What, no casareccio among today's purchases?

I bought a loaf of Bonaparte's multigrain bread that cost so much I can't afford to buy bread again until next year. EL

Supermarket apples have been getting worse and worse. It should be about time for southern hemisphere apples to start coming in.

Florida corn is on my "gack" list. That's about one step up from the stuff they give horses. It always struck me as rather woody and not especially sweet.

The markets as a whole are fun places to be, though.

It's like a memory of corn. Funny, though, I always think it tastes too sweet, as though they breed it to taste sweet no matter how old it is. EL

I personally think that most of the new varieties are too sweet. I bought two ears of Florida corn this week and it was surprisingly good. I made a succotash dish with it minus lima beans which are not a gack for me, I just did not have any.

Good to see that you are feeling better and up and about.

Okay, here's my disconnect - you seem to have been conscious enough to ask the vendors where the corn and strawberries came from, but you didn't bother to ask about the asparagus?

Perhaps if you asked you would have found out that yes, local asparagus is starting to come out - and it's not necessarily from the Eastern Shore.

But really, you're still buying crappy, out of season produce trucked in from around the country - no better than buying at Shoppers...

I'm sorry but I'm still expecting better from you. You're the food critic for Baltimore's paper of record and you're promoting this kind of lame purchasing and food consciousness???

BTW, bread prices are going up and expect them to get worse. The price of wheat is taking off because many farmers have switched their fields to corn production to "take advantage" of the whole ethanol craze. A baker I know in Gettysburg was recently "encouraged" by a flour producer he was seeking out to "stay with their current producer" because there just isn't stock to support the current demand - and small bakeries are starting to be cut off from their supplies altogether.

Jay C, maybe you should supply your email address so we can all check with you before food shopping to make sure we don't buy any non-permissable items.

I've lived in the Baltimore area 18 years and have never been to the famous farmer's market under the Jones Falls because I have no idea how to get there. (Obviously I live in the suburbs). I figure since it's under 83, I can get there from 83, I just don't know how. Help!

Barb- I come from the North and take the Guilford exit off of 83 South. Just follow it until you see all of the parking for the market. I hope that helps!

The Waverly market is a trifle far for me. Counting the days until May 4 for the JFK market!

There is one supermarket where good apples can be had - H-Mart. Most of the time, they have beautiful Fujis the size of softballs that are exceptionally juicy and sweet. I've been getting some fantastic pears there lately as well.

Thanks Christine the Lioness, maybe I'll see you there buying gazelle for the men folk.

Was the Florida corn white or yellow? I grew up eating yellow corn and the white corn everyone seems to grow around here just isn't the same. Yeah, its sweet, but it doesn't taste the same to me.

Does anyone know where to get local yellow corn (in season, of course)? The only yellow corn I see is either frozen or prepackaged.

I've never seen yellow corn around here, but the bi-colored is pretty good. EL

Redman Farms

http://www.redmanfarms.net/

near Chestertown, has asparagus for sale!!!

Another southbound route to the Sunday market is to take the Pleasant Street exit from I 83 (on the left) just after Guilford. Bear right at the end of the ramp. Sometimes you luck out and get a parking spot right next to a market entrance. Otherwise turn left on Guilford and circle the market. Often the best parking spaces available are on Fallsway heading south, within a block's walk.

I've never seen yellow corn around here,

Yellow corn was regularly available around here at least as late as the early 1970s, although it was considered by most (but not all) people to be inferior to the white (Silver Queen being the most popular white), in spite of the fact that there were varieties of yellow corn available that were pretty sweet. The corn market was different back then, as corn needed to be eaten the day it was picked to be at its best, and degraded quickly after that.

I don't know when the change happened, but the modern corn market is totally different. The modern corn varieties don't change from sugar to starch within hours of being picked like the old corn varieties did. It's actually possible to keep corn for several days without it becoming inedible. You sometimes still see signs advertising "Silver Queen", but they're just engaging in deceptive marketing...no one grows Silver Queen anymore.

The downside of the modern varieties ( as Regina mentioned) is that they seem to be becoming sweeter and sweeter, to the point of bordering on too sweet to my taste.

That's Hal--the Voice of Reason, as always. And very well informed as well.

I grew up eating yellow corn in California, but much prefer the white varieties for taste. I think I read once that the yellow varieties are actually more nutritious, though--can anyone speak to that?

Hal-
It happens that I do provide my email address. Perhaps you should have greater expectation from our paper of record.

I do.

But to add to your thoughts on corn: corn as we know it has been highly modified. In the mid-20th Century they found ways to slow production of the enzyme in corn that converts sugar to starch. Of all the crops grown in America, corn is one of if not the most highly modified with hundreds of varieties developed for specific purposes, yields and growing conditions.

There's a good (and short) breakdown on some of these modifications on wikipedia.

Saints be praised. A civil post from Mr. Jay C. There may yet be hope.

Jay C. said: It happens that I do provide my email address.

You supply it to the paper of record, but it's not visible to readers of the blog. I don't really want your email address, though, as I don't really want or need your permission.

Perhaps you should have greater expectation from our paper of record.

Expectation from the paper of record is one thing...expectation of the employees of said paper in their personal life is quite another.

I assume you'll want the last word as usual, so I'll shut up now.

Barb, take any bus that goes downtown and runs Baltimore or Fayette St., get off at Gay St., and walk two blocks north. This method works best with the 40, as it actually runs more than once an hour on Sundays.

You're not allowed to garden..."by law?" Brown thumb, I take it?

White corn doesn't taste like corn to me - it's just corn-shaped sugar candy. Better than candy corn, but still insipid. Yellow corn at least has corn flavor. I don't understand why sweetness trumps all, and I hate that it's impossible to find anything other than white corn in this state anymore.

Don't forget the bi-color. EL

Sorry Hal but when the restaurant critic posts visiting a Starbucks on her blog it is no longer just her personal life.

Sorry Hal but when the restaurant critic posts visiting a Starbucks on her blog it is no longer just her personal life.

Sorry Mark, but I'm not buying that. An employer buys your services, not your life.

Since Hal is convinced that I must have the last word:

A blog that is published by the paper of record as an extension of the food critic of record is not merely "personal life." It is a direct reflection on the paper and its' credibility.

Personally speaking, both the blog and the published material helps me determine just how applicable the reviews are to my palate and preferences.

It is a direct reflection on the paper and its' credibility.

I'm sorry Jay C, but there are so many more things that reflect on the paper's credibility, that Elizabth stopping at a Starbuck's with a friend and making a comment about it just does not even make it to the top 100.

And, yes, several of us tend to jump to Elizabeth's defense, but that's because she is such a gracious hostess, who allows everyone to have their say even when that "say" is critcal of her.

Dr. C: The distance between the Farmer's Market under I-83 downtown and the Waverly Farmer's Market on Greenmount Avenue is just over 2.5 miles, FYI. And the latter is open year round and right next to Pete's for a great Saturday breakfast!

E@L. I agree with you on the "bi-color" corn. Called it Peaches & Cream in Canada. Excellent product that pleases white corn lovers and yellow corn lovers. I won several blue ribbons at the state fair and the Canadian National Expo. for corn relish. The only place I have found it "down here" is on the western shore. Well worth the trip. Re Waverly Market. Visit Drew and Joan Norman's booth. Wonder produce, great farmers and very nice people from White Hall.

My favorite produce place when the Sunday under the viaduct market opens has great bi-color corn. Of course, I don't know the name of the vendor. :-) EL

PRob - you make a good point. Perhaps "too far" isn't the best description of my objection. It's more like "too annoying." Like some others in the sandbox, I'm a reluctant 'burb dweller, and whereas the 83 market is a reasonably quick hop, skip, and a jump off of I-95, I don't know of an easy route to the Waverly market coming from the west side of the city. (At that hour of the morning, I just plain don't feel like fighting with North Avenue.) If I'm wrong, please feel free to correct me, because I would very much like to try it.

I don't know the name of the vendor. :-) EL

This is what makes TQE (The Queen Elizabeth, for those who came in late) and the Sandbox so much fun. No attempt to prevaricate or obfuscates: I don't know the name. So human. Useless, but human.

Or I'm not telling to keep all that delicious corn to myself... Also you sound like my husband describing me. EL

I don't know of an easy route to the Waverly market coming from the west side of the city.

There aren't really any good, fast direct routes from the west side. You'd probably be best off going around the Beltway to the north and coming down the Jones Falls Expressway (I-83). Either get off at Coldspring Lane and head south, or at 28th St and head north.

I live very close to the Sunday "under the JFX" farmer's market, and haven't yet made it to the Saturday one in Waverly. It isn't just 'cause it's farther away, but also because my Saturdays are more congested, and I don't have an idea in my head on how I'd approach the Waverly market and find somewhere to park.

Dr. C: Hal VoR is correct. 695 to 83 South. If you opt for the Coldspring Lane exit, take that east to York Road and turn right. York becomes Greenmount. Turn right at 33rd Street. The market is roughly on the southeast corner of 33rd and University Parkway.

If you opt for the 28th Street exit, that that eastbound and it goes all the way to Greenmount where you would turn left. I don't know about the parking situation since I walk there.

If you want to Mapquest it, I used Pete's Grill for an address since it's right there: 3130 Greenmount Avenue. Good luck!

Gentlemen, thank you for the driving directions. I keep hoping that there's some fantastic way in from the west that I've missed after living here the better part of a decade, but I should know better by now. My kingdom for another JFX flipped 90 degrees!

Dr. C: I've lived here since '89 and it's still a truism that, to borrow from an old SNL skit, "you can't get there from here." That's what happens when you impose a grid over a wagon wheel - not to mention freeways that just end a la I-70 (and I-83 downtown, although I shudder to think what the Harbor would look like if Schaefer had gotten his way to keep it going).

Does anyone know of Farmers Markets North of the city, say Hunt Valley, Sparks. People (brother-in-law) rolls his eyes when I say I have to go to the city to go to the Farmer's Market.

Does this help? EL