I just love the fall time in Utah. Temperatures cool down to below 100 degrees, Farmer’s markets are in full swing and the leaves start to turn.
Football- Go Utes!
Now my husband loves to watch college football and our team is of course The Utah Utes. Go Utes! My mother in law always buys season tickets, so we get to go to a few games a season.
My favorite treat is a soft pretzel with warm cheese dipping sauce, or popcorn with a hot coffee. Utah has some loud and energetic fans and tailgaiting before the game is always fun. I like to make ham and cheese sliders to bring. They are easy, fast and don’t require a ton of ingredients.
In case you haven’t been to any sporting events recently, you’ll need to bring a clear bag with you or carry everything in your pockets. You don’t have to spend a lot of money on one either, this one from Walmart comes in several different colors and is less than $15.
Farmer’s Markets
Utah has some really cool, fun and spirited farmer’s markets, throughout every season. You can search for markets here. This site is the Farmer’s market network and you can search by location and season.
I love the Wheeler’s Farm market that starts in the late summer and goes through fall time. Wheeler’s farm is also a fun place to walk around with your kiddos. There are animals to see, a creek, and playgrounds. They host weddings, and activites throughout the year.
I personally go for the farm fresh produce, locally baked breads, and other food products. They usually have several food trucks and shaved ice stands around for refreshments. There of course are booths with local arts and crafts. This farmer’s market is dog friendly and they even have large ice blocks with tennis balls frozen into them for your dogs to cool off and lick on.
My personal favorite bread stand is Volker’s, which is an Austrian bread company that makes the best, soft, GIANT loaves of bread. They also have several bottled dipping sauces that are so yummy. My favorite is the olive and cheese loaf, but they also have wheat, white, asiago and sweet breads as well.
I always plant a garden in my back yard, so I didn’t need any tomatoes at the market this time, because I have them coming out my ears at the moment. I did grab some freshly grown local mushrooms, raspberries, frozen locally made sausage, rainbow carrots and garlic. ( the tomatoes and peppers are from my garden..below)
The downtown farmer’s market is HUGE, and attracts tons of people, vendors and dogs. We don’t go to this one very often, just because parking downtown can be difficult and expensive. However if you want the most variety and plan to go early and make a whole morning of it, this is probably the best farmer’s market in the Salt Lake City area.
If you live further south of the downtown area, Sandy City has a fun farmer’s market at the local outdoor concert amphitheater. There is a splash pad and playground here for the kids and it’s a bit less busy than the Wheeler’s farm or Downtown markets.
If you live in central or southern Utah check out the website above for markets in your area. If you are visiting the Capitol Reef National Park, there is a super cute farmer’s market in the Capitol Reef area.
Foliage
Utah has no shortage of great hikes and drives to see fall leaves turning colors. In Northern Utah the Midway/Heber area is a fun place to drive around and see fall leaf colors changing, as well as spend the day exploring. Midway is a cute little town past Park City that has Scandanavian influences in the buildings, and hosts the annual Swiss days fair in the summertime.
My husband, brother in law and father in law go hunting each fall, and I usually drive up on the weekend to camp with them. This year we are doing the muzzleloader hunt but usually we do the archery hunt.
I like to cook cozy fall meals for dinner for the boys after their day of hiking and hunting. I have made dutch oven lasagna with a white sauce, dutch oven chicken pot pie, homemade salsa (with tomatoes and peppers from our garden..I even got a lime off my lime tree this year. The lime lives indoors in the winter). Roasted green hatch chile pork enchiladas. Our local Utah owned grocery store Harmons, does an annual chile roast in the late summer, and we pick up a batch to freeze and use every year. Yum!
This year we went hunting near Ephraim, Utah. This is about a 2 hour drive south from Salt Lake City. My sister in law and I stay back at camp with the doggo’s and cook breakfast and dinner for the boys. Lunch is usually just on your own or snacking.
This year I cooked chicken and biscuits, chili and homemade spaghetti with homemade spaghetti sauce with tomatoes from the garden, farmer’s market mushrooms, and sausage.
We sit around camp and read and talk, catching up with each other. I will tell you it is one of my favorite things to sit at camp in my rocking chair, cuddled up with a flannel shirt and maybe a blanket and reading a book. I find that so often we don’t have the time to read for fun. We also don’t get much time to be disconnected from technology. It’s best to find a camp without cell service so you aren’t tempted to stare at your phone all day.
Thanks for reading! See my other posts on camping in Utah, or eating in Salt Lake City
_Beck
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