Farmers Markets

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The worst part of going to college is the lack of home cooking. With only a small fridge and a microwave coming in each dorm room, the chances for cooking-savvy students to take to the kitchen are few and far between. Of course, the dining halls at Penn State aren't bad (see my previous post for an entry on Pollock Commons). Still, eating at a dining hall feels like eating out... it gets old quickly. Fortunately, State College offers multiple Farmers Markets with fresh fruits, veggies, meats, pastas, and baked goods that will remind you what taste buds were made for.

Back in the good old days, way back when dinosaurs roamed the Earth, people set up stands and sold things that they themselves had grown or created. While this strange practice still exists all over the world, it is much less common in the United States. Those people, now dead and in their graves, were onto something! There is something oh so fulfilling about purchasing goods directly from vendors. Instead of the guilt associated with abetting some large corporation's evil schemes of world-domination, you get the satisfaction of knowing exactly to whom your money is going, no smokescreens added. Moreover, with a Farmers Market, you get an added bonus; unlike buying overpriced chocolate to support your 9 year-old neighbor's fundraiser, you get a good deal (no middleman involved) and a high-quality product. Now, that said, I wonder where one could one find a Farmers Market in State College.

To see a complete list of Farmers Markets in State College, see http://transitioncentrecounty.files.wordpress.com/2011/03/farm-vendors-list-5-26-11.pdf. For those of you without cars (or bikes, buses, or friends with any of these), your best bet is to go to the downtown Farmers Market, Tuesdays and Fridays, from 11:30am-5:30pm. As mentioned above, you can find pretty much anything fresh that your heart desires, maybe even your next significant other (pro-tip: ditch him girls, he's no good for you anyways!). Here are my recommendations:

1. Way Fruit Farm apples! My favorite type is Honeycrisp. Although, when those run out, the other varieties are tasty as well. The one downside to eating these apples is that once you eat them other apples lose their appeal. Now, here are two analogies for this phenomenon, stratified by age: Old people (ahem, mom and dad) think of television's switch from black and white to color. The rest of you, compare the old Facebook to the Facebook when all of those people ^^ figured it out. Way Fruit Farm apples are the old Facebook and color TV (also, Macs. Yes, I went there).
2. My other favorite is banana bread from Gemelli Bakers. For those of you who, like me, don't get a real breakfast every day, this bread is handy to have around. I'm not the banana bread authority (if there is one, let me know about it!), but I'm pretty sure this bread is the standard by which all others are measured. The Gemelli Bakers also have cookies, tarts, and coffee cakes that I'm sure are worth eating.
3. My final recommendation is to just try stuff! Cooking is easy. Only recently did I discover that you can use a stove for more than canned soup, and recipes don't have to be followed exactly. Buy some veggies, maybe some meats and breads, throw it in a pan, and hope for the best. As long as you don't mix onions with peanut butter (that's probably a recipe somewhere), dinner won't turn out too badly. Plus, if your ingredients are fresh and from local farms your meal automatically tastes better.

So, if you're getting sick of the same foods every day, want to support local farmers, are trying to create a better home made meal, just want some healthy snacks, or just want to experience buying directly from the producers of a product, go to the Farmers Market!

-Sam