of the crop" a variant on the acorn squash, but with a sweeter flavor. 

There is also always such a great selection of really beautiful mushrooms. On the left, Nameko mushrooms, which I thought were so pretty. Of course fancy mushrooms are a little pricey, but it's facinating to see all the variety that can be cultivated out here where it's moist.

More pictures of various trips to the PSU Market in this set on flickr! I'm pretty excited, although the Wednesday market near our place ends this week, it's coming back in the winter next year! We'll only end up with two weeks out of the year, in March, when there are no markets around us. Pretty cool, but I think we'll still miss the markets for those weeks!