Farmer’s Market Week 3

Apricot Pie bought at the Casa de Fruta stand at today’s Farmers Market.

We had this for dessert, with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.  I’m somewhat of a purist when it comes to pie – rarely satisfied with a commercial crust.  But this one is a winner!  The apricots were perfect, not too sweet, and the crust was tender and flaky.  No hint of store-bought with this one.  Still warm from the oven and only $10.  They also had apple, cherry and peach but, in this family, apricot wins every time.

This was my haul last week.  The strawberries really were bigger than the apricots; the purple veggie on the right is kohlrabi.  It looks a bit like a space ship when it’s standing up but is really quite good.  We had one of them raw with ranch dip on Memorial Day.  I will probably cook the other 2 tomorrow for dinner, maybe steamed with a little butter.  The sugar snap peas were delicious and the asparagus, which is grown here in our county, was much fresher than we get in the supermarket.  The raisins are from the Central Valley and are yummy.  We first bought these year before last but they didn’t bring any to last year’s markets.  Being used to packaged supermarket raisins, these were a real eye-opener for us.

The bottle in front is lotion made from goat’s milk.  I haven’t tried it yet (except for the tester at the market). I was surprised to find out that the owner of this business is a well-known local quilter. 

 

One of the vendors sells orchids.  He has a really wonderful selection at very reasonable prices.  This one was only $8.

 

 

 

 

 

I have a checkered history with orchids.  The Husband often would buy me one for Mother’s Day/my birthday from one of the sellers who appear in local parking lots around holidays.  And every year, it would last about two weeks and it was all over.  Finally one year I managed to keep it going all through the bloom and into the next bloom, until the grandchildren, horsing around near the plant, knocked it over.  I tried repotting it but no luck.  Another orchid bit the dust.  But the man is very persistent and, the following year, here comes another orchid.  Actually, 4 orchids in a basket.  That was in 2007 and one of them is blooming for the third time, with smaller flowers and healthy-looking leaves.  One died (I’m not sure why) and the other two bloomed the second year but now are just hanging on.  Their leaves look pretty good but no blooms.  I think I will try repotting them and giving them some fertilizer. 

Today we bought more asparagus (the season will probably only last another week or two), more sugar snap peas, a basket of strawberries, some stone fruit (peaches and apricots) and a cauliflower.  Also a bottle of olive oil made from olives grown in the grove in front of San Juan Oaks golf course.  We’ll have to do a taste test to see if it’s better than what I buy at Costco.