Saturday, July 17, 2010

Mad City Madness

At 6am this morning 7 women from my church small group left for a 2 hour drive to the Madison, Wisconsin Farmers Market.  Yes, we defected for a day and crossed that Cheddar Curtain to the north. 
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Madison’s market is huge,especially by my small town standards, and was voted one of the top 30 markets in the nation.
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The Market fills the streets on on all four sides of the Capitol building.  They have everything from fresh produce,
IMG_3969 baked goods, gorgeous fresh flowers,
IMG_3968 herbs and grains,
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organic meats but best of all Fresh cheese curds! 
IMG_4003 The ones I bought were just made yesterday.  Nice & Squeaky!  Did you know that the sign of fresh cheese curds is if they squeak on your teeth as you bite into them? 
The sad part is I bought two bags, the plain(above) and dill garlic flavored.  The dill garlic bag is already gone between just DH & I.  Oooops!


I came home with fresh Door County cherries, garlic, green beans, portabella mushrooms, cauliflower, patty pan squash, apples, bread and beautiful red raspberries.

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Even the butterflies liked them!

After we tromped around the market for a couple of hours in 90+ degree weather, we were ready for a reprieve from the crowds and a lunch break so we went to the UW-Madison Student Union  We sat under a nice big shade tree on their outside terrace.  (Thanks
Shelly for this suggestion.)  The food was good and very reasonable.  I had a salad with grilled chicken and a drink for $5.00.  That works for me!
IMG_3978 The terrace overlooks Lake Monona.
IMG_3979 It was a beautiful spot to sit and relax after walking all morning.

Of course, we had to take a group picture in the “big chair”.
IMG_3983Being 6 foot tall,  I’ve never sat in a chair where my feet dangled.  I kind of felt like Edith Ann off the old Laugh-in shows.

On the way out of town, we stopped at Whole Foods which was a real treat for us.  Some had never been in one and others had but it’s not something those of who live out here in the sticks, hours from a large city, get the opportunity to do very often.



Today was definitely a “foodie” kind of day.  Isn’t that the best kind of all???


Thanks to all of you ladies... Judy, Ami, Lucinda, Joyce, Sue & Shelly for a great day that seemed to be the break a number of us needed. 










Sorry for any goofy formatting that's coming through on this post but I'm done trying to work with Blogger anymore tonight.  :(









10 comments:

  1. It looks as though it was a great day and tons of fun! Were these blogging ladies or old friends?

    Di

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  2. Girls gone wild day looked like tons of fun! Cheese curds, never had them until we were on the Iowa-Wisconsin boarder last month for a family reunion. I loved them!

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  3. That bag of cheese curds was not that big! (I on the other hand had way too many cherries while watching a stupid movie! But, they were SO good!)

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  4. So glad you girls had fun. Loved seeing you all again. Have a great Sunday!

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  5. I'm glad you had a great time - it sounds like a wonderful Farmers Market. I've not been able to find a decent one down here at all.

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  6. I got garlic cheese curds and should have bought plain. :\ I've had 2. LOL!!

    This was a great trip!! :)

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  7. Looks like a fun day. Foodie days are some of my favorite : )

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  8. WOW! That farmer's market looks fabulous. Fun pics too. Thanks for sharing. Blessings, SusanD

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  9. looks like a fun day...I have that problem with all chairs....being 4 ft 11....LOL...now you know how us short people feel...

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  10. Good to know that they have Door County cherries at the Farmer's Market!

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