To market, to market

(002.  Fresh from the market.)

M and I paid our first visit of the season to the Hartville Market this morning.  We came home with lots of fruits and veggies.  Perhaps too many for the two of us to eat so I’ll be busy this afternoon trying to decide what to do with some of it.  The photo above shows a small portion of what we bought.

Pictured:  Asparagus, red cabbage, broccoli rabe, green onions, and I think there’s a loaf of crusty sourdough bread underneath it all.  We also brought home a flat of strawberries, some bananas (I’ll be making banana bread later as I bought the entire 4 lbs. for $1.00 deal not realizing how many bananas there are in 4 lbs.), Vidalia onions, broccoli, green beans, and some cherry tomatoes.

Most of the produce this time of year is not local.  There were a few spring onions and radishes from this area, but most were shipped here from California or Florida.  Although I would prefer to buy local, this is the time of year when I start craving all the colorful foods we’ll be seeing later in the season.  Since my asparagus isn’t fit to be picked this year (not enough of it), I bought a few bunches at the market.  It looked too good to pass up.  I’m not quite sure why no one had any locally grown asparagus.  People should be harvesting it now.  Maybe they’re keeping it all for themselves (can’t blame ’em for that).

We also did some of our other shopping while out and about.  The cats are now well supplied with both food and litter (one naturally leading to the need for the other), the liquor cabinet is stocked, and I won’t need to grocery shop for a while.  Our first stop on this excursion was Hartville Hardware, one of my favorite hardware stores.  I like it so much better than Lowe’s or Home Depot, and it’s local.  (All this talk of things local reminds me of The League of Gentlemen and Royston Vasey.)

(Lunch!)

We were both quite hungry when we returned home around noon so I put that loaf of crusty sourdough bread to good use.

Some much needed rain came through a little while ago.  I hope it was enough to water the garden.  I’m not sure it was so I’ll need to go out later and have a look.  I planted the lettuces and bok choy this past week and the seeds need a good soaking.

(Chasing geese:  Today’s view of the pond.)

A family of geese came by, hoping to stay for a while.  That’s M at the left of the photo, attempting to scare them off before they make too much of a mess.  The babies are cute, but just as messy as the adults.  The geese are swimming away on the right, probably taunting M by simply moving to the other side of the pond.