Went with my buddy, Joe, down to the Eastern Market today in Detroit. If you’re not from around here, the Eastern Market is one of those big outdoor set-ups for the sale of produce, flowers, meats, and all kinds of things. An over sized farmers market, with lots of restaurants and street musicians and so on. I mostly go there for spices and coffees, and sometimes a few veggies. It’s pretty cool.
It’s kind of changing though. It’s becoming more and more like a specialty market, where things don’t necessarily cost less, but they’re supposed to be better for you or better quality. A guy was selling some mushrooms for twenty two dollars a pound. They were Morels, so I get it, but still, twenty two dollars? Someone else was selling organic chickens for around sixteen dollars a pop. But the prices start to drop at the end of the day, of course. Sometimes drastically.
There is this lady there who sells corn on the cob. She calls herself the “Crazy Corn Lady.” She doesn’t act very crazy, but that corn, man, you have to taste it to believe it. It is so tender and juicy you could literally, and I do mean literally, eat it without cooking it. It’s about four bucks for five ears, but it’s mighty good stuff. Mighty mighty.
I also picked up some coffee, some berries and some specialty cooking oils. And some onions. And some smoked trout. And that’s it. Honest. Unless I'm forgetting something.
The Eastern Market is a good reminder that Detroit is still a very cool city in many ways. It has huge problems, but it also has some amazing stuff going on all the time. The area surrounding the Fox Theater, with the ball park and all of the show theaters, it’s all great. The waterfront area at the end of Woodward Avenue is great. The area surrounding Wayne State University is great.
It’s all great, and it all seems so divorced from the madness going on politically in Detroit. The politicians would like to take all the credit for what’s going well, but the fact is that most of the good stuff is happening in spite of them.
But good stuff it is.
Peace to you.
© LW Publishing 2011
I LOVE Eastern Market! It is truely one of the happiest places on earth. I find it very hard to be in a bad mood. It's also still one of the best deals around for plants. You can't beat a flat of perrenials for $20 mix and match plants and herbs.
ReplyDeleteAnd as they get closer to closing, they just about give the flats away.
ReplyDeleteCome on Dave. Giving them away. Remember, I was there. Janel...they weren't just about to give them away. I distinctly remember one of the vendors asking a full $1 bill for the entire flat. Joe
ReplyDeleteOops. I forgot I wasn't supposed to mention that.
ReplyDeletei got distracted when you mention THE BEST CORN for $4 for 5 ears...thats not cheap? i was just at the market this morning and the corn is 2 for $3...OUCH! needless to say, we wont be eating corn this week
ReplyDeleteTo be perfectly honest, I don't know what a good price for corn is, except that 2 for $3 seems nutty to me too.
ReplyDelete