The final week of May came to pass, and with it we marked our fourth trip to the Hollywood Farmers Market on Saturday, May 30. For reference, we’re following our new $30 farmers market plan, whereby we venture to the farmers market each week with a pre-set $30 budget that we have to spend –not just a budget that we can spend. Essentially, we take $30 to market and absolutely have to come home broke.

cute girl + $30 farmers market haul

So far under the plan, we’ve tended to rely on two farms for the majority of the produce we buy at the market: Sweet Leaf Farms of Junction City, Oregon, and Deep Roots Farms of Albany, Oregon. The mushrooms come from a small grower just west of Banks, Oregon. Both Sweet Leaf and Deep Roots offer very high quality organic produce. Sweet Leaf tends to offer a wider variety of produce, priced a bit higher than other farms.

For example, this week I elected to purchase a fairly large batch of organic Yukon Gold potatoes from Sweet Leaf. They were superb in look, texture and taste, but cost more than $7 for about two pounds. By no means is this outrageous compared to grocery store prices on similar potatoes, but it’s a big percentage of a $30 budget. Regardless, the spuds were fantastic. I only wish the Sweet Leaf checkout staff were more consistent in their friendliness. Some weeks the faces are sour as granny smith apples… other weeks the smiles flow freely. But hey, they see a lot of people –and probably plenty of sour faces looking back at them, so I understand the challenge of the retail experience. :)

Whatever the case, the Sweet Leaf potato purchase made me excited for the big crop of spuds that are growing in our back yard right now. I can’t wait to start harvesting! We’ll certainly see savings as we’re really eating more potatoes these days –especially in the form of super-tasty home fries, which my wife churns out beautifully.

In the photo to the right, you’ll see last Saturday’s $30 farmers market haul, which includes the following:

• one medium bag of organic spinach
• one small bunch of basil ($3 –ouch)
• one bunch of green onions
• 2+ pounds Yukon Gold potatoes
• two large sweet onions
• $2 worth of fresh, local shitake mushrooms
• one pint of organic strawberries
• three zucchini squash
• two large organic cucumbers