fresh

Guess who got a ride to a Farmers Market last week! So happy.

I'm lucky in that I can get most of my groceries delivered from WalMart, but one thing I really miss is a steady source of fresh, seasonal, often local, produce.

I signed up for Misfits Market deliveries back when they were first getting started, I think in 2020. I liked a lot of things about the concept, ordered produce and other groceries regularly, and despite not-infrequent quality issues, stuck with them as they grew and experimented with features. I enjoyed the challenge of the delivery day food-prep extravaganza, necessary when a person with a tiny fridge is faced with a whole carton of produce. And I ordered other groceries, like the only commercially produced naan that I really like and have never found anywhere else. When another blogger posted positive reviews of Misfits and celebrated that delivery was getting cheaper, I thought, great, they are rolling this out and soon the reduced cost will reach me here in the hinterlands! Instead, I was suddenly hit with increased charges for delivery. So...some customers were being charged more to subsidize the free or cheaper services now offered to others? This seemed so counter to the ethos of the company that I stopped ordering from them and wrote to the company president to express my disappointment. He asked me to contact someone else in the company for assistance. Why? Was I going to get a Squeaky Wheel reward of special treatment that other customers would then have to subsidize? Not a solution I wished to participate in. The whole thing left a very bad taste in my mouth.

I later looked at a couple of alternative delivery and CSA plans, but nothing really fit my one-person needs. So I shifted to simply having more frozen and canned vegetables and fruit delivered from WalMart, which has worked out very well. And stocking up when I have the chance to visit an Aldi or other market in person. And of course trading between gardeners when possible. Because there is nothing like fresh.

So getting to a farmers market last Thursday was quite a treat, and I'm just finishing the last of the Silver Queen corn and the strawberries, working my way through the nectarines and apples, and getting ready to tackle the cabbage and cantaloupe. This is more fresh produce than I've had in the house at one time in ages, which is what made me think about Misfits.

And now it's raining again, so I will postpone cleaning a barn and carting the bedding out to one of the garden areas. That's a job for a cool but not rainy day. Maybe I'll bake something instead. With apples. Or nectarines.

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drawing more august

 I am beyond frustrated trying to photograph drawings with my phone. This is the best I can do, and I apologize for the result but I don't want to let more days go by without a post, so here we go.

I am also trying to post this from a phone, so there's another reason why it may look odd. If it posts at all. Fingers crossed.

sandwich of summer

In the past week or so we have had two long and welcome rainstorms and are now back in a series of extremely humid and uncomfortable days. Mostly in the 80s F, but even when it's not terribly hot - like at 6 AM today when I stepped outside to quickly transplant anise hyssop - it's unpleasantly humid. By 8, it's difficult to breathe without sweating. Today feels like it might be another day with absolutely no breeze. Even a slight breeze helps tremendously. Yesterday was so still and stagnant just moving through the paddocks felt like a bad dream.

All the more reason to have a cold sandwich for breakfast. Or lunch. Or supper. Again.

This has become my go-to for the summer of 2026:

It's 2 layers of provolone on a roll (usually a slider, but this one was a burger roll) with mayo on one side and eggplant pickle on the other. This is the pickle:

I didn't realize until taking this snap that the hotness rating is Medium. Surprising. I'd give it a rating of Wonderfully Flavorful With the Tiniest Hint of Heat That You Might Not Even Notice. You can see how sparingly I use it on sandwiches, so perhaps if added in greater volume or eaten by the spoonful it would be hotter? I don't know. I'm going for the flavor. Which - did I mention? - is wonderful.

This is another product from what I think of as the Turkish Coffee Store, now shuttered. The source of my only coffee (Mehmet Efendi) and bulgur (Duru Extra Extra Coarse) which you've probably heard me whine about already. Also brined cheese (beyaz peynir), 5-pound yogurt tubs, homemade baklava, and jars of lovely ginger/garlic paste which meant no more garlic bulbs or ginger roots wizened and forgotten in my kitchen, huzzah.

Irresistible bonus discoveries were made on every visit. Patak's eggplant pickle was one of those discoveries. This was the last jar in my cupboard and I'm going to enjoy every bit of it.

And someday...squinches-up eyes and crosses fingers...someday, somehow, I will find myself in another shop that carries all these favorites and more, and I will come out of that shop with a year's-worth of treasures. What a happy thought!

What are you favorite food discoveries, past or present?

~~~~~

day two

Impatiens capensis
jewelweed

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drawing august

Day 1, lobelia on the path to barn

Not sure exactly which lobelia this is.

I looked it up and it's probably one of two species,

but one of those species has three varieties

and it was just too steamy and uncomfortable today

to go back out with a hand lens and micrometer.

 Maybe tomorrow.

Anyway, here it is August already.

Who saw that coming?

~~~~~