Wisconsin Part 1-The Farmer's Market!

In April I got to visit the Cheese State--Wisconsin! SproutsMom and her family were my hosts. They said the first place we had to go was the Farmer's Market in Madison. It's one of their favorite places, and they said it would show me some of the great things that Wisconsin has to offer. The market runs all year long, but this was just the second week it was back outside, in it's normal spot. The market takes place right around the capitol square in Madison. (Madison is the captitol of Wisconsin, in case you didn't figure that out!) The capitol building is huge! See it behind me? There are pretty walkways and gardens all around the building, and the market vendors set up their stalls around the wide sidewalks on the outer edge. There's grassy lawns that people sit on to visit and munch their market buys. It was cold when we went though, so mostly people just hurried to get what they need and get warm. SproutsMom took me to their favorite vendor, an organic farm operation called Harmony Valley. Their farm had a lot of damage in the rains and floods last year, but they got lots of support from the community and stayed loyal to their mission of providing healthy local food, and they're still here! They are really nice too. They let me stand on their table. It was early in the season so they mostly had root crops like those parsnips and dried foods like the chiles behind me. SroutsMom said that soon they'd have spinach and ramps, and in a few months--all kinds of stuff!

But veggies aren't the only thing we found at the farmer's market. There was honey, jams, cheese (of course!), meat, eggs, plants, and flowers. I can't believe there's so much to eat from so close by! There is another thing the market is famous for: baked goods! I got to share a chocolate cream cinnamon roll with Bird. We ate it on one of the beautiful stone benches around the capitol. It was a delicious end to my visit to the Madison Farmer's Market in Wisconsin.