Visit to Westmont Farmers Market
Back in May, I discovered that Westmont was starting a Wednesday afternoon farmers market on Haddon Ave. I hopped in my car on opening day and headed over to find no farmers at the farmers market. There were plants for sale (very few of them edible), bread, pasta, meat (but not local meat), and a few other things, but no produce. I was told that two farmers were scheduled to be there, but one had cancelled for the day and the other just didn’t show up. Instead of writing this up after the first day of the market, I figured I’d give them a couple of weeks to get established and give it another try.
I finally got to go back there yesterday, and I’m happy to report that there are farmers at the farmers market. I was able to buy some beautiful cherries that are just coming into season right now, and my son and I found a bench, sat down, and dug into them before we even got back in the car. Yum.
The Westmont Farmers Market seems to be a mix of farm fresh produce and Westmont speciality food stores like Butcher Bloc and Severino Pasta all in one place. There was also a vendor who had mostly fruits that weren’t local.
I suppose some people might be purists and expect that a farmers market be only local produce, meats and dairy products, but I’m okay with there being a few other things thrown in. I got mangos for $1/piece and a few cookies for my son. Still, we reached for those fresh, local cherries first. What a treat.
There are about a dozen vendors at the market yesterday. I would say The Westmont Farmers Market has definitely improved since its opening day. I look forward to a few weeks from now when I can run over on a Wednesday afternoon to load up on fresh Jersey corn in the middle of the week.
I came home yesterday with those cherries, great strawberries, wonderful tomatoes, peaches, red lettuce, celery, asparagus and my personal favorite, fresh figs. I’ll certainly be back.