Winter Farmers' Market

 I love farmers' markets. These are great places to buy locally grown foods They are best in the spring, summer and fall months with an abundance of produce. However, a winter's farmers' market is special and has lots of hidden finds.  Today, it was quieter than usual after an overnight snowfall.  The fresh produce area had lots of root vegetables and the usual imports.  Today, I picked up parsley roots.  They look like parsnips but are darker in colour. I had never heard about this before but found a recipe for parsley root fries from My New Roots blog and will definitely make this in the upcoming week.  Because of the time of the year, the market was filled with citrus...kumquats, clementines, grapefruit, blood red oranges.  I stocked up on blood red oranges and grapefruit.  Another great find in a winter's market is locally made cheese.  I was lucky to pick up a two day old soft sheep cheese called pecorino fresco.  It's soft and not very tangy.  It seems to be a popular cheese that can be used in salads, pasta and I think it could be part of a great sandwich. I couldn't pass up the sign that heralded its arrival and after a small sample, I was sold.  It lasts for two weeks so I have both enough cheese and time to find many uses for this.  In the winter, I also have more time to spend in dried goods stores and there is a amazingly wide selection that can't be found even in the largest supermarkets.  I discovered mission figs today.  I was told that they tasted the same but were darker than conventional figs.  They were first grown in California and are still grown there.  Based on my sampling so far, I think they are sweeter and chewier than the other figs I've tasted.  They should go very well with my pecorino fresco cheese.  One of my cooking projects is to work with many types of flours and I  was able to get some millet flour today.   Some farmer's markets are also a great source of seafood. My last purchase today was fish for bouillabaise to warm up a winter evening in the week ahead!