This week we are doing something a bit different on SassyScoops.com: we are featuring different Farmers Markets currently taking place in Utah. Today we’ll spotlight Salt Lake City, St. George on Wednesday and Provo on Friday. Part of the purpose of SassyScoops.com is to help local businesses and promote buying from local vendors–and that’s exactly what the Farmers Market is all about!

SLC Farmers Market @ Historic Pioneer Park
300 South 300 West
Salt Lake City, UT 84139
Saturdays from 8am to 1pm

 

Vanessa’s take on the Salt Lake City Farmers Market

The Farmers Market is one of our “favorites and bests.” We look forward to it until it comes and miss it so when it leaves. We come almost every weekend, stay for hours and spend way too much money. How can we help ourselves?

We usually end up getting breakfast AND lunch. The highlight of our day is sitting on the warm grass drinking fresh carrot juice and a delectable pastry.  I am telling you, this the life.

We don’t mind how extremely crowded it is, weird incense smells and dealing with parking (which in all honesty isn’t that bad). It is too busy to bring a double stroller, but that doesn’t bother me because, well, we are in love with the place. I have mastered carrying 3-4 full bags and keeping tabs on a 2- and  3-year-old. Really, you should be proud!

We bask in this world of balsamic vinegar, artichoke pesto, fresh farm eggs, plump, round, juicy cherries and the bread….oh, the bread! I have even come to love the smell of coffee beans, which is saying a lot because for two pregnancies in a row the smell made me sick.

Every single time we attend we find a hidden treasure we previously hadn’t seen, tasted, smelled or eaten. ALL of the vendors are utterly amazing, friendly and carry products they’ve put a lot of love into. Man, the place is heaven (almost); it recharges us and supplies our home with food for the whole week.

…
Emily’s take on the Salt Lake Farmers Market

A couple Saturdays ago my good friend Vanessa introduced us to the Salt Lake City Farmers Market. We had so much fun pushing a double-wide stroller through the crowds that we only made it halfway around the park. Looks like we’ll need to head back for part two in a couple weeks. We did manage to pick up some super fresh zucchini, basil, cantaloupe and of course tasty treats like pastries, asiago cheese bread, kettle corn and honey butter (which I swear I could eat with a spoon

We manged to finish off the cantaloupe before it became too ripe but the golden zucchini suffered the fate of most of the fresh veggies in my veggie drawer (i.e., mushy, moldy and inedible). I knew I had to do something with the rest of the zucchini and quick, but at the same time I didn’t want to eat a whole pan of zucchini brownies and a couple loaves of chocolate zucchini bread myself. (Okay, I wanted to but knew it wouldn’t be very good for me to do so.)

So what I ended up doing was taking three of the four zucchini, shredding it with my food processor and freezing it in two-cup portions, the perfect size for most any zucchini recipe. I plan on using some of it in a Pineapple Zucchini Sheet Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting, a new recipe I found on The Pioneer Woman’s Tasty Kitchen site. Can’t wait for that one! As for the remaining lone zucchini, I created this simple salad using some leftover tomatoes, mozzarella cheese and fresh basil–also a yummy find at the Farmers Market.

Here’s a simple recipe; feel free to tweak it as you like. It’s actually a take on my Quick & Easy Italian Salad:

Farmers Market Zucchini Salad
1 zucchini, sliced and quartered
2-3 roma tomatoes, sliced and quartered
1/2 to 1 cup diced mozzarella
10 to 12 basil leaves, chiffanade
1/4 cup or so of Wild Harvest organice Rustic Italian dressing (my all-time favorite Italian dressing)

Place all ingredients in a bowl and toss with dressing. Serve immediately or refrigerate for 30 minutes to chill and intensify the flavors.

This was even better the next day–yummy and refreshing and not nearly as blurry in real life! (Sorry, Quinn…I just don’t have your food photography skills.) You can add a little red onion, olives, cherry tomatoes or even a variety of tomatoes. And if you have a non-mushy golden zucchini, throw that in there too!