Fields Of Flowers

In a perfect moment of overlapping needs, my friends needed a hand with their little boy and their shop and I had free time and a need for finances! Don't you just love it when that happens?

Anyway, it was a gorgeous, gorgeous day here today. The sky was a blue bowl, the air was cooler and less humid and the sun was bright. My friend, Zeb, came to pick me up and we took a short drive through the countryside to a farm. There we did a little shopping and picked strawberries and flowers.

The strawberries are the very last of the season, but so delicious. We ate more than a few while we picked. The strawberries were hot from the sun and so sweet they tasted like jam rather than just the berries.

The flowers were beautiful with vivid colors and the rows seemed to stretch endlessly towards the horizon . There were several that I did not know the name of as well as; Bachelor's Buttons, Snapdragons, a few early Zinnias - and I could see buds on many plants- more flowers to come!

The bees were busy, buzzing around from flower to flower. Given the horrible colony collapse problems, I'm always glad to see one of these guys doing their job. In this case there were lots of bees around, all intent on their jobs and not in the least interested in the humans wandering the fields.

I also spotted a few ladybugs climbing around the flowers. They were mostly quite shy and not excited to get their pictures taken. Figures, you know girls.

After we gathered up all our goodies Zeb and I headed back to his house. His wife, Zippy, was entirely happy to hand over her munchkin, Zo. He is just a year and a total handful. He has the temper of a Irish redhead! He can be quite the temperamental handful, but today he was an angel. We played and laughed all afternoon (no more ticklish baby ever existed). When he fought his nap and was cranky-pants I popped him in the stroller and went for a nice long, shady walk.

I finished the day off with a totally local dinner! I had an omlette (sort of- I'm not so swift with the omlette) made of local eggs, local asparagus, local dill, local goat cheese and local hothouse tomatoes! So delicious!

Farmer's Market

In the early foggy cool of Saturday morning I strolled downtown to the little farmer's market. Amazingly, I have lived here for a year and never been - shocking!

There were only about 18 stalls, so it isn't huge by any means, but it was pretty. There were far more plants for sale than anything else. Little starter vegetables for your garden like summer squash, tomatoes, lettuces and broccoli, flowers like impatiens, marigolds (good for fending off bugs), lilies and irises are ready for gardens with houseplants in the mix as well.

There were two stalls with local and organic meats. I didn't get anything this time, but it's good to know for the future. There was also a very tempting goat cheese stand, and I will definitely be visiting that later. Mmmmm.

It is very, very early in the growing season here so there were limited options compared to what I imagine the market will look like next month or in August. Asparagus is one of the largest local crops and it is just past peak season so I got a nice bunch of asparagus. There were only two little scrawny quarts of strawberries and they were hotly fought over by several purchasers. So, I left those for another week or two. Soon the pick-your-own places will be open!

I did, however get a bunch of rhubarb. I love rhubarb, it's a favorite of mine for sure. Rhubarb pie, rhubarb fool, rhubarb compote, oh yes. I wish there had been more strawberries, but I have some frozen and a few canned peaches. Not ideal, but whatever.

I found a bargain in a bag of spinach for $1 and head of bibb lettuce for $2. Then I grabbed a bunch of pretty red radishes to use in my salad. There were onions and chives, but I didn't need them and they were a bit pricey honestly. The luncheon salad I made from these was lovely.














I think that there were bargains to be had and certainly the produce is farm fresh, beautiful and tasty. Some of it was pricier than I expected, but it is a luxury to just walk over and pick out the things that I want. I look forward to going back as the summer moves on and more produce is available.

When I get my car back (cross fingers, the mechanic is back from vacation tomorrow!) I can pick up my cooperative farm share and stop by the more bargain-priced roadside stands.

Eating Local

There used to be a blog called Pocket Farm. I adored it. Sadly, the writer decided to close up shop for now (wipes away tear), but I really enjoyed reading her blog about a two city folks taking over a small farm in Maine and starting a new life. She began to eat local and home grown foods and made at least one meal a week from totally local ingredients. Such a good idea could not stay quiet for long!

Last summer as I started to read a wider and wider circle of blogs I began to see more and more mentions of One Local Summer, the 100-Mile Diet, locavores, and a bunch of other terms and I got curious. Turns out that all of these people were trying to find ways to eat more locally grown or raised food rather than mindlessly shop at their local big mart grocery store.

I checked out websites and read blogs and drooled over delicious dishes of beautiful food. The reasons to try and invest in buying local were manifold and included:

1. You support local farmers, bakers, dairies, butchers and more.
2. The less your food travels the more fresh it is.
3. Food is picked at the right time rather than early and shipped or forced out of season.
4. The less your food travels to your table the fewer gallons of gas it takes to ship it, saving the environment along the way.
5. You learn what really is in season when it keeps you in touch with the local turning of the seasons.
6. You meet people!
7. Excuses to seek out fun new places to shop!

So in the heat of last summer I dabbled but made no commitment to try and accomplish One Local Summer*. But that's all changing! I spent a little time researching over the winter and though I don't have enough information I'm diving in anyway. Over the winter I joined a cooperative farm and my first share is available tomorrow. I am so excited I can barely contain myself.
I am going to try and check out the local farmer's market on Saturday. I've never made it, even though it is about three blocks away - pathetic. But this weekend, in the coming heat I am going to do my best to go and see what goodies I can find.

One-Local-Summer-100-Mile-Diet-Locavore lifestyle here I come!

*Technically OLS is closed because they have all the participants they can handle. But I'm doing it anyway all on my own...