First Farmer's Market Trip

After being here for a few weeks, I learned from several spouses that shopping at the commissary is good for meat and dairy products, but it's best to get your produce out in town to save on costs and to guarantee freshness. Nobody wants strawberries that were frozen for their trip overseas and then defrosted for commissary shelves...it's just not the same as picking them fresh from the fields in NC!

Kaiti, whose husband is on the USS America with Bryan, invited me to join her and her daughters on their farmer's market trip this morning and I couldn't turn down a new opportunity! I met up with her at 9:30 am, and a short 15-minute drive led us to わくわくふれあい市, our local farmer's market! Other than the Japanese sign out front, it looked like a produce stand back in the states.

Once you step foot inside though, things looked much different! There are three open rooms to this farmer's market- the dark brown building is filled with fresh fruits and vegetables, the tin-covered area is filled with local seeds and different potted flowers, and the tan building had pastries, fresh fish and octopus, and lovely cut flowers for sale! Everything was obviously in Japanese, so luckily Kaiti was able to tell me about some of the local produce that was unfamiliar to me, and Google Translate helped with others. I felt such relief coming with another spouse because this experience could have felt very overwhelming by myself for the first visit!

Some of the cooler things I saw for sale:

• Burdock Root (it's that long brown root in the second picture below, and here's what I found online about it when I got back home.)

• Bitter Gourd (which is the spikey green cucumber-looking thing below.) Kaiti said she's tried cooking it several different ways and hasn't enjoyed any of them, so I skipped that one.

• Fresh octopus (Check out those tentacles below!)

Produce Room

Burdock Root

Bitter Gourd

Fresh Octopus and Fish

Bakery and Fresh Fish Room

The farmer's market accepts cash only, so I luckily came prepared! I walked through and saw everything in about 30 minutes and picked out a few things to try. In total, I spent ¥830and walked out with the items below!

From left to right:

• Princess Gourd- the name is just too cute to pass up! Now...I have no idea how to cook it, but that's what Google is for!

• Asparagus- since Bryan's gone, I'm going to eat things he won't touch.

• Kasumaki- I found this in the bakery section and thought it was some kind of chocolate dessert thing. I was wrong. It's actually red bean paste in a sponge cake with cinnamon sugar on top! Not gonna lie- I was quite nervous to try it, but it's actually a good sweet dessert! 10/10 would recommend!

• Cucumbers- skinny little things that remind me of baby English Cucumbers

• Onions

• Kabosu- These little green things are citrus fruits, that Google says have "notes of mint, lemons, and melons." Kaiti said they are similar to limes, so I'll have to let you know once I try them!

I posted the pictures below so you can see the size of my new "finds" beside a quarter for size reference!

This was a pretty cool experience and another checkbox in my must-do Japanese experiences list! Now I just have to figure out how to cook these things!

Wish me luck!

-Katie