PINE BUSH – Corn Day at the Pine Bush Farmers Market will be July 28, but the great summer weather we've been having has already begun sending bushels of golden corn to all our regional farm markets.

Jacquelyn Carter, of the Pine Bush market, says, "Corn day is always special. Burd's Farm will bring in their white sweet corn, and they also have another kind that's white, with some yellow kernels, too."

There's something about sweet corn from the market. Its freshness, probably, is what lifts it far above the corn in supermarkets. "That freshness thing is what brings a lot of people to the farmers market," says Carter.

Farmers markets in the region have been whipsawed by a pair of contradictory impulses. First the great recession has hit everyone's pocket book hard.

"Oh, sure," says Carter. "People are making more conscious choices. Before they might have picked up twelve heads of lettuce, now they're getting six and being more careful with them."

But, note those "conscious choices" because on the other side, people are becoming more aware of the distinctions of foods grown organically and locally. Which means that vendors such as Brookside Farm, based in Gardiner, have steady customers for their organic eggs, their grass fed organic beef and chicken, and they come to the Pine Bush market every week.

Other conscious concerns are pushing into the frame, too.

"We've got the Little Bakeshop coming in now," says Carter, "and they're bringing gluten free products, a whole range, cookies, tarts, muffins." The Little Bakeshop come all the way from Rockland County.

And while the conscious decisions are being made, there are those unconscious ones too.

"Last weekend we saw a big response for the summer fruits" says Carter. At Pine Bush that means Trappani Farms, who had their peaches, as well as raspberries, blueberries, blackberries and even gooseberries on hand this past week.

"Royal Acres brought in the first summer tomatoes, big ones, last weekend," she continued. "And I think they all went."

Tomatoes and corn, the signature foods of summer, followed by peach or blueberry cobbler... Aah, yes.

This coming weekend at Pine Bush, Mel & Vinny will be singing folk music while you shop. Trappani farms will have peaches, and Second Wind CSA will have a wide range of organic produce.

For more info call 978-0273. The Pine Bush market is held on the parking lot behind the former cultural center on Main Street.