Food find: Libertyville Farmer's Market

In all the years I've lived here, I have never been to the farmer's market on Church Street. For as long as I can remember, it's been from 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. Thursday. In high school, this inconvenienced me greatly with the weekly street closure and no easy bypass and I cursed this farmer's market.

Now, a little older and I hope a little wiser, I'm happy that my community has such a resource. It makes me nostalgic for Eastern Market in D.C., the best farmer's market I've ever been to. The stalls sprawled for a block and had every delicious item of produce I could imagine -- wild rice, juicy tomatoes of all colors, leafy herbs damp with dew and baby cucumber almost too cute to eat.

Now that I'm back home, this neighborhood farmer's market provides an impressive array of tasty treats that I predict will only grow as the summer progresses. I found organic beef, free-range chickens, white and orange carrots, hydroponically grown tomatoes, artisan cheese, bread from a convent kitchen and even dog treats that looked so cute. My only purchase was a huge slab of blueberry scone that I believe was made with cornmeal but could have used sugar. The same guy also made freshly squeezed lemonade with an industrial table-top lemon squeezer that probably wouldn't quite fit my kitchen decor. He also added scoops of super-fine baking sugar and shook my lemonade like a proper cocktail before serving.

I must make it a hobby to get out to these more often.