Farm Market Fresh

Summertime in a Basket

You can keep your chlorinated pools, air-conditioned resorts and jammed amusement parks.

For our money, the best place to spend a few hours in the summertime is at one of Northeast Ohio’s farmers markets.

Summer’s slog through our humid, hot weeks is almost perfectly measured through the colorful fruits and vegetables that show up in vendor booths each week.

The season starts with crisp greens, fresh flowers and strawberries in June, then moves to squash, raspberries and blueberries in July. August’s bounty comes in quick succession: tomatoes in odd and expected colors, zucchini, sweet corn, melons. Did I mention zucchini?

By September, we’re a bit jaded by summer’s plenty. That’s why it’s a perfect time for the season’s heavy hitters: fragrant, sweet grapes, bushels of apples and the look-at-me pumpkins and gourds with their crazy shapes and colors.

Careful observers, mindful of the season’s rainfall and temperatures, can guess within a week or so how far into summer we’ve gone and how close to autumn’s chill we’re getting.

If you’re not a seasoned farmers market shopper, we’ve got a few hints to get you started. An old hand? Consider checking out a different market or two in another community.

Despite its sprawling suburbs, network of highways and big time sports teams, Northeast Ohio remains, at its heart, farm country. Why not eat like it?

Your Guide for a Fruitful Farmers Market Visit

By Breanna Mona

Do you just squeeze the produce and hope for the best?

Wait, can you even touch the items at all? How do you know you’re picking the best? Is the professional shopper in the straw hat and yoga pants rushing you along?

Take a breather and take in these tips straight from the horse’s mouth — or should we say farmer’s?

Dance! Books! Storytellers!

It’s the AHA! Festival

Head to the Cleveland State University/Playhouse Square neighborhood June 7, 8 and 9 for an exclamation-worthy time at AHA! Arts and Humanities Alive!

Words, music, theater, dance and art all come together in Ohio’s first-ever festival of its kind. Storytellers (in person), famous authors (such as historian Jon Meacham), dancers and an astronomer are just a few of the folks who will entertain and inspire with fun and thought-provoking presentations.

A day-long outdoor Book Fair along Euclid Avenue from 14th to 17th streets kicks off the festival. Most events are free; others have nominal fees. The event is presented by Cleveland State University.

For a schedule of events and performers, and to register for specific activities, visit ahacsu.com.

Getaway

Hocking Hills

Find Romance, an Adrenaline Buzz or a Family Connection

Andrea Coats and Chad Gordon made their first trip to Hocking Hills the year they met. Both divorced with teenaged children, they needed a romantic escape to focus on each other. A few days in the woods worked — the Medina couple has been together five years.

From time to time, the two return to Hocking Hills in the southeast part of the state, and plan to return again this summer to enjoy the romance of the picturesque region.

“We get a cabin by ourselves with a hot tub and grill. We grill steaks, sit in the hot tub and watch the hummingbirds around us,” Coats says. “It has beautiful woodland scenery, which makes it romantic. It’s a holding-hands, walking-around, being-alone kind of place. That’s my idea of romance. I like to be alone together.”

Gordon says, “We like it as a couple because the seclusion allows us to give full attention to each other. With immersion into nature and escape from urban, suburban and digital routines, it sounds cliché, but it’s like going back in time.”

Choose Your Own Adventure

Coats and Gordon found — and have nurtured — their romance in Hocking Hills. But there are plenty of other things to discover just a short car ride from Northeast Ohio.

With only two hotels in the area — a Holiday Inn Express and a Baymont — most of the accommodations are cabins and lodges. These are convenient for anything from couples’ getaways to family gatherings. While most options include hot tubs, some larger properties offer in-ground pools for swimming or ponds for fishing.

When visitors venture into public, it’s usually to one of the six separate areas that make up the 2,356 acres of Hocking Hills State Park.

Arts

Concert & Festival Season

No Excuse to Stay Home

By Breanna Mona

Summer may just be getting started, but it’s already sizzling with these red hot shows and festivals.

Whether you prefer your outings big or small, your seasonal calendar just got a bit fuller. Check out these sensational headliners and something-for-everyone festivals — and good luck picking just one.

Star-Studded Lineup

Quicken Loans Arena is hosting a couple of major milestone performances this season. First up, Rock & Roll Hall of Famer Neil Diamond celebrates the big 5-0 with his 50th anniversary 2017 world tour May 30. Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers are on what may be their final tour, celebrating 40 years. Petty recently confessed to Rolling Stone Magazine, “I’d be lying if I didn’t say I was thinking this might be the last big one. We’re all on the backside of our 60s. I have a granddaughter now I’d like to see as much as I can. I don’t want to spend my life on the road.” They’re coming June 10.

Other concerts: It’s always hip to be square with Huey Lewis & The News. Check out their Hard Rock Rocksino performance June 10. Paul Simon’s 2017 tour proceeds will benefit the Half-Earth Project, an initiative of the E.O. Wilson Biodiversity Foundation. Be a part of the effort June 13 at Jacobs Pavilion at Nautica.

Billy Joel knows how to fill a stadium, after breaking records with over 33 consecutive shows at Madison Square Garden. Perhaps the most anticipated show of the summer, Joel is up to bat at Progressive Field on July 14. Rod Stewart & Cyndi Lauper will make quite a pair at Blossom Music Center on July 28, right before James Taylor & Bonnie Raitt hit the same stage Aug.

River Day