Goodell's got the green-grown goods

This week, I learned some tasty new ways to use zucchini blossoms. 

My fiance and I were enlightened about garlic scapes (they're not just compost with a cool name -- they're delicious).

And we tried out some wicked-good salsa, hot as hell, made just a short spell down the road from the Goodell Gardens Farmers Market in Edinboro.

We didn't have time to check in with even half of the area growers and producers who people the markets' vending space, but we still came home with a nice mixed bag full of fresh, local, green-grown veggies -- all beautiful, all affordable, and all harvested from farm space in Erie or Crawford counties that very morning.

That, right there, is the good stuff, and for a lotta good reasons.

Now in its fifth year, the Goodell Gardens market -- open to everyone every Wednesday from 3 to 6 p.m. through late-September -- keeps growing, too. Its manager, Heather Zimmerman, said there are currently around 15 active vendors, and the number goes up as the weeks go by, keeping things ever-changing, and always interesting.

And a good number of those vendors -- farmers offering everything from free-range eggs to fresh-cut herbs to hydroponically-grown greens -- also accept the Farmers Market Nutrition Program vouchers that are offered to eligible senior citizens and WIC recipients through the state Department of Agriculture.

For the many northwestern Pa. families and residents who rely on such programs for access to real, nutritious food, that's another good and simple reason to find the time to get out to the Gardens sometime this season.

Ryan Smith can be contacted at rSmith@ErieReader.com, and you can follow him on Twitter @RyanSmithPlens.