When Layne first heard about the market scheduled to held at a nearby farm, La Vigna, she shrugged and figured we would be long gone by then. As it happened we were still right here on that crisp sunny Saturday morning that was June 20th the last day of Fall.
We had no idea what to expect as the farm (“Granja” or gran-HA in Spanish), is a cheese factory with a tasting room on normal days. It’s a pretty spot and I imagine it’s quite the summer destination just 15 minutes from the River Plate beach as well:
Set up around the dining table were a bunch of stalls selling local products.
Chivito (little goat) sandwiches are the national dish in Uruguay, similar to a Key West Cuban sandwich only they normally don’t feature actual goat.
These did, with bacon ham provolone cheese tomato lettuce and egg, sometimes fried in this case boiled.
We took these to go with pastries for dessert from the lady next door:
Layne had the caramel swirl on the left while I like cooked fruit and had the apple (“manzana”) pie on the right. The tiramisu in the middle didn’t appeal for some reason. For $2:50 each we should have splurged.
Then it was a case of wandering and checking stuff out.
Cheese, and yes we got some. The red one was a mild goat cheese which I usually don’t like, covered in paprika. We also got a cheddar- like cheese streaked with red wine, the full bodied Tannat popular in Uruguay.
Mushrooms, one of my favorite foods.
Layne made a risotto with these and it was perfect.
And so forth. 
Uruguayans are shy and act a bit standoffish unlike Argentinians across the river who engage with foreigners without problem. One vendor sidled up and excused herself to ask how us Americans came to hear of this event and did we live in Uruguay. That’s a question we get asked a lot and this area only 45 minutes by car from a big expatriate center in Colonia del Sacramento. 
Oh snd don’t forget the beer. It was too early to start pulling draft counts but we took a four pack home.
A couple of Belgian lagers, a porter and a weird but interesting barley wine. Uruguay is very civilized.
