Summer is around the corner with the lure of outdoor fun. While I can get almost all the groceries I need from a typical grocery store, I love walking leisurely under the sun through stands of fresh foods in a farmers’ market and hopefully, coming across a few interesting items that I can’t find in most grocery stores.
Today, while visiting the Irvington Framers’ Market in Fremont, I caught sight of the following nine items:

Purple King Bean

Armenian Cucumber

Jungle Potato

Crookneck Squash
- Amaranth Chinese Spinach
- Chinese Spinach

Fresh Fava Bean

Purple Cauliflower

Yam Leaf
After snatching a bit of every new discovery, I’m ready for my next task: to come up with recipes for these rarities. It will take some time, but I know I’ll have fun. Of course, this isn’t a comprehensive list of all of the unique things in farmer’s markets…part of the fun is constantly discovering new ingredients!
What are some of your favorite farmer’s market vegetables? A couple of mine that are fresh heirloom tomatoes and rainbow carrots. I wish everyone a fun summer in discovering new things!
Nice discoveries 🙂
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I must say l have never seen these vegetables, it goes to show nowadays we shop way too often in supermarkets and not at our local farmers’market, which way have more fresh and interesting produce.
That purple cauliflower looks great, it would definitely make a nice dish.
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Nice post. What kind of yam leaves are they? I buy the beets with leaves and cook the leaves as well. Other than that never found any other yams with leaves in any farmers market around my area.
Have you ever found the leaves called Pennywort (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pennywort)? We have back in Sri Lanka and it is so nutritious but has a bitter taste. We make salad with lots of lime juice. I am trying to find, with no luck.
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I believe they are just regular yam leaves. I’ve never seen Pennywort in my local farmers market. Hopefully, I’ll find it somewhere one day.
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I love this post! Such unusual discoveries, that I would love to try!
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I’ve never had any of these before – I never even knew they existed! Once, from a specialty food store in Toronto, I bought baby zucchini the size of my finger, and saw the smallest baby cauliflowers that were the size of a tennis ball.
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Love, love, love farmers’ markets! ❤️
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This is a for sure farmers market win! Farmers markets guarantee the freshest, in season. I enjoying buying fresh berries and mushrooms this time of year. Great post.
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They all sound very exotic ✔️
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