Every Tuesday and Friday, between May and November, a farmer's market comes to my neighborhood. They have a beautiful display of goods produced by Massachusetts farmers and bakers, and you get to see a lot of things you would not normally see in the grocery store.

Fortunately almost everything is labeled with the name of the item and the price.

These chive flowers really caught my eye. I had no clue they were in fact an edible flower. When I was growing up we were lucky enough to have a garden in our back yard, where my Dad grew vegetables. But I don't ever remember seeing flowers on the chives he grew.

Of course, not all flowers are edible! If you do plan on decorating your salad or dinner plate with flowers make sure the container (or the farmer!) says they are, in fact, edible. When in doubt, just stick to parsley for garnish.

At the farmer's market you often see unexpected shapes, sizes, and colors of food.

These white, purple, and red radishes were a nice surprise. My grocery store only sells round red radishes.

Unusual shapes and colors of vegetables are nowadays often referred to as "heirloom," which just means the type of seeds have been around for ages. You don't often see heirloom in giant grocery stores because these varieties are often harder to mass-produce.

If there is a farmer's market in your neighborhood, have a wander through - you may discover something new!

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