Sunday Mornings and Family Time at the Local Farmers' Market

Living in Midtown Sacramento has been such a fun adventure for our little family. It's an up and coming bustling subdivision neighboring Downtown with so much color and diversity and so much to do, eat, see and explore. We love living here and all of these bonuses are a huge reason why we are still stretching it out in our precious little one bedroom out here. 

Being surrounded by markets galore (10+!), of the many options here in Midtown/Downtown, one of our favorites is the Hmong Market on Sunday mornings. It gets us out of our comfort zones and provides some opportunity to try produce that challenge our cooking. Some items we purchase we don't even know the names of, but they allow for some fun in the kitchen and give us a chance to try something new. This market also has a lot of familiar seasonal produce as well so if we want to keep things simple, we can do that too. 

The prices at this Hmong market are budget-friendly and the fruits/ vegetables and herbs are always so fresh and full of flavor! My favorite seasonal fruit to get from here are the Asian pears (also known as apple pears). They are huge, full of flavor and have the perfect amount of sweetness, water content and crunch to them. 

Zach was the first out of the two of us to discover this gem. It can be a tight squeeze making a baby carrier the best method for visiting with a little one in tow. 

The market can get very crowded in the afternoon- we've found visiting first thing in the morning is best. And there is more selection to choose from before items run out.

One of our big motivators in making this a family trip is to continue to expose Chaya to different and new foods. I believe our interest and appetite for foods begins before our food hits the plate. Before we leave the store, really! Chaya is still not a big eater yet, so a strategy we employ is bringing her to the market to allow her to smell, touch, feel and taste some of the produce before bringing it home. Oftentimes, she will also choose an item to bring home and her desire to eat it is much more!

One of the many things I love about my husband is his heart for health and good nutrition. With me being a Registered Dietitian with high food standards at times, he is one of the few people I can trust to make a grocery run for me with no list or pre-discussed requests :)

We love and value the people of this market. Always so friendly, welcoming and a dear reminder of the beauty and all that is right in the world when people from different backgrounds all come together and share a piece of our worlds through food together. 

And we're all done! In total, we spent $18!! Such a bargain!! Zach treated us to his wonderful and delicious stir fry later that evening. If you'd like the recipe and to see a few of the items we ended up purchasing click here!

Part 2 of this story concludes with Zach's delicious stir fry using many ingredients we gathered from this market. Recipe and more of the story continues ---> Here!

Thank you for reading and joining along!