Vendor Profile: M.H. Palmer

By: Garth Bontrager, Master Gardener

As so many gardeners find out after starting their gardens, you often get more seeds in that little packet then you can grow and eat yourself. M. H. Palmer has been growing that extra produce and setting up a stand at the Larimer County Farmers’ Market for the last 7-8 years. At M. H. Palmer’s stand you can find the fruits of a gardener’s labor of love: raspberries, gooseberries, sour cherries, peaches, pears, apples, shallots, garlic, onions, broccoli, basil, lettuce, carrots, tomatoes, fingerling potatoes… The amazing list of this home gardener’s bounty goes on and on.

The very fun aspect of Mr. Palmer’s booth is each variety of produce is selected for the flavor of the vegetable. He isn’t growing produce for uniformity, size, color formation, or shipping quality. He grows produce he likes to eat. Repeat. He grows produce he likes to eat, a lot. Produce must pass the Palmer taste test. He’s traveled all over the world, and discovered some very tasty vegetables in the process.

His French Gray Shallots are the chef’s choice. They are so unlike your usual shallot experience that Mr. Palmer includes a fact sheet with each purchase. They taste like a cross between onion and garlic, and are invaluable in real French cooking. The fingerling potatoes that Mr. Palmer speaks so fondly of were discovered in Peru. At a Peruvian market you may find 50 varieties of potatoes, and not one Russet. All the potatoes you’ll find in Peru have a distinctive flavor. So, too, do Mr. Palmer’s fingerling potatoes. He’s really bringing an international flair to the market.

Along with his international varieties of vegetables, he also brings heirloom varieties. The heirloom tomatoes he grows have fantastic flavor despite their anti-box store looks. Don’t be fooled by a vegetable’s appearance—some of the best flavored produce may look different then what you’ll find in a typical shopping situation. Mr. Palmer only sells at one market, and only brings the freshest produce that’s ready in his garden the day of the market. Ask him what he has at the next market, and you may be engaged in a conversation about world travel, gardening, and open-pollinated seed collecting. In any case, Mr. Palmer has some unique and delicious offerings at the Larimer County Farmers’ Market. Ask him about the Bolivian tuber, jacon, that he’s coaxing for a September harvest. The Larimer County Farmers’ Market is a great place to try new things!