Oh my, what a
fantastic weekend. This is the first normal weekend I've had in a while -- no traveling, no visitors (as much fun as that is!), no stupid fruit cleanse (I do promise to follow up on that, by the way)... Life is good, and this weekend I'm sinking into pleasure with all the beautiful produce that's being harvested around Texas.
This morning I took a trip to the farmer's market, and with this weather (abnormally cold for a Texas April at 60-or-so degrees), the place was packed. I had only been once before, in January, and was excited to see the different produce that would be available now that we're deep into spring. This is embarrassing to admit, but since I've always gotten my food from the grocery store, I've never really known what's in season when. I mean, I
generally know that butternut squash is a winter item, and that strawberries get cheaper in the summer, but what about everything else? No clue. Giant grocery stores, like the ones we have in Texas, transport their produce in from all over the world, all year round, so
everything is available (albeit not necessarily at high quality) all the time. And that's led me to some serious ignorance when it comes to what is, you know, thousands of years worth of basic human food knowledge. An ignorance I'm really trying to correct with trips like these.
So anyway. I got some great stuff, and I even shelled out for some ridiculously delicious micro-arugula that I was able to buy from the same guy (farmer?) in January. At $10 a container it's pretty pricey, but
ohmygod, I've been dreaming about it since I ate it at the start of the year. The greens are so packed with flavor, they don't require any dressing up: I'm just going to eat them with a little olive oil and sea salt.
Wound up spending $38 as follows: micro-arugula ($10), strawberries ($4), mixed greens ($6), Texas olive oil ($15), beets ($3), freshly-roasted coffee beans (free sample). While this stuff is a lot more expensive than what I'd find at a grocery store, I don't mind paying to buy such
real food that traveled such a short chain to get to me. Mmmmm!
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| Roasting coffee beans. If you look closely on the table you can see the differences between a dark, medium, and light roasts. |
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| Carrot overflow |
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| Much more leafy and beautiful celery than I bought last week at Kroger :( |
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| More carrots and Texas wildflowers |
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| These are going to be part of a strawberry crumble for dessert tonight. |
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