Sunday, April 20, 2008

Market Day

As if I don't get enough fresh, delicious fruits and veggies in my weekly CSA box, I also have a stellar farmer's market within walking distance of my house. Sunday is market day, so I am once again on a foodie high.

For the last couple of weeks we've been starting to get shelling peas, which are one of my favorite vegetables. I have very fond memories of buying them from roadside stands in Maine with my grandmother each summer between the ages of 10 and 14 (or so), and helping her shell them. They're delicious enough to earn Most Favored Vegetable status in the first place, but the sentimental connection make them all the more cherished. Anyway, I came home with at least a pound, and am probably halfway through them already. A couple of my fingertips have taken on a greenish tinge from snapping off the tops.

Also fresh from the market: strawberries for munching, pink lady apples for munching and for baked French toast, tomatoes for the green garlic salsa, the world's most delicious raisins (huge golden and red flame raisins), calla lilies, and some petite irises. The flowers are enjoying each other's company in a glass pitcher on my living room table--the creamy lilies go rather nicely with the purple irises. I just love having fresh flowers in the house, and have started to make them a staple of my weekly farmer's market list. (Last week I got some lovely red and yellow Ranunculus, and the Suitor was convinced that I had made up the name. Hmph!)

And as if I didn't have enough pea goodness with those shelling peas, while I was Chez Parents (dropping off some strawberries and flowers that I had gotten them at the market), Mom and I went down to the garden and picked some sugar snap peas and snow peas for me--as well as some Meyer lemons. I'm officially in pea heaven. They're going into a stir fry this evening (sliced into matchstick pieces, maybe with some chicken and asparagus) to be served over brown rice.

While Chez Parents I toured the vegetable garden, which I always enjoy. The apples have mostly finished blooming (all save one Gravenstein tree). Where there used to be blossoms there are now the tiniest of fuzzy green swellings, which will grow up to be apples. The blackberry vines are white with blossoms--there will be a bumper crop this year. The strawberries are protected from bugs by a moat of onions, and will soon have some additional protection from the deer. The white peach tree will have its fruit thinned, lest the young tree find itself unable to get it all of its fruit to a respectable size, and the apricot will get some support under its branches as June nears. To all of this there will soon be added seedlings of various sorts: peppers, tomatoes, beans, zucchini, and so on.

Most of my attention this weekend has gone toward the dreaded thesis, which is so close to completion that I'm almost ready to hop in the car and have it printed. I've made the extra plots I needed to make, and added the extra text I needed to add, and now it's in the hands of my advisor. He'll get back to me (I hope.....) this evening, I'll make any necessary changes, and then it's off to Kinko's to print. The good news is I don't need to go to Houston. The bad news is that I have to overnight the printed thesis (two copies, with a total of seven copies of the title page, all printed on special paper) to Houston and entrust it to someone else, who will run around getting the required signatures and turning things in for me. Which makes my inner control freak nervous.

Anyway, I hope everyone is having a good weekend. I am off to make the aforementioned stir-fry...

9 comments:

Bee said...

Reading this post is like dipping into the Garden of Eden . . .
until you get to the Kinko's part.

You've never mentioned Maine before! When you have a minute, please explain the Maine chapter of your life. Did you also pick blueberries there . . . and get blue fingers?

I am sending you good thoughts for the thesis's successful arrival and rounds of signing. Is this a trusted friend who is escorting the thesis?

Brave Sir Robin said...

On my! Giving something that important to someone else so run around and get signatures?

Your inner control freak might needs some serious TLC.

As for the veggies . . .

*swoon*

Wow, that sounds so wonderful!!!

I did eat a few dewberries straight of the vine yesterday, but that sounds pretty pale compared to your day.

Anne said...

First off, the thesis is printed and submitted and all is well. Hooray! Thank you for the good thoughts! It was not a trusted friend per se doing the errands, but a member of my research group who has gone through the thesis submission process himself, and is therefore familiar with what needs done. I offered cookies as thanks, but we settled on my buying the first round of drinks at a meeting this summer.

Maine: for several years my mom's parents rented a house from friends in East Boothbay, and eventually they bought a house of their own. They enjoy the retired naval officer social scene, and there is a good-sized one up there. It's also just a lovely area. I visited nearly every summer for many years, first with only Sister #1 and eventually with more family, and it was always at the time of year when blueberries were in abundance. We picked tons of them, and wound up with not only blue fingers, but blue hands, and blue lips, and so on. There were blueberry muffins, blueberry pancakes, blueberry pie... all manner of blueberry treats. Yum!

Bee said...

Anne,

I am so happy for you about the thesis. Oh that sounds WELL WORTH a round of drinks! Congrats!!

Funnily enough, we made blueberry muffins last night. I found some really big, plump berries in M & S yesterday.

Did you read "Blueberries for Sal" when you were a little girl? I love it.

Maine is on top of my wish list of places to go. (Sadly, Sigmund and I don't see eye to eye on that.)

Brave Sir Robin said...

Maine (York Beach)in the Summer is heavenly, fried clam bellies, moxie and lobster rolls!

In the winter, it is fearsome and beautiful. To stand on that rocky coast and see the ocean spray freeze before it hits the ground is a humbling experience.

Anne said...

Thanks! It is good to have it done. Yesterday and today I have been home from work, getting things done around the house that have been sliding throughout the thesis process. It feels good to have a clean(er) house.

I think I must have read "Blueberries for Sal!" It sounds familiar. Another childhood favorite that's on my mind today is "Make Way For Ducklings," as I saw some ducklings on my run this morning. Six of them, paddling around in a creek together with Mother bringing up the rear. Just darling!

Did I hear (read) correctly that you will be spending some time in New Hampshire this summer, Bee? Maine is just a short drive away!

BSR - Moxie! Yes! I remember that from my visits to Maine. My sister and I got a kick out of the name.

Bee said...

I've been cleaning house, too. Not one of my favorite ways to spend my time -- but I like the (sadly, short-lived) results.

What's moxie?

Robert McCloskey wrote both "Ducklings" and "Sal" -- did you know that? (Have you seen the little bronze ducklings in Boston's Public Gardens?) I also love his book "One Morning in Maine."

Yes, I'm in NH this summer. And maybe Vermont and/or Saratoga as well. I KNOW that MAINE is close, too, but I just won't be able to make it this time. Hopefully soon.

(Sigmund's position is, why go to Maine when it's closer to go to the south of France? It's kind of hard to argue with, right?)

Brave Sir Robin said...

Moxie is a soft drink. I love it, but most people consider it an "acquired taste"

It is only available in New England.

Anne said...

I remember Moxie tasting like a combination of Coke and Sarsaparilla. It's definitely different! But I ended up liking it quite a bit.

I didn't realize that all three of those books were by the same author! We used to read "One Morning in Maine" at least once per visit. I must have seen the bronze ducklings in the Boston Public Gardens at some point, but I can't remember--it's been years and years since my last trip to Boston. But Sister #2 will be going to college there starting this fall, so perhaps over the next few years I'll have occasion to go back.

Pity you won't be able to make it up to Maine. Another time. And I do love the south of France!