Nature Study at the Buford Farmers Market

For awhile I've been wanting to try the Buford Farmers Market, which is not too far from our house. Today the kids and I stopped in to pick up a tomato for tonight's supper and scoped out the store. It was just as international as I expected, being on Buford Highway, but much bigger and actually nicer. We didn't have time to browse the dozens of grocery aisles, but we spent a lot of time in the produce department. I got my tomato (mediocre, as they all are this time of year), a Hass avocado for $.69, a cheap red pepper, and a stalk of sugar cane (for 50 cents why not?). We bypassed the cactus, etc. and headed over to the seafood area.

The cases displayed a fascinating variety of fish including whole squid, a headless shark, gutted salmon (1.99/lb), catfish heads (that's right, just the heads), and a big old grouper. If we had gotten bored reading all the names we could have watched the men grabbing live fish out of tanks and cleaning them just paces away (lots of entrails on the floor). We also found some plastic boxes of slimy, bright green seaweed; they were right next to shrink wrapped packs of octopus. But the real crowd pleaser was the bin of crabs still feebly crawling around. We jabbed at a few with the tongs (don't tell PETA) and then decided that $1.12 was a small price to pay for a great Nature Study lesson for Nate. So we tossed one in a plastic bag and checked out.

At dinner, we had the added entertainment of presenting our souvenir on Erik's dinner plate. Of course Crabby is a little smelly right now, but I'm hoping a few days on an ant hill in the sun will solve that problem. We're making a mental list of the people we want to take to the market when they visit. I'd like to go back for some salmon and halibut, but I need to double check with the guy at church who recommended the place to me. He either said "great place to buy fish" or "stay away from the seafood!" I can't remember which.