One of the things on my summer bucket list has been to check out the SOWA Open Market in the South End.  The market includes three main sections: a food truck market with trucks galore, a farmer’s market with tons of fresh produce and foodie items, and a vendor’s market with local folks selling their crafts, jewelry, and more.  Since it was my turn to plan a date day for Tim and I, I decided it was time for us to go.  Tim is seriously OBSESSED with food trucks so I knew he would love it.  This Sunday we hopped on the red line and headed over to the Broadway area to check it out!

On our train ride there we talked about wanting to try as many food trucks as possible.  We came up with a strategy so we wouldn’t get too full too soon.  We decided our plan of attack would be as follows:

• Get something small to start at the food trucks
• Then check out the farmer’s market
• Then go back to the food trucks for something else
• Then check out the vintage market
• Then go back to the food trucks for dessert

Totally genius, if I do say so myself.  You can’t stuff up from the get go!  Planned digestion time is the key.

Anyways, like I said, the food trucks were up first.

After browsing through all the trucks (and reading every single menu), we decided to get fish tacos from the Baja Taco Truck first.  We were definitely impressed with how fresh the pico de gallo was and happy with our first food truck choice.

After we finished our tacos, we browsed through the farmer’s market.  There were so many things to look at, from fresh produce to unique foodie items.

It was really hard not to buy everything in sight, but we did decide to stock up on some plums and nectarines for the week.  We tried a new kind of plum too, mango tango!  We also decided to buy the funky looking squash you can see in the pictures.  We learned that it’s called pattypan squash, but I decided to call it alien squash instead.  How could we NOT buy some for a fun dinner this week?

Again, it was really hard to not buy everything in sight, but we limited ourselves to two other foodie purchases.  Grilled peach and basil ravioli pasta from Valicenti Organico, and some spicy (wasn’t too spicy for me!) summer mango chutney from a company called Wozz.  Can’t wait to enjoy both of these!

After the farmer’s market, we went back to the food trucks!  For our second round, Tim opted for the caprese sandwich from The Dining Car, and I got the magical kale salad (kale with a poached egg) from the Mei Mei Street Kitchen.

Totally normal to eat our lunch on the ground, right?!

Next up were all the vendors.  We had fun strolling through, but we didn’t buy anything.

Finally, we finished our time at SOWA back at the food trucks for dessert.  Originally I wanted a huge ice cream sandwich (they have trucks now where you can pick your cookie flavor AND ice cream flavor), but I was hot and thirsty so I ended up getting lemon sorbet instead.

Tim, however, still went with his original ice cream sandwich craving from The Cookie Monstah truck.  M&M cookies with peanut butter chocolate chunk ice cream in the middle.  I swear he’s not a five-year old?

At this point, we were full and had seen everything so we headed out.  Little did I know that my friend Bridget and my friend Mary were both there at the very same time we were!  So sad.  We took the red line back to Harvard and once we realized our bus wasn’t coming for a bit, we decided that we could make room for roof deck drinks.

A mojito for Tim, and red sangria for me!  We enjoyed these on the roof deck of Daedalus, a hidden gem in Harvard Square.

It was a perfect Sunday!  SOWA is open every Sunday from 10-4 starting in May and ending in October, which means you can still get a trip in this fall!  I just might even go again.

Local readers, have you ever been to SOWA before?  Anyone else have something like this where you live?

Happy Friday, friends!