All the farmer’s markets have free recipes, but the catch to improvising a meal is cooking a lot. You have build up your repetoire of recipes and some basic techniques by cooking and cooking some more. Learn to cook by watching Alton Brown and get a copy of the Joy of Cooking. Make what appeals to you and read up on food science and ingredients. (I rediscovered cornstarch this year and it’s great for dessert making. Choco pudding! Fruit sauces!)
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As far as the discussion about farmer’s subsidies go, most of the subsidies given out by the Ag Dept are to large corporate farms designed to prop up the prices of feed lot corn (for meat animals), cotton, and wheat (Nifty 2004 chart here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agricultural_subsidy#United_States). I don’t think EBT/WIC is a subsidy to farmers as much as it is for people who are down on their luck and want to eat some veggies. Looking at the subsidy list, it’s more like a junk food eater’s paradise of chips fried in oil coated with sugar, honey and peanuts or cheese powder. Take your pick.

DCPublius, WIC food stamps are food stamps for the kids unlucky enough to be born to parents too dumb to get good jobs. WIC is not for the parents necessarily, it’s for the minor children:
http://www.fns.usda.gov/wic/

If you think that the kids under 5 should be penalized for their parents’ bad, but not illegal, behavior then let me know.

I appreciate the years my parents refused to bail me out of a financial hole, but I had a job paying 3x the poverty rate. What I needed to do was stop buying lunch at work- it doesn’t benefit our society when people who are on the verge of becoming homeless, suddenly are and then break laws to keep above water.

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Regarding the dropsy comment, that was a joke. The character was named Topsy. While not out and out racist, the reaction to the character in the early 20th century was.

People should not be receiving subsidies to increase the quality of their lifestyle. If anything, they should be penalized so that they have an incentive to get off food stamps and out of free housing. If I had it my way, food stamps would only be allowed on a very select core of healthy, cheap, and store brand foods like plain oatmeal, canned tuna, milk, etc. If they want more in life, they can get off their behinds and work for it, like everybody else.

I agree that you have to work really hard to find bargains though. Eastern Market is definitely more expensive than Safeway and Harris Teeter, but I know the vendors and it also doesn’t allow me to throw any random processed crap into my cart. (I eat fresh food like 90% of the time, but I’m not ashamed to admit a fondness for processed crap. Blue jello? neat-o!) The only random thing I leave EM w/ is an extra pork chop or something, rather than something processed and weird that I thought looked “fun.”

But, when I go to my dad’s place up in PA, I go to the farm store and it’s crazy cheap. Last time I was there was tomato season, and with his senior citizen discount, I paid $16 for a huge box of tomatoes, and then another box filled with all kinds of fresh vegetables that they’d picked that morning.

I think the issue in DC is that most – not all – but most farmer’s markets DO cater to the yuppie/hippie/Whole Foods crowd. There’s a difference between a regular old farmer’s market and the Freshfarm markets that are so abundant here (H St, Dupont, Penn Quarter, White House etc) that concentrate on organic fancy schmancy stuff. You can get good cheap produce and meats at the Florida Ave. market, that’re fresher than the grocery store, but wouldn’t meet the standards of the Fresh Farm folks – but that’s just regular food, not the local/organic/grassfed/etc stuff. Same with most of the stuff at Eastern Market -the stuff that’s just from regular farms can be a good deal.

I agree with what most people are saying here–I’ve tried a bunch of markets around the city, and if I shop carefully the produce isn’t more expensive than grocery stores. I don’t really save any money, though. And it’s inconvenient to shop there and then go to a supermarket for dry goods. Plus, I’m ok with eating the same produce over and over (tomatoes in August, squash now). I imagine that other people, both rich and poor, might be less willing to deal with these things.

I have definitely found cheaper items at the markets (MtP is the one I usually hit) than Giant and Safeway. Bestway is cheaper for certain things, but that’s about it. I base this observation purely on stores that are accessible to those who do the vast majority of their shopping in Green Line country without the aid of a car.