Shortly after arriving at our winter home in Florida, we discovered that Pensacola has a year round farmers’ market that runs every Saturday in the Martin Luther King Plaza downtown on Palafox Street. It has become part of our weekend routine to stop by the Palafox Market to pick up locally grown produce and baked goods to add to our meals.
One vendor has an amazing 100% German rye bread which fits into my low GL eating plan and Dave has discovered another vendor that sells the best cinnamon rolls. Two weeks in a row now, he’s made one of those cinnamon rolls his Saturday morning breakfast. And one is plenty as each roll is about 6”X5”.
This week several of the vendors had citrus fruits available. One booth was selling your choice of 4 oranges, lemons or grapefruits for $5 or you could mix and match any 4 for $5. I chose 2 oranges and 2 grapefruit and the vendor gave me a Meyers Lemon to try.
Look at the size of that lemon! It’s almost as big as the oranges. I’ve placed a regular coffee cup beside the bowl to give you a reference.
The one with the leaf still attached is a grapefruit. The vendor advised that when you eat the grapefruits or oranges to have a piece of paper towel or napkin handy as they are super juicy. I’m glad I took her advise because when I tried a few sections of the grapefruit with my breakfast yesterday morning, each section was bursting with juice.
Another really cool booth sells a variety of lettuces that have been grown using the Aquaponic method.
I’ve been buying one a week and then taking leaves off them as needed for making sandwiches and wraps.
The vendor offers to cut the lettuce off for you but I’ve found that the lettuce lasts longer if I just bring it home root and all.
This week I bought two different lettuces and even though they’ve been grown Aquaponically, I decided to plant them (along with the ones from previous weeks) into a container and see how they do.
I’ve been missing gardening and making up this little container of lettuce was such fun.
FYI, in case you’re planning some container gardening this year, one 8 quart bag of organic dry container potting mix is the perfect amount to fill an 18 inch window box. (18”W X 7.5” D X 6.15” H)
I’m hoping that the lettuces will adjust well to living in soil. If not it will have been a fun experiment allowing me to get my hands back in the dirt.
