farmers' market: house of strawberries and fog
The market was all over fog this morning, so that I could hear the boy playing cello at the first corner well before I could see him. The leaves of the heirloom tomato plants I looked at (green zebra, yellow peach, brandywine) were shiny with damp. The people at the Gilbert & Sullivan Society table were joking about pea soup and exclaiming about Rigoletto.
More strawberries this week, from two different vendors - one quart of large berries, one of very small very red ones. Next week, especially if it's warm, the whole market will smell of them. Next week, too, I expect green garlic, and possibly sugar snaps as well.
Picked up a bit of white asparagus and some oyster mushrooms from the place where I usually buy fennel later in the season. Elsewhere: regular green asparagus, a nice green leaf lettuce, three lovely little kohlrabi, and a large bundle of swiss chard for the spring lamb stew with lemon-yogurt sauce that I mean to make later this week.
Speaking of lamb, I also picked up an order form from one of the farms that provides whole lambs: order in the next couple of weeks for delivery in October. Maybe this will be the year the household finally gets around to following through on the "hey, we should do that" of whole-animal ordering. In the meantime, I got a pound of pork sausage from the same vendor.
In the last quarter of the market I acquired an apple fritter, with which I managed to make my fingers and chin sticky while walking down to the fresh pasta stand: asparagus linguini, mushroom linguini, and plain egg fettucine.
We've got a feast planned for this evening: Mirrorthaw's making Alsatian chicken with a creamy Riesling-onion sauce, and I'm providing asparagus with mushroom sauce (hence the oyster mushrooms), spaetzle with shallots and sage, a salad, and strawberry-rhubarb something-or-other. I love having a good dinner to look forward to.
More strawberries this week, from two different vendors - one quart of large berries, one of very small very red ones. Next week, especially if it's warm, the whole market will smell of them. Next week, too, I expect green garlic, and possibly sugar snaps as well.
Picked up a bit of white asparagus and some oyster mushrooms from the place where I usually buy fennel later in the season. Elsewhere: regular green asparagus, a nice green leaf lettuce, three lovely little kohlrabi, and a large bundle of swiss chard for the spring lamb stew with lemon-yogurt sauce that I mean to make later this week.
Speaking of lamb, I also picked up an order form from one of the farms that provides whole lambs: order in the next couple of weeks for delivery in October. Maybe this will be the year the household finally gets around to following through on the "hey, we should do that" of whole-animal ordering. In the meantime, I got a pound of pork sausage from the same vendor.
In the last quarter of the market I acquired an apple fritter, with which I managed to make my fingers and chin sticky while walking down to the fresh pasta stand: asparagus linguini, mushroom linguini, and plain egg fettucine.
We've got a feast planned for this evening: Mirrorthaw's making Alsatian chicken with a creamy Riesling-onion sauce, and I'm providing asparagus with mushroom sauce (hence the oyster mushrooms), spaetzle with shallots and sage, a salad, and strawberry-rhubarb something-or-other. I love having a good dinner to look forward to.