My first visit to the downtown farmers market was met with the loud sounds of classic rock as the Southern Dirt Band entertained visitors at Saturday’s opening event. While there wasn’t a whole lot of variety early in the season, I hope to see a lot more produce in the future.

I’d always heard that local produce is better than anything you can buy in a store, but I learned this first-hand after buying a quart of strawberries at the market.

These strawberries, purchased from Patrick Holland’s booth, were sweeter, larger and redder than anything I’d ever bought at Kroger. My thoughts turned immediately toward making my first ever strawberry pie.

I’ll preface this, and all future Fresh Market Updates, by saying that I am not a cook on the level of our food columnist Alan Reed or former features editor Emily Parrino. My husband and I work a combined 115 hours a week, and we enjoy simple, fast and tasty foods using a small number of ingredients that don’t break our budget.

After browsing online, I finally hit on a recipe that used a natural, fresh glaze, not the red gelatin in a tube, powder Jello or food coloring.

I also used a ready-made graham cracker pie crust although a baked shortbread crust will work just as well. Another substitution I made, after looking at several recipes online, was using  ¾ cup ginger ale instead of water.

Fresh strawberry pie

1 quart of strawberries

1 premade crust

1 cup of sugar

¾ cup water or ginger ale

3 tbsp. cornstarch

Clean, then slice and hull all the strawberries. Put roughly 2/3 into a premade pie crust. Crush the remaining strawberries, and then put them into a saucepan with 1 cup of sugar. Mix the sugar and crushed berries together and bring the mixture to a boil at medium heat, stirring frequently.

In another bowl, whisk together the cornstarch and water or ginger ale. Gradually stir this mixture into the saucepan, stirring as you go. Reduce heat and let the mixture simmer for 10 minutes, stirring constantly. Pour the thickened mixture over the berries in the pie crust and chill for several hours before serving. Don’t forget the whipped cream!

Source: www.cooks.com

QuickInfo: This week’s items

•  Broccoli
•  Onions
•  Lettuce
•  Variety of started herbs (oregano, basil, cilantro)
•  Started tomato plants, bell peppers, gooseberries and flowering perennials
•  Variety of canned produce
•  Bravard wines
•  Bramble and Bee honey and wax products

The downtown farmers market is open 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. Wednesday and Saturday.