And, it is little! Especially considering the size of Houston. Our new little town is only about 13,000 permanent residents. That number swells to 25,000 when the students get here. Which is in a couple of weeks. Making this a perfect time for us to settle in. JR is slipping into the small town life like a duck to water.
This is our second Saturday here, so of course, we didn't finish unpacking boxes, personalizing my office or cleaning house. No Siree! We walked to the farmer's market.
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| peaches and pears |
The farmer's market is 1/2 mile from our house making it a very pleasant walk. The weather was perfect; sunny and about 55 degrees. We wore coats. The locals wore shorts and t-shirts. We stood out. We're okay with that.
The new county that we live in is a big agricultural center of Washington State. So all the fruits, vegetables and eggs that we purchased were grown organically within about 10 mile radius of the market. It also is one of the best wine regions in the state and dare I say country. Oh yes, I dare!
The farmer's market also has soaps, honey, yarn, art and baked goods. I fell in love with the hand spun yarn. Of course, I can't knit or crochet or hand other handi-craft that uses yarn but I really wanted some of these. I'm thinking next week I'll need to pick some up for an art project, just because.
I have dinner plans for everything I bought already in my head but you would expect nothing less, now would you. Here's how most of it will line up:
Peaches:
I plan to grill the peaches and serve with a caramel sauce and vanilla ice cream. Probably tomorrow night since the Oldest Boy will be coming by to pick up his dog.
Pears: these will be sliced up on some of the lettuce with hazelnuts, blue cheese and a vinaigrette. I'm looking forward to that tonight.
Eggplant: This has eggplant Parmesan written all over it.
Carrots: salads and I may make glazed carrots as a side dish.
Corn: no brainer! Grilled tomorrow with the leftovers becoming spicy corn pudding with the jalapenos.
Raspberries: these will probably be eaten as snacks, tossed on salad or maybe cooked down to make a syrup.
Patty Pan Squash: These will be stuffed and baked. OMG! I can't wait for that night.
There you have it. I'll be posting much more frequently now that we have got the house in a place where we don't feel under the gun to unpack and where we can find the silverware. Finding the silverware seemed to defy us for a few days.
I truly wish our farmers market looked that good. the farmers have to travel a bit farther to get to our markets so our prices are a bit higher.
ReplyDeleteAlthough, we grew enough tomatoes and jalapenos to put together a decent salsa last night.
We will have to get use to a farmers market that closes in October but the consolation to that is all the vendors are local and organic.
DeleteI'm afraid that this is why I'll probably never move back to Texas - I'd simply miss our food basin WAY too much. Which means I will probably never end my campaign to get my kids to move up here.
ReplyDeleteYour menu looks awesome. I'm stuffing squash this week too, since we got some beautiful, but tiny, acorn squash from the CSA.
Jan, I eyed the acorn squash at the farmers market but decided against it this week. I may regret that decision. The nights have only gotten into the 50s so there is still plenty of time for squash.
DeleteWell, if you wore your coats over your shorts, then yeah, you would stand out. Did i mention that bacon, and more bacon, is to be preferred above all other stuffings for patty pan squash?
ReplyDelete