Truth be told, I can spend a lot more than $10 at the Ann Arbor Farmer’s Market. Last weekend I spent $5 on a chocolate eupatorium (Joe Pye Weed) for my front garden, and literally picked a few peppers with the remaining change. But as I normally attend the Saturday market, I figured I owed it to myself to check out the mid-week market day compares.

I hopped a bus from work and headed down for lunch in Kerrytown, strangely comfortable in wool pants and a long-sleeved shirt. I steeled myself against the realization that summer is ending, because such a thought would cause me to buy an embarrassment of vegetables out of blind, pre-winter panic. That wouldn’t leave much room in my bag for what I had my heart set on, what I hoped was not already gone: cherries.

I do not bother buying Traverse City cherries by the pint, for the same reason I do not buy coffee in half-pounds or a half-order of crab legs: Some things are simply worth the gluttony—especially when their peak season is waning. A quart of organic dark deliciousness later, I poke around for something that would make a reasonable lunch.

I know I’m only two entries in, but I’d put money on this being the easiest of the $10 challenges. There are vegetables starting as low as $.50 each, so spending right up to the limit wasn’t a problem—and the lack of sales tax was going to make for some easy math. I could have dropped my requisite tenner in any number of combinations and gotten a great deal with any of them, which took the pressure of budgeting money off and allowed me to simply… shop.

My fridge was already full of vegetables, so no need there. I could but any artisan breads I wanted, and the choices were staring to overwhelm. I had a hike back, so I didn’t want to fill up too much, but I was starting to get a little overheated. Which is why I spotted the watermelon.

Let me say: it makes no sense, having taken a commuter bus downtown on your lunch break to find cheap eats, to buy a watermelon. You cannot slice said watermelon, nor eat it in its entirety without some serious consequences. You probably took a lot less time than I did figuring that out, because I stood staring at the bin for fifteen minutes smelling melon-y goodness before I allowed that toting a watermelon back to work would just be silly.

Now, a cantaloupe, that makes much more sense.

Thus laden, I poked around for my particular staple of any outing: coffee. I located the Roos Roast booth and set myself up with the iced variety; I could have saved a dollar with a hot brewed, but the fact that I would essentially be carrying a bowling ball seven blocks had just begun to dawn on me—I’m clumsy at the best of times, and a melon-induced third-degree burn would be hard to both explain and live down.

1 Quart cherries - $5.50 Cantaloupe - $1.50 Iced coffee - $3.00

This, aside from my knees sweating on the way back, was sheer cake. The real challenge will be a $10 budget in Kerrytown proper—especially since I can’t live without a Zingerman’s dirty sheed—but hey, I like a challenge.

Photo: Summer squash at a market table

Sarah Smallwood is a freelance writer living and working in Ann Arbor. She is currently rewriting her first novel, keeps a daily blog at The Other Shoe and hosts a podcast at Stuff with Things. She can be reached at heybeedoo at hotmail dot com.