Find one of the best parts of summer

Sometimes it pays to avoid the middleman.

And, no, that isn’t a reference to that friend or relative who always claims to be able to get anything for you wholesale.

It’s a reference to a farmers’ market — like the one that opened last week in Liberty Lake and will run through the growing season.

Ah, you ask, what can there be at a farmers’ market this early in the growing season?

“It’s too soon to have actual produce,” said Susan Parker, who allows the market space in the parking lot of her Garden Gate Floral shop on Saturdays. “We did have lots of fresh herbs. We had a lady who brought in some lettuces, spinach and radishes. And our organic eggs were here. But mostly you’re going to find lots of plants.”

This isn’t like heading over to the drug store, supermarket, home improvement warehouse or any other retail outlet hawking plants of all shapes and sizes this time of year. It’s a leafy, green smorgasbord, and we amateurs can’t tell parsley from sage, rosemary or thyme without a scorecard.

If you have a difficult time telling whether that pepper plant you’re holding is an Anaheim or a sweet bell, a jalapeno or a habanero, you need help. If you can’t tell if your basil plant is regular or lemon, your tomato is a beefsteak, a roma, a cherry, an early girl or a better boy, or if your squash is a butternut or an acorn, you might want to do more than just pick off the menu.

“The cool thing about coming to a farmers’ market is that you talk to the people who grow them,” Parker said. “These people know their plants and they’re happy to talk to you about them. If you’re looking for plants for your garden, that’s a great resource.”

It’s like going straight to the source. Ask the person who raised the plant you’re buying how best to nurse it to adulthood.

Of course, the fun of a farmers’ market is in the return trips.

“We probably won’t begin seeing produce until after the first of June,” Parker said.

In coming weeks you can expect to find asparagus, mushrooms, spinach, lettuce, radishes and other early produce.

As the growing season wears on, you can buy zucchini, if, that is, you don’t have eight neighbors on your block willing to give you extras out of their gardens.

And once we actually reach summer, there will be a plethora of fresh fruits and vegetables available every Saturday — which translates into good eating, especially on the weekend.

And that’s the best part of summer.