Monday, June 2, 2014

Farmer's Market is one of my ways to savor the summer

Most of the posts I wrote when I couldn't really post are no longer relevant.  

Unfortunately, I am not particularly creative when in "business mode." Not even urgent mode. There are naps.

Today the deck is getting refinished (a misnomer; it never has been treated before) and it's going to be beautiful when finished. The young man doing it is not the fastest I have ever seen. But I was astonished at the difference the power washing made. All the wood is the same color, all the white dimples from the hail are just gone.

The new roof looks great. I compliment my choice of shingle. New gutters and a panel of siding still to come. And honestly?

The roof is what took the beating. The rest simply keeps the value of my home in place. Maybe better. I have two panels of wood siding on the fence to replace this summer due to aging, not weather (I  have about half the fence replaced now. Eventually all will be.)  The spiffiness just makes the spotty paint on the shutters look worse.  Weeds need pulling. Front porch needs sweeping.  Need to wash the glass in the storm doors and...I would like to powerwash the dust off the siding, too.

I guess housekeeping, inside or out, means seeing more to do as you go along.

Inside is going slower, but it is going.  June temps already will hit upper 90s this week, so I have limited time before early mornings will be my times to work outdoors.  We had such a lot of really cold weather this year, and it lasted so long, that we have had little temperate in between. 

The farmer's market got started early this year , with lettuces and spinach selling briskly in May. Neither can stand Texas summers, but we will be getting into the summer vegetables and some fruits--a late, hard freeze messed with our peach crop again.

This summer,  I will be eating a lot of local, which means  zucchini and summer squash, cabbage, tomatoes, beans (when did we quit growing Kentucky Wonders and why?  In the canned foods, they are called Italian Beans and are twice the cost.  I like Kentucky Wonders.)  Tomatoes, cucumbers And , radishes, carrots. Beets.Blackberries, strawberries, some peaches, and  much loved nectarines. Cantalopes, and at the farmer's market, Jerusalem melons, much like cantaloupe but with more flavor.
From south Texas or Mexico, we get a round tennis-ball sized squash called calabesa squash, which is saying squash squash. It is firm and flavorful and great in Mexican dishes and casseroles.

As I do every summer, I am rediscovering  the wonderful combination of  a nectarine with a length  of string cheese,  and how good cottage cheese is with chopped green onions and quartered  garden-ripe tomatoes. And don't forget ice-chilled  sliced cucumbers with thin slices of vedalia or 1040 onions in icecold salt water with  apple cider vinegar and a tablespoon of sugar.  And perfectly sweet, firm cantaloupe eaten slice by slice till it's all gone.

I've got a pot of spearmint growing and have my eye out for a good jar to make sun tea.  Forty years ago, maybe 30, my eldest gave me a wonderful jar with a solar cell in the lid that would turn a spoon in the tea. I't lasted for years and then broke. I've never seen another one like it, and I want one.

Daughter-in-law cut up a watermelon and sent over a big bowlful of chunks which I almost have finished in two days. I can't eat even one of the small ones and I'm darned if I'll spend $4 to have the store cut it up for me. This was a real treat,

I've bought locally in season as much as possible all of my life. It's kind of fun being on the trendy edge of something for a change.

I love new potatoes when they really are new, apples the same in the fall, with more broccoli, spinach and cabbage coming in fall gardens.

Time goes so quickly now that  these are delightful reminders of the best parts of each season.

I plan to savor the season.  And eat a lot of the savory.

No comments: