The Union Square market in Manhattan recently celebrated its 20th anniversary, and I realized that I have been visiting the market for just as long! I used to live and work in New York in the late 1980’s and I would take the subway down to the market, load up on goodies and have a few friends over for a weekend dinner party. After moving away from the city, I would return for visits to family once or twice a year, and many of those trips included a trip to the market. But in the past ten years or so, I had never managed a trip to NY in August/September, and hence always missed the market when it was bursting with the last of the summer’s produce and bounty. And what an incredibly lush, colorful, robust, intense, colorful bounty it is! I had so many wonderful photos that I decided to break them into several posts. Up top, pails of vibrantly hued dahlias, in fall shades of burgundy, magenta, orange, pinks, etc.
Gorgeous dark burgundy beets, harvested the day before were piled high next to some crisp carrots.
Over 10 different types of potatoes were on offer, from fingerlings, to purple peruvians, red potatoes, etc.
Ravishing radishes!
The most stunning variety and display of chili peppers from hot to super hot, from red to white and every orange, yellow, variant in between. Utterly beautiful.
Crate upon crate of the crispest apples.
A half-bushel of damson plums… that sister wiped out to make her annual batch of damson plum jam that is amazingly good.
Cute little crab apples.
Blackberries, raspberries, concord and niagara grapes.
Peaches, nectarines and several types of plums! I haven’t enhanced these photos in any way. And it was an overcast gloomy morning. And yet the colors are just so stunning. It was so energizing to be in the midst of this market, and I can only compare it to a “visual drug” for those pre-occupied with produce! There’s nothing like the bounty of late Summer in a temperate region’s produce markets…these photos seem to confirm that!
18 Responses
Hi, MM! It’s so nice to see stunning colors of flowers and fruits after a gloomy weekend. Nagutom tuloy ako…. :(
nakakainggit!
Masarap tikman lahat!!! parang ang sarap=sarap…and oh so fresh…yummy…
Ang fresh naman ng mga fruits.. saraaaap…nice capture! ;)
MM, a bit of brightness in an otherwise gloomy-feeling day! WHile I don’t get to NYC much any longer, I derive the same pleasure from walking around the markets on London every summer. I love Borough and Camden Markets and get such enjoyment out of fresh EVERYTHING. Thanks for the photos…they certainly brightened my day up!
a feast for the eyes to behold…very refeshing ….very vivid & bright colors will brighten any one’s gloomy day
Colors only Mother Nature can provide!
Visiting a market like that spells danger for my wallet as i find the flowers and fruits irresistible! Although prices of most fruit have (understandably) gone up.
& i could only imagine the sweet smell of the fruits & the fragrance of the flowers……ahhh, heaven on earth.
Speaking of public markets, Pike Place in Seattle and Granville Island Market in Vancouver are definitely worth a visit. And while in Vancouver, don’t miss the Butchart Gardens in Victoria Island after saying hello to bettyq.
hi MM, was it you that i bumped into at Unino Square Market?! kidding! i walked around that area last sept 17. i even took some photos that are quite similar to yours.
nice vibrant colors you have here. cheers!
Porn for the foodie.
They’re absolutely stunning. Feasts for the eyes.
the photos were jumping right off the screen! (and making me sooo jealous, i should say)
Amazing produce! I wish we had that type of selection available here.
Do they allow “tikim tikim” there? Most of the markets here allow you a taste of a piece of grape for example, or would cut open a melon for you. Do they do that there as well?
so colorful, so delicious.
wow! nice shots… amazing array of peppers…
Dahlias always remind me of Xmas in Baguio, the bushes around Burnham Park were always in bloom. How I wish I could go back to that time in my life and enjoy the flowers again.
The crab apples I tried recently (in China) were interesting, a bit bitter and not so great as a snack fruit (at least not for me), but I chopped them up and added them to my chicken adobo and it was great! I added some to a curry a few weeks later.