Trip to Pecks Market(s)

Peck's East - closest to Madison and Mazomanie. Has good selection of baked goods and mustard along w/ produce. Animal exhibits but no playground.















Peck's West - between Lone Rock and Spring Green. Has big honey and candy sections, as well as animals, playground, fee-based kids activities.

















I am itching to start moving on my challenge, so I made a stop at both Peck's markets this weekend. They bookend the town of Spring Green and include all kinds of homegrown veggies. However, you have to ask to make sure the goods you are buying are local, which is okay if it's a bit of a novelty but would be a pain if you had to ask and explain yourself every time. For instance, the watermelon they have now are not grown locally, but the ones that are will be in in about a week. I did find out most of the produce can be used for WIC food which leads me to believe that the only people who care enough to ask are mothers on Federal assistance and crazy nouveau-hippies.















My haul included zucchini, a gigantic head of cabbage (for $2! homemade sauerkraut here I come), a pie pumpkin, a spaghetti squash, musk melon and Roma and regular tomatoes. I also splurged and bought some cranberry salsa, beer and brat mustard, and some jellies and jams. I hesitated buying Slack's Jelly Farm products in part because I wasn't sure how much of their ingredients were grown in WI. They also have a pretty strong Christian evangelical overtone (Bible verses on their jars, a section of the website devoted to "why the bible is essential and absolutely trustworthy today.") Bit of a turn off for me.
















So some of the other stuff in my fridge includes:

Straka Meat's Buffalo Summer Sausage
Cedar Grove Sharp Cheddar Cheese
Manna House Bakery (formerly L&M) brat and hamburger buns
Wienke's Market Door Co. Cherry Pie Filling
Lakeside Pickled Eggs

I will admit to already stretching the boundary of the 150 mile limit (I think I will focus on Wisconsin based businesses which means Door County and Eau Claire are okay.) Also, Lakeside has other plants in other states and I can't tell if my pickled eggs came from WI or not.

Still - I think if the items are something that "could" be local (ie someone could locally pickle eggs), I am still okay. I think there will be a ton of hedging in this challenge.

K - I have to go now. I'm debating going to pick up my Co-op pkg (they did email some of the kit: events, recipes and menu, but some of it was just too big. However, the Farm Fresh atlas is on line.) I really want to nest a little bit and prep some food, and I really wanted to get my car worked on - but no one was available. We'll figure it out.
























Front passenger side tire going bald. Grinding noise when I break. Squeeling belts are probably not a symptom but eeeeeee..... this can't be good.