My husband and I were recently talking about why we didn’t buy more food at the farmer’s market.  We have some great markets near our home and the winter market sponsored by Seacoast Eat Local is huge.  Sometimes it boils down to convenience but we also had the false idea that it was too expensive to purchase our weekly food from the market.  So, armed with a list and a menu I headed out to the February 14th market in Rollinsford, NH held at Wentworth Greenhouse.

The place was bustling when I arrived at noon.  These markets have become a popular place to purchase fresh local food and the surrounding community has responded with their patronage.

Seacoast Eat Local provides a map of the vendors in each market on their website so I was able to use this to loosely design my menu.  I gave myself a limit of $100 and while I enjoy eating vegetarian meals, my husband and I also enjoy lean meats a few times a week.  I also wanted to make enough food so we could have leftovers and provide a buffer when our 24 year old son comes to visit with his appetite!

I ended up spending $85 for the seven meals but I did spend a bit more on some bakery items…I couldn’t resist!  I had a goal to make simple meals that working people could come home and make quickly and I relied a lot on making enough food on Sunday to use in recipes later in the week.  I splurged on some ready made food for our Thursday night meal which was easy to prepare, delicious and far cheaper than blowing money at the pizza restaurant.  All in all, we were pleased with the quality and price.

Click on the ebook cover below and you will receive a pdf file ebook of a menu, shopping list and the recipes we used.  It all just depends on a little creativity and planning to eat for a week from the farmer’s market.  Enjoy and feel free to post comments below or on our Facebook page and sign up for our emails (which really are infrequent) to receive news about our farm and other local events.