Farmers market sampler plate may be the perfect date night

Date nights are few and far between when you have two kids, I’m not complaining, don’t get me wrong if there’s a beer event happening my wife is more than understanding and I can go and vice versa for her but the two of us don’t get to hit the town together very often. Instead we do our date nights at home, luckily for us once the boys fall asleep they are out for the night, so who needs to hit the town anyway? We both love our beer and a nice cheese board or charcuterie plate to accompany it so we picked up a growler of Geaghan Brothers Captain Kool IPA on Friday night and planned to spend a few extra dollars at the Orono Farmers Market on Saturday so Sunday could be a home date night with brewery fresh beer and a farmers market sampler.IMG_6365

Visiting the farmers market is fun, I enjoy walking the booths and seeing what everyone has to offer and my kids love their veggies so it’s fun for them to pick out what they want, adding in sampler plate shopping allows us to check out items from vendors we might not normally visit. Daily Bread is regular stop for Cinnamon Raisin bread for breakfasts, normally $3 we added a second loaf of Garlic Dill bread for a total of $5 at that booth. Worcester Wild Blueberries again is a weekly visit, my youngest can’t get enough of them so nobody tell him we snuck a few for our sampler plate, cost us $5 for the pint. We did some sampling at the Balfour Farm booth, this was new to us but I had to have some cheese on the plate, we settled on a Garlic and Herb Bevre, a soft spreadable cheese similar to Chevre but made from cow’s milk instead of goat, the container cost $5.50. Plymouth Pond Farm and Bakery was at the market this week, their bagels are a must, in particular I was looking for their pretzel bagel to slice up for this plate, $7 for a half dozen. Finally some Soppressata salami from Smith’s Log Smokehouse out of Monroe, Maine, this was by far the priciest item for the plate but when I asked for a small chunk they happily sliced off what I needed, I ended up paying $5.99 for roughly a 2 inch piece that was all I needed for this plate.

Talk about an inexpensive date night, for $19 I can put together a Farmers Market Sampler plate to share and the 32oz Geaghans growler was only $6.50 to fill because I had the glass to begin with. Without spending any gas money or hiring a sitter we can toast with IPA and snack on items produced within 50 miles of our home, support a local brewery, local farmers, local creamery and local bakeries all in one evening for under $30 and still have leftover goodies. Hitting the town with my sweetie is great but we can make due just fine here at home too.

Cheers!

Chaddah

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Visit the Orono Farmers Market page for hours and locations.

Balfour Farm

461 Webb Rd., Pittsfield, ME

207.213.3159   www.balfourfarmdairy.com

Daily Bread

Sunny Acres Drive, Levant, ME

800.684.8224   Daily Bread Facebook

Geaghan Brothers Brewing/Geaghans Pub

570 Main St., Bangor, ME

207.945.3730   www.geaghanspub.com

Smith’s Log Smokehouse

7 East Main St., Monroe, ME

207.525.7735   www.logsmokehouse.net

Plymouth Pond Farm and Bakery

451 Loud Rd., Plymouth, ME

207.450.8282   www.facebook.com/PlymouthPondFarm

Worcester’s Wild Blueberries

356 Lyford Road, Orneville, ME

207.943.8804   www.wildblueberryproducts.com

 

 

Chad Lothian

About Chad Lothian

Chad Lothian lives in Old Town, Maine. He is a craft beer enthusiast and homebrewer. Chad has travelled to brewpubs, breweries and brewfests all over New England.