Friday, May 18, 2012

I'm just waiting 'til the shine wears off

So one downside of working is that I'm not able to hit the opening of my favorite farmers' market at 4 p.m. like I used to do in the good ol' stay-at-home-mommy days.  I have to wait until after 5 like the rest of the world, which is fine, I guess, except I'm always too late for the good stuff.  Like strawberries.  And eggs.

There's this kid (who is actually a kid, like in high school now I think) who's been selling stuff at the market for years.  He's a smart one and diversified his little holding to include eggs.  I like supporting this guy because, well, for one thing I went to school with his parents (and his mother was one of my best friends in fourth grade), but also because I admire his entrepreneurial spirit.  The very first farmers' market I got a carton of his eggs.  That was apparently a fluke because he's been sold out every other market since then, and no one else seems to share his vision.

Very disappointing.  Supermarket eggs just don't taste the same.

But I have been able to get some pretty kick-ass produce.  Like lettuce mixes and spinach (our lettuce and spinach is so close, and yet, so far.  See?  Here's a picture:)

Keep growing, little babies!

Braising mixes.  Purple broccoli.  English cucumbers and tomatoes.  Every time I hit that particular stall I can't even believe I'm seeing cucumbers and tomatoes in May.  It blows my mind.  Which, admittedly, does not take much.

Green onions.  Parsley.  I've yet to find leeks or cilantro, but I still hold on to hope.

Pastured ground beef.  Colin the ethically raised organic free range chicken.  (Actually both are still in my freezer from previous market days because I haven't had time to figure out what to do with them / thaw them out.)  Fresh blue cheese that is so amazing I can almost not stand it.  Ciabatta rolls. My goal this morning is to figure out how to work all of this into tonight's dinner.

Blue cheese stuffed pastured burgers with tomato and lettuce?  Maybe.  That has some promise, actually.

Johanna had a baseball game last night, but I decided to go to the farmers' market and THEN go to her game, so I got there in the third inning (and they only have three innings) just in time to see her bat.  Well, at least her father and grandparents were there... right?  I'm not THAT terrible of a mother... am I?

Oops.  I just remembered I'm supposed to be pounding out my little community column about now.  Technically I should be SENDING it about now, except that's hard when you haven't even written it yet.

Coldplay, Lost.  Just because I'm losing doesn't mean I'm lost.  Probably.  Actually it's a toss up at this point.

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