Davidson Farmers Market

If Lake Norman has a Saturday-morning ritual, this is it. The Davidson Farmers Market is producer-only — everything on the tables was grown, raised, or made by the person selling it — which makes it the prestige stop on the lake's market circuit. This is where you go for the things you actually care about getting right: the eggs, the meat, the bread, the specialty produce. In early June the strawberries are peaking and the first tomatoes aren't far behind.

The market sets up on Main Street near Town Hall, and the move is to park a block over on Jackson Street and walk in. Come a few minutes before nine and you'll catch the part that makes this market this market: nobody shops until the opening bell rings. It's a small, civilized rule that turns a grocery run into something closer to a town gathering — neighbors talking, kids underfoot, a coffee from Summit in hand while you wait.

Give yourself ninety minutes if you want to do it right — a loop of the vendors, a coffee, and a second pass for whatever sold out the first time around. Yes, it costs more than the grocery store. Tomatoes that taste like tomatoes were never a luxury; they're just food the way it's supposed to be.