How to build your own farmers market meal plan

People often ask me how I build my weekly farmers market meal plans. In truth, it’s quite simple: Before I head to the market, I write a short list of dishes I want to make for the week (based on what I’m craving and what’s in season), create a shopping list for these dishes, identify which items I could stretch into several portions (typically large bundles of veggies), and then slot in extra meal ideas that use them up, therefore reducing my food waste and spend while rounding out a week of meals.

But let’s say you’re more of a spontaneous market goer: Shop now, plan later. How should you go about planning your meals when you barely know what you bought?

I recently found myself in a similar position, having been gifted a large amount of farm-fresh produce and protein for a sponsored post. I refuse to let food go to waste, so here’s how I created a small meal plan based on some of what I received.

Fruits + vegetables

• king trumpet mushrooms

• red spring onions

• komatsuna

• rainbow carrots

• sugar snap peas

• foraged fiddlehead ferns

• foraged ramps

• foraged stinging nettles

• asparagus

• rhubarb

• strawberries

• sumac and preserved lemon hummus

Protein + bread

• sea scallops

• ancestral blend ground chicken

• pasture-raised eggs

• whole chicken

• steelhead trout

• creamline whole milk

• sourdough loaf

If you’re fresh to the farmers market and niche produce game, you have to work backward: Start with what you don’t know.