Camacho Watcho

Before moving to Minnesota, the thought of going to a farmers market in the winter seemed ridiculous. Not that Illinois doesn’t have cold winters, but I just couldn’t imagine anyone braving the cold for outdoor activities like Minnesotans do. Of course, in the years that I’ve lived here, I’ve since gone to the Holidazzle parade, the St. Paul Winter Carnival and have taken part in a bonfire held on a frozen lake. My perspective has definitely changed.

So a couple weeks ago it didn’t seem so crazy for Kyle and me to bundle up and hit the farmers market in search of some good, local meat to stock up on. Not knowing what to expect (except the cold), we were really pleased to see a few farms representing with fresh and frozen meat. I guess the plus side to being a vendor during this time of year, is that the refrigerator is literally the outdoors. We didn’t last outside for long, instead we scoped out the meat and then headed inside to check out the indoor scene across the street inside Golden’s Deli first.

The indoor market is made up of 10 or so vendors mainly selling honey, apples (and apple donuts!), bread, chocolate and cheese. We weren’t in the market for many of these items, but we did pick up a basket of Honeycrisps (they are just too hard to pass up) and some cheese. But not just any cheese…stinky cheese.

I had never heard of Love Tree Farmstead cheese but I’m certain I will become quite familiar with their cheeses from now on. Love Tree produces wonderfully strong, stinky (in the best way possible) cheeses. And bonus…their animals are all organically raised in Wisconsin! We tasted several cheeses (they are very generous with their tastings) and loved each one better than the last. We finally decided on a huge hunk of “fish bait” cheese to take home with us (I’m assuming the name gives you a pretty good idea of its stinkiness). It didn’t last long in our household, as we greedily gobbled down each bite accompanied by crispy, light crackers and deep rich red wine.

On our way out we stopped by the meat vendors again and bought a whole chicken and a 5 lb. roast. I’m looking forward to pulling those out of the freezer to make some tasty meals soon.

If you haven’t made it over to the winter market this year, I would recommend stopping by. It’s open Saturdays 9am – 2pm on 5th and Wall in downtown St. Paul.

Tags: cheese, Food, twin cities, winter market

This entry was posted on Monday, February 2nd, 2009 at 3:24 pm and is filed under Food. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.