I’ve been feeling really guilty lately about not buying local and/or organic. Two summers ago I lived on a farm with my (then farmer) boyfriend and puppy. (Just to clarify, it’s the same boyfriend, he just now has a different job). We picked our dinner from vegetables he grew with his is own hands (plus a few others). We always had farm fresh eggs and always ate “in season”. And it was all FREE. But now, as a struggling twenty something living once again in New York City I find it ridiculously expensive to eat fresh, seasonal and local. I take advantage of the low cost meat and produce at our neighborhood Bizarre Grocery (gotta love Bushwick). They have a butcher on the premises and the produce is pretty fresh and more importantly reasonably priced. This place is GREAT when we’re hosting a larger party and looking to keep our food costs down. But last Monday I decided to make a small intimate dinner for my roommates and a few friends. So I broke my pattern and ventured to the Union Square Farmer’s Market. 

I am not the earliest riser (especially on my day off), so I didn’t make it there till around 2pm. I didn’t get the best pick of produce as many booths were picked over and wilted. I am also still pretty new to this blogging thing and totally forgot to document the market itself (but don’t worry I’ll def go back, hopefully earlier on a cooler day, and snaps some gratuitous “I go to the farmer’s market” shots). I wound on dropping $60 on enough food for two days (for 4-6 people), though $20 of those dollars I dropped on lavender products, if I’m going to be totally honest). My best purchase had to be two bunches of garlic scapes for $2.25 each (small bunches sell at Fairway for $6.50). If you have never had garlic scapes before I URGE you to pick some up before they’re gone forever. Scapes are the long sprout/flower stem like greens that grow out of fresh garlic (garlic that we all know and love is cured). They grow once a year, around June/July in New York, and have a very short season. They are great to grill, make pestos, pickle or just use like you would regular garlic. And they are DELICIOUS. I also bought this fantastic sour dough loaf, which for the life of me I cannot remember the name of the bakery. It was just this one girl only selling sour dough (so I knew it had to be good). If anyone knows who/what I’m talking about please let me know so I can get more of it!

I was so inspired by my afternoon at the farmer’s market I went out of my way to the Meat Hook in Williamsburg and dropped another $60 on some beautiful Rib Eye steaks sold to me by a bearded man in a flannel. I also forgot to take photos of this but who hasn’t been to or read about the Meat Hook, am I right?

I did document our awesome rooftop BBQ, where we grilled the scapes and steaks with just some olive oil, salt and pepper (ok, I finished the steaks with butter, because why not). My roommate made a delicious bean salad and I also prepared my boyfriend’s favorite pasta salad (I’ll put the recipe up some day soon because it’s killer). For dessert (because there should always be dessert) I made a last minute pretty OK fresh raspberry greek yogurt tart. Next time I’ll man up a make a real custard though. It was the first time in a while I’ve hung out on our roof, which is somehow 10 degrees cooler than the sidewalk. It was such a nice BBQ and evening it will definitely not be our last!