Market Update (long-winded)

I learn a lot at my market. I learn mostly from the farmers about how little we citified folk know about fruits and veggies. Or maybe it's just ME! Maybe all of YOU know these things, and I have led a very sheltered life. Or not. Today I learned that I mis-spoke last week when I told you these were black raspberries and red raspberries.

In fact, these are BLACKberries and RASPberries. Note: there are more blackberries this week and there were more raspberries last week. End of one season, beginning of the other. It's all about the seasons, and in about 10 more years' exposure, I might actually remember some of it.

THESE are a combination of black and red raspberries. I stand corrected. I have much to learn.

And yes, we have PEACHES!!! Both white and yellow. Let's see if I can get this one right.... White peaches are higher in sugar content, but yellow peaches have a stronger flavor. But this year, he said with the amount of rain we've had, it's a toss-up. I selected some yellow beauties to come home with me.

More sweet peppers. These are just so pretty!

Tiny eggplants. They do not get much bigger than this. I'll let you know if that was another mis-speak if they are bigger next week. Like I said ... much to learn. The fun thing abut Farmer Mike is his farm grows all sorts of interesting varieties of things like eggplants and squashes, so he likes to test me. I usually fail, but if I can manage to write down the correct answers, I'll be sure to share with you.

These look harmless, but as they say: the smaller the pepper, the hotter the pepper. Later in the season I'll take a photo of the habaneros and other hotties he offers.

Aaaand, we have CHERRIES, both the sweet and sour varieties. Farmer Margie was making fun of me, or maybe she was not laughing AT me, but WITH me, maybe. I asked her how to tell the difference between the sweet and the sour. Can you guess the answer? Well, then I read the signs and I saw that the ones on the left were sour and the ones on the right were sweet. Look at them. The ones on the right - the sweet ones - are darker. I muttered something about the sweet ones looking darker, and bingo! I'd answered my own question. So I bought one of each. I love cherries. I will have to don some protective clothing before I work them, though. I smack the cherries with a knife (like you do to break open garlic cloves) to pit them. It is very easy, but it makes quite a red mess everywhere. I cannot wait to eat these!

My fleurs du jour. I just love the variety!

Today was beautiful. It was hot in the sun, but we had a nice breeze most of the day, plus I was under a tent, or hanging out in the pavilion with the farmers. Sales were slow for as nice as it was outside. Most people were probably taking advantage of it not raining and getting stuff done around their yards. I had an okay sales day - nothing to write home about, but totally worth my time to be there. It's all about the people, anyway. Molly's Dad came with his wife this time (I finally got to meet her!), and they bought more City cards. I love repeat customers!

And the dogs! I took a bazillion pics of dogs today, but none of the photos came out good enough to be blog-worthy. I'll try that again next week.

Two months into the market, and I finally thought to ask the vendor who makes the little girl's dresses and hair clips (and who is a fellow ribbon addict) her name. I am BAD. We talk all the time, and she knows my name. I'll probably forget hers by next weekend (Hi, Mary Beth!). Ooooh, all I'll need to do is check out this post next weekend so I am not totally embarrassed. Sigh...

The kids were back with their beverage stand. They did really well today, too! I bought a can of iced tea to have with my berries, as I'd finished all of my water, and they were all sold out of water. I told you it was hot!

This was lunch. Okay, this was the healthy part of lunch. I also had a killer cheese bread/roll and a cream-filled donut from the bakery. What?! Hey, in my world, all that fruit totally makes up for the 1,000,000 calories of sugar and fat that was the rest of my lunch.

After I packed up the car, I was weak from the heat, and I had 4 errands to run before I could go home. I stopped in at Chloe's Coffee Shop to buy a frozen drink and to check on sales (3 more cards sold - woo-hoo!), and to swap out some older inventory for some newer stuff. Then I stopped by a new restaurant down the street from Chloe's because, as it turns out, one of my stampin' customers' parents own it! I needed to drop off something for them to give to her as she is getting married next week! She and her family are operating on adrenalin right now, I am sure! I then stopped at Mike's (across the parking lot from Chloe's) to get a frame for a new photo I bought (more on that when I get around to hanging it); stopped at the pet store to get Her Highness more kibble; then I came home. A quick shower was necessary to wash off the hot and try to get my body temp down below 'uncomfortable'. I am fine, now. Don't get old.

And I don't know about you, but I see color combos EVERYwhere! Look at these rubber bands. Why do I have them? I use them to loop around my card rack sections to keep the cards in place when it is windy. I'll take a pic next weekend to show you, but for now, these were waiting their turn and I happened to notice the colors. I see Brocade Blue, Sage Shadow and maybe Lovely Lilac? I'll have to give that a try!

Man, where has the day gone? Sigh. I hope to play with some more stamps tonight and tomorrow so I have something of substance to share with you. Because of Mary Dawn, I also have some cork out on my table, so I hope to use it some time soon, too. You just never know what I might cook up! :-)

Thanks for stopping by!