Farmer's Market Appreciation Week

I found out from Chiot's Run Blog (a very fine blog, indeed) that it's Farmer's Market appreciation week this week. Go out and support your local farmer's market or farm stand this week!

I stopped in at mine after a few weeks off and WOW have things exploded! I also learned a bit, like that some varieties of Macintosh apples are ready for picking in late July. According to the farmer, they are more tart and crisp than a typical Mac (which tend to get a big mooshy but are sweet). This sounds similar to a cortland.

I also picked-up some fingerling and black/purple potatoes for roasting. I've always wanted to try them but never wanted to pay supermarket prices for them. Can't wait to get them roasted-up. Mmmmm...

Here's a photo of the haul:


You see: A Sicilian loaf, Fingerling and Black Potatoes, A pale green squash (lighter in color and similar in taste to zucchini), Carrots, Tomatoes, Peaches, Patipans (round, yellow and green squash similar to summer squash and zucchini), and small eggplant. The herbs behind are from my garden.

I should also mention the recent successes from my container garden. On Thursday, I harvested a bunch of herbs that were oveflowing the boxes and my first ever tomato. I plant tomatoes nearly every season and never really get any fruit due to limited sun on the balcony. This year is different for some reason and I actually got a small fruit a little bigger than a golf ball. There are over 12 more green ones on the bush and it's still flowering daily. How awesome?

Here's a photo of the harvest from my garden:

Flat-leaf parsley on the left, thyme on the right, my tiny tomato and a tiny cubinelle pepper that seems to want to be a bell pepper from the coloring and thick walls. :-)