farmers markets

• Who knew: Beyoncé and Jay-Z like to play with their food, too. — Eater NY
• Beyond brilliant: A miniature gingerbread house to perch atop your holiday hot chocolate. — Not Martha
• This Christmas, consider helping one of these nonprofit food organizations. — Salon
• Thomas Keller's Ad Hoc at Home is completely sold out online. — Eat Me Daily
• Why dungeness crab season is getting shorter and shorter. — The Atlantic
• Wasabi pea crust makes seared tuna feel new again. — Serious Eats
• Would you eat Alinea's all-in-one Christmas tree and Christmas goose dinner? — Grub Street LA
• What the first-ever underground farmers market looks like. — Chow

Some legislation, like healthcare reform, might take a little more work for the White House to push through, but other initiatives, like the White House farmers market, are happening virtually overnight. Less than a month ago President Obama revealed that he and the first lady were looking into holding a farmers market outside the White House — and the plan's already come to fruition. At the opening of the FreshFarm market yesterday, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and Washington DC mayor Adrian Fenty spoke to a crowd of about 300 shoppers about the importance of eating healthy, local food.

The visitor that drew the most attention was Michelle Obama, who encouraged Americans to get to know the farmers that grow the market's food, and stressed the importance of fresh markets, particularly in urban deserts.

Located at 810 Vermont Avenue, just blocks from the White House, the market runs Thursday afternoons through the end of October, and accepts food stamps. It sells pasture-raised meats, artisan cheeses, milk, yogurt, fresh fruits and vegetables, breads, flowers, and preserves. DCers, have you had a chance to visit?

Recently reader FinnLover traveled to the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur. While visiting the vast city, she spent one Saturday night hitting up Little India's weekly street market. With its incredible diversity — there are stalls that serve Thai, Chinese, Malaysian, Western, and Indonesian cuisine — Finn describes the event as the "biggest food celebration ever." It took her two hours to walk from one end of the market to the other, but along the way she snapped an amazing array of photos.

Lucky for us, she shared the images in the Savory Sights group on the community page. Want your mouth-watering images to be featured on YumSugar? Join the group and start participating in the YumSugar community. To check out all of FinnLover's deliciously visual Malaysian market experience, keep reading

In March, Alice Waters and other supporters of the local food movement thought they'd finally gotten what they wanted when the Obamas announced the planting of an organic garden in the White House. But yesterday reformers were pleasantly shocked when President Obama announced his hopes to set up a farmers market at the White House. At the Organizing for America National Health Care Forum on Thursday, Barack Obama revealed that he and the first lady are looking into the idea of a farmers market outside the White House that would sell food from the White House garden or other local farmers:

"One of the things that we’re trying to do now is to figure out, can we get a little farmers’ market — outside of the White House . . . that is a win-win situation. It gives suddenly D.C. more access to good, fresh food, but it also is this enormous potential revenue-maker for local farmers in the area."

He also discussed the importance of connecting local farmers to school districts, in an effort to improve the federal school lunch program. I wholeheartedly applaud the idea — if established, it would be the first-ever White House farmers market, setting a landmark precedent for Americans to start shopping more frequently at farmers markets across the nation. Do you think President Obama will follow through on this idea?

I grew up in a fruit-forward household, so I'm intrigued whenever I come across a variety I don't recognize. So when I found an article about mythical-sounding fruits called tayberries, I knew I needed to try them for myself. A cross between the Aurora blackberry and a European raspberry variety, this relatively young berry breed was developed at the Scottish Horticultural Research Institute, and named after the country's River Tay. It's been said to resemble the tart loganberry — a fruit I've never had the pleasure of trying — but with a sweeter finish. Follow me on my search to locate tayberries and see my comparison photos after the jump.