Bread, Beer, Cheese, Peaches + Bliss at the Coxsackie Farmers Market
WARNING: The Coxsackie Farmers Market will ruin you for city greenmarkets forever. Sorry, guys. It's too picturesque, too ridiculously friendly. There's live music, which might be a harpist one week (this actually happened) or a gentleman playing jazzy instrumental Beatles covers on an electric guitar to an audience of rapt locals, smiling and applauding from folding chairs in the shade of a leafy tree. There's an adjacent playground, and the whole scene overlooks the Hudson River, which looks breathtakingly beautiful from here.
This magic only happens on Wednesdays from 4-7pm from May through September, and I could have spent the entire 3 hours making my way around giant semi-circle of vendors. My browing-chatting-tasting-shopping spree was cut short by my cranky children (and I'm sure I missed some great stuff -- please let me know in the comments!) but I did manage to grab some bread, sweets, peaches, beer, and cheese, which is really all I could ever want. Oh, I also picked up some prettily packaged goat milk soap, which I'm saving for the winter to soothe my son's eczema.
Top row: Focaccia from Catskill Bread Co., Sweet Rama's Unscented Goat Milk Soap, cinnamon roll from Catskill Bread Co.
Middle row: A growler of Arabella Nut Brown Ale from Honey Hollow Brewing Company, a peach from Boehm Farm, Ramona's face in the Sweet Rama sign
Bottom row: Mozzarella from the Goats and Gourmets stand, more peaches from Boehm Farm, Chevre from Lime Kiln Farm
On a perfect evening, you could fill your bags with goodness and enjoy a snack on a park bench with this view. I highly recommend that you click on the picture above to enlarge it, try to spot the tiny turquoise kayak, and allow yourself, just for a moment, to be transported to Coxsackie's Riverside Park. Inhale. Exhale.
Then start planning a road trip, stat.
The Coxsackie Farmers Market runs on Wednesdays from 4-7pm from May through September. For more information, check out their website and follow their Facebook page.
