Sunday, November 17th: Eat Local For Thanksgiving & Every Day!

Hey kids! There's no fighting it. We have reached the holiday season, and that means lots of festive eating will be going on. Your Ballard Farmers Market is open year-round with lots of local deliciousness, so really, we make it easy to build your holiday meals, and your everyday meals, around great, local food produced by great local people. And to help get your creative juices (and your salivary glands) flowing, this week and next, we offer our annual Eat Local For Thanksgiving cooking demonstration series at noon under the red Cooking Demonstration tent. Today, we welcome our old buddy, Chef Dustin Ronspies from Art of the Table. He has been building his restaurant menus around what is fresh and local at your Ballard Farmers Market since 2007, so if anyone can show you a tip or two for adding more localiciousness to your holidays, he can!

Just two more weeks to get amazing heirloom pears from Booth Canyon Orchard. Their inventory of these delicious Conference pears, as well as Comice, D'Anjou and Dana Hovey pears is just about exhausted for 2013, so take advantage and stock up this week and next, while you can.

The season is winding down for our friends from Alvarez Organic Farms, too. Stop by now and stock up on great storage crops like onions, garlic, shallots and potatoes, as well as dried chiles, and these gorgeous pepper wreathes and strings.

Nash's Organic Produce has lots of great veggies right now, from parsnips to celery root to Brussels sprouts, as well as tender greens that will not be around much longer, like bok choy, chard and arugula. They also have delicious, local whole grains like red wheat, rye and triticale. Try some out as a side dish this holiday season.

Whether just for munching, for pies, sauce or roasting, Collins Family Orchards has an apple for you. Try out these honey crisp apples, for instance. They are crisp and full of flavor, great for the kiddies' lunch box or that elegant artisan cheese platter.

We are in serious winter squash weather now, aren't we? There is just something so comforting and cozy about roasted delicata squash from One Leaf Farm on a cold, dark, wet night. The oven warms up the kitchen. The sweet, luscious squash warms up your soul.

It is tasting day at Kitzke Cellars. Stop by today to give their lineup a test drive right at your Ballard Farmers Market. Then, once you find the varieties of wine you like best, you can stock up for the holidays, ready with the perfect wine for every occasion, be it a friend's party, an elegant dinner or a gift for your boss. And with Kitzke's award-winning collection of wines, you are sure to find at least one you will love.

Just in time for fast-approaching holiday feasts, we welcome the return of Sno-Valley Mushrooms. They cultivate great mushrooms, like these shiitake mushrooms, over in Duvall. And considering that it is also chicken soup season, think about adding mushrooms to the pot, too.

And don't forget to check out our newest vendor, Simply Soulful. They simply make the best sweet potato pies from scratch using Lyall Farms sweet potatoes and freshly-made crust. Stop by for a sample, and then put your orders in for next week!

There is plenty more local deliciousness waiting for you today at your Ballard Farmers Market. Just check What’s Fresh Now! for a more complete accounting of what is in season right now.

Please remember bring your own bags every Sunday, as Seattle’s single-use plastic bag ban is now in effect. Also, please take note of our new green composting and blue recycling waste receptacles throughout your Ballard Farmers Market, and please make an effort to use them correctly. Each container has what’s okay to put in it pictured right on the lid. Please do not put the wrong materials in, because that drives up the cost of recycling and composting, and it can result in the entire container being sent instead to a landfill. Your understanding and cooperation are appreciated.