Last weekend we welcomed back the start of our typical “summer Sunday in Sussex”. The start of the season was hailed by the opening of the Sussex Farm Market, which opened June 4th and will run until October 15th. Basically, this smaller village farm market gives us a great way to enjoy our summer Sundays.
After reading the newspaper over a couple of cups of coffee (Kathy with her tea), we get to that “feed me” point of the morning and the best place to start any summer Sunday is at the M&M Restaurant in downtown Sussex.
This small-town diner is the place for a good breakfast at a great price. The diner has been in business for probably over 50 years, the same family for the last 38. It’s been said that the M&M stands for “more for your money”.
This place has a great home town feel, the food is always hot and good, and it’s always bustling with locals on the weekends. Our standbys are the three egg omelets, mine with American fries and sausage.
After a hearty breakfast and the mandatory extra cup of coffee over our breakfast “dessert” (toast with strawberry jam -YUM!), it’s off to the Sussex Farm Market.
Just starting its third year (and first year in a new location at the new Sussex Civic Center), the Sussex Farm Market tends to start a little slow but builds up through the year. Even with the limited opening day representation, we managed to stop at some of our perennial favorites.
- Fresh lettuce and spinach from a local farmer – it’s a bit early in the year, so the farmer representation was a bit light, but there was one local offering early lettuce and spinach.
- Krugers Home Canning – This is a great stop. They offer lots of different pickled vegetables and garnishes, interesting salsas and a variety of canned fruit products. Kat picked up a jar of pickled beets and I had to ask about the Jalapeno Pepper Pickles – my absolute favorite pickle. No luck on the pickles; they are really popular and there is never any leftovers from the previous year. We’re going to have to wait until the first crop of pickle cukes, probably later July.
- Harmony Dairy – This is the place for cheese. They always have fresh cheese curds, nice and squeaky, and a selection of different cheeses available for tasting and sampling. No cheese curds for us this week, but we did buy one of our favorites for grilled cheese, their Buffalo Wing Jack. The base Jack cheese melts perfectly and the Buffalo Wing seasoning is just enough of a smoky pepper flavor to add depth to the mild cheese.
Missing on this opening day of the market (but hopefully coming as the season matures) were some of our other favorites: the stalls selling a wide selection of homemade soaps, the stall representing one of the local popcorn stores (the absolute best salted caramel popcorn around!), Apple Holler, selling fresh apple cider and baked treats (sensational cornbread and apple cider doughnuts), the Mexican bakery from last year (that also served great homemade tamales), more farmers as the early crops start coming in, and (finally) the lady that sells the best homemade doggy treats around (to make Tyler one happy “puppy”).
In any case, it’s a long summer season and I know we’ll have a lot of new stalls to visit at the Sussex Farmers Market on our Summer Sundays in Sussex.