Beyond Apples

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pickles, and relishes. Market manager Molly Notarianni sees this increase as a reflection of the growing national interest in good, fresh, sustainable, local food, raw and prepared, and she has encouraged the new trend. Few of the new faces have a permanent market stall, nor do they all show up every week, particularly as the weather cools. But with their expanded smorgasbord of local foodstuffs, they have transformed the Ann Arbor Farmers Market into a market in the wider sense.

As usual with products that are hand-raised and handmade, few of these foods are inexpensive, but the quality is often good and occasionally exceptional. La Cake’s $2 mini coconut cupcakes, for instance, are fabulous bites, and the $4.50 almond cream tarts from Cecilia’s Pastries are truly French and truly wonderful. Thomas Organic Creamery’s yogurt ($5.75/quart), though thin, is sharply tangy, and Snow’s Sugarbush maple cream, a spread made from maple syrup heated and whipped to a silky texture, is divine on oatmeal or toast; it’s $12 for 12 ounces. Even Tasty Bakery’s gluten- and dairy-free chocolate chip cookies, while initially off-putting to this unrestricted eater, proved tasty, if a bit crumbly (they’re two for $3). And preserves, so often all sugar and pectin and little fruit, are here made more carefully; Kern Road Farm’s crabapple jam is a thick sweet-tart spread that employs every edible bit of the fruit.