Sister had invited some 50 guests to her Thanksgiving dinner. This is not a recommended number for anyone who wants to sleep easy the night before the meal… :) While she had rented a nice nearby hall to hold the event in, she was cooking everything herself and from scratch. Yipes. I went to the Union Square Market with her the day before Thanksgiving and I have to say, I never thought we could manage 150+ pounds of produce and flowers between us, but we did. And there was no crew, no car, and it was during the Thanksgiving rush…

I managed to snap a few shots of what was on offer in the market at this time of year (I have featured posts on Union Square Market in the Spring, Summer and Fall) and it is amazing how the colors of the season, and its produce, are so naturally mirrored in the clothing and other items for sale in stores at the same time… Above, the chartreuse relation of broccoli called broccoflower (a mix between broccoli and cauliflower) — turns out it is not a mix, but rather closer to a cauliflower, with a unique color and shape…

…deep reds/burgundies/purples of cabbage…

…some of the freshest and most ginormous heads of cauliflower…

…brussel sprouts…

…several types of radishes…

…and a plethora of potatoes!

Celeriac, parsnips and greens…

…and of course lots of fresh herbs for the stuffing and other side dishes!

The apple selection was still superb, and the mini-mountain of red fruit at the rear of the photo above are fresh cranberries. There were lots of pies on offer, but sister was making her own. She once one the first prize for her apple pie at the Union Square Market Apple Pie contest, so no pre-made pies for her.

Edible but beautiful cabbage plants in a variety of colors were terrific for table settings or buffet arrangements, but we opted for orange and burgundy mums instead (several dozen pots on advance order).

A little more unusual for me at least, were these wonderfully odd ornamental ears of corn, in terrific fall colors…

…and these almost jurassic looking osage oranges that are good for warding off cockroaches!

But we were there to pick up the free-range, organic turkeys of course. And when they emerged from the truck and the farmer said they were 35 pounds EACH, my jaw just about dropped…

…of course if you weren’t keen on turkey, the same provedore also had pheasant, goose, duck, et al on offer as well. For Sister’s Thanksgiving meal, we picked up oysters, clams, several types of beets, rutabaga, beans, greens, fresh herbs, fresh cider, fruit, flowers, etc. By the end of the shopping trip, I can assure you we looked a bit outrageously laden… :)

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The selection of heirloom or other unusual varieties of tomatoes at the Union Square Market in mid-September was just utterly amazing. This pre-occupation with growing such a wide variety or selection of tomatoes is something that seems to have taken hold only in the last 10 years or so. I read with interest several years ago about a gentleman farmer in France who devoted his “castle garden” to heirloom tomatoes, there have been articles in every major food magazine about such passionate farmers and backyard gardeners in California and elsewhere that have such wonderful produce. I have also come across these in restaurants and I have always wanted to grow them myself. But several attempts and dozens of seed packets later, I have failed miserably. Now I am advised that tomatoes need a cool evening early in their life and a distinct switch in temperature from night to day to get the best ones going… we just don’t seem to have the right conditions in Manila/Cebu for these tomatoes.

So I had to settle for eye candy. Food porn. And for a tomato lover, this was absolutely amazing. At least 8 different farmers at the Union Square market had tomatoes on offer. And the photos here only showcase a fraction of what was there. So enjoy. I don’t even know the names of many of these varieties, but I do know that I could have purchased ten kilos easily and had a beautiful tomato salad for lunch for a week straight. Sister did acquire a few tomatoes for dinner that evening, along with some of the last ears of corn, and some gorgeous sea bass and dinner was bliss.

Yellows, reds, oranges, pear-shaped, cherry sized…

I loved the irregularity of shape, the imperfections. I have always been wary of perfectly brilliant looking grocery tomatoes.

Some were nearly the size of baseballs, or bigger!

And even the pale, green and plum colored ones looked amazing!

Some varieties looked striated, or two-toned in color.

They weren’t cheap, but they were well worth the expense.

Now if only some local growers could figure out how to raise these in Bukidnon, Davao or Baguio. An open call to Puentespina, Dole, Dizon, etc., some heirloom tomatoes please. Please?! :)

The post Tantalizing Tomatoes… appeared first on Market Manila.

More vibrant color, more appetizing produce from a recent visit to the Union Square Market in New York. Above, a cheerful abundance of cosmos…

Garlic tinged with purple, rocambole is touted as “arguably the best garlic in the known universe”…

Most of the flowers echo the colors of Fall, purples, orange, red, magenta, fuschia, lavender, etc.

Thinner skinned, yellow green beans…

…Concord and Niagara grapes…

Large heads of yellow orange cauliflower.

The most amazing selection of tomatoes I have ever seen. So amazing, I am doing a separate post on the heirlooms and other varieties of tomatoes I saw at the market.

The last of the sunflower crop.

Only one of some six varieties of eggplants on offer!

Voluptuous mushrooms, hen of the woods, I think.

An unusual variety of cilantro or cariander… “Delfino cilantro”

Three types of basil – sweet Italian Basil, purple basil and Thai basil.

Fantastic radicchio. Fantastic market visit. :)

The post Late Summer Album, Union Square Market (Part II) appeared first on Market Manila.

The Union Square market in Manhattan recently celebrated its 20th anniversary, and I realized that I have been visiting the market for just as long! I used to live and work in New York in the late 1980’s and I would take the subway down to the market, load up on goodies and have a few friends over for a weekend dinner party. After moving away from the city, I would return for visits to family once or twice a year, and many of those trips included a trip to the market. But in the past ten years or so, I had never managed a trip to NY in August/September, and hence always missed the market when it was bursting with the last of the summer’s produce and bounty. And what an incredibly lush, colorful, robust, intense, colorful bounty it is! I had so many wonderful photos that I decided to break them into several posts. Up top, pails of vibrantly hued dahlias, in fall shades of burgundy, magenta, orange, pinks, etc.

Gorgeous dark burgundy beets, harvested the day before were piled high next to some crisp carrots.

Over 10 different types of potatoes were on offer, from fingerlings, to purple peruvians, red potatoes, etc.

Ravishing radishes!

The most stunning variety and display of chili peppers from hot to super hot, from red to white and every orange, yellow, variant in between. Utterly beautiful.

Crate upon crate of the crispest apples.

A half-bushel of damson plums… that sister wiped out to make her annual batch of damson plum jam that is amazingly good.

Cute little crab apples.

Blackberries, raspberries, concord and niagara grapes.

Peaches, nectarines and several types of plums! I haven’t enhanced these photos in any way. And it was an overcast gloomy morning. And yet the colors are just so stunning. It was so energizing to be in the midst of this market, and I can only compare it to a “visual drug” for those pre-occupied with produce! There’s nothing like the bounty of late Summer in a temperate region’s produce markets…these photos seem to confirm that!

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