Market Season

The farmer's market is starting to wind down with the changing of the seasons.  The Excelsior market only has a couple of runs left.  While trying to outrun the seasonal close, we tried out another well-known market recently and enjoyed the beans out of it:  the Overland Park Farmer's Market.  On their website, they actually refer to themselves as the Overland Park Farmers Garden and indeed, that does seem to be a more apt name.  This "garden" has much going on during these incredibly popular Saturdays, not the least being capacity crowds and an abundance of amazing produce.  On our recent visit, the crowds milled about the many food displays on a crystal clear day while the lilting sounds of a calypso band floated across the plaza.  We visited many a booth; Keith picked up cucumbers for pickling and I, ever the cheese-hound, found my way to the Shatto milk booth, where they were sampling several of their locally-made cheeses (the Gouda is so goood-a.....yeah, I know...ouch).  By the by, this excellent market ain't close to closing; they're hanging around until mid-November.

After that lively scene, we sauntered around the awesomely food-centric Santa Fe Drive.  We stopped in Penzey's Spices just to take in the heady aromas of their ever-growing spice lines and of course, ended up carrying out various jars, such as Turkish Aleppo, an eye-opening version of crushed red peppers.  Soon, we were settled in to the funkified Great Day Cafe for breakfast.  Its a delightfully offbeat little place with lots of eccentric little touches like the colorful little S&P shakers on the tables and the figurines of the Beatles hovering over the cozy little stage area.  Speaking of the stage area, owner Greg Tugman was wailing on the sax when we were there that day.  The live music scene here was one of the main reasons I wanted to grub out here...this was after all, our second attempt at eating here.  The first time, the place was packed and the jaunty tuneage was being served by one Annemarie Timmons, an accordion-playing former escapee of Communist East Germany who was entertaining the hell out of the crowd with her German folk songs.  I wanted to hang then just to watch her perform but it was too busy for us to sit.  This time we got to grub indeed and it was worth the wait.  I had a filling and tasty breakfast burrito and Keith enjoyed his fresh biscuits with peppery gravy.  I also dug the extra attached fortune-cookie-style tip to the creative class.

Love, love hanging on Santa Fe Drive....that street is one long paean to the joys of food.