Detroit's Eastern Market

I survived my first trip to downtown Detroit. We went to the city's huge farmer's market, Eastern Market, because we have heard it's pretty awesome. Unfortunately we were too busy having a cultural experience to remember to take pictures. We are planning to go back for a special holiday market in December and so hopefully we will get pictures then.

I don't think there were as many vendors as usual since it is fall and produce is less varied and available but it was still amazing. Farm fresh everything in season was available--things I've always wanted to cook with but knew I could never find in a regular grocery store: cooking pumpkins, fresh savory, fresh eggs, savoy cabbage, wild mushrooms, all sorts of chiles, more varieties of squash than you can imagine, etc. It's like Christmas in my head imagining what must be available in the summer months.

Here are some of the things we saw to remind us we were in the middle of Detroit:

-A suburban/rural rarity: the calf-length denim jacket

-A lot of razor wire

-Unconcealed weapons (which is legal)

-Coffee cans burning enough sticks of incense to fill the entire volume (Portlanders, Catholics, and Buddhists love their incense but I've never seen so much burned at once)

-A XXX rated novel booth which was attracting quite a large crowd

-Knock off designer sunglasses and handbags

-Gold-framed religious artwork

-People yelling at each other (I was confused at whether or not the yelling was friendly)