There was pandemonium in the parking lot at the Farmers Market today. SUV's battled for spaces as I expertly squeezed my car between two commuter vans - take THAT SUV's!
Wandering into the market I came to a realization - it's too hot to eat! I walked around looking for something to jump out and say "EAT ME!"
The crazy cucumber you see in the picture was very appealing to me...not sure why ;) I've actually had them many times before. They're covered with prickers, but you wash them off, leave the skin on and slice it up with some dill and vinegar. Mmm, mmm, mmm. Or you can always make Hungarian Cucumber Salad. Slice it up thin and let it sit with vinegar, paprika, salt, pepper, thinly sliced onion and a spot of sour cream. Perfect on a hot summer day!
I also picked up some heirloom cherry tomatoes and a pair of those boobie squash. Gotta love the boobie squash!
As I stood in the Riverbank Farm stand I heard a woman tell her three boys if they behaved at the market they'd get a donut. As I thought to myself "She's missing the boat, ain't she?" I noticed a butterfly fluttering around the dill weed. Not the lady, actual dill weed. It was beautiful black and blue iridescent grace. I stood there for quite a while smiling, amused that the butterfly would of course choose the organic farm to peruse.
No one else noticed. Not the lady, not the boys, no one.
Are we all so blinded by life that we can't appreciate the beauty of it?
It seems so.
But I should be happy that people are at the market in the first place. Baby steps. Recognizing the link between agriculture, pollinators and the dinner table may take a while.
In the meantime, have a donut, kids.
Bang on, my peeps!
-HH
2 comments:
Farmers markets are awesome.
In case you didn't catch the deets from FB, we recently bought up in the real estate market. Our old house didn't have enough of a yard for a garden so we rode our bikes almost every Saturday the last couple of summers to our city's farmers market.
Considering that we're only an hour's drive to the CA Central Valley, one of the agricultural meccas of the world, the market is full of amazing fresh fruits and veggies, herbs, baked goods and even locally grown meat. Between the pannier bags and the kiddie trailer, we'd typically come home with 20-40 pounds of miscellaneous squash, fruits and veggies to last the week. We found and tried many new things including Opo and Japanese Eggplant which we find to have subtle flavors and really nice textures.
Since the move, we've got our own garden and we're growing a bunch of tomatoes, zucchini and other things. The soy we planted all died but the sugar snap peas were awesome (before they died also).
A few weekends ago, we discovered that there's an actual working farm less than 1/4 mile from our front door. That's close enough to bring home a 25# watermelon in the bike trailer or 24 ears of white corn in a courier bag! I did both!
That's awesome!
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