Fresh Produce!

Aside from having my first tomato growing and ripening on the vine, I've harvested herbs three times now.  The tomato plants have loads of blossoms, as do the cucumbers that are vining like some sort of alien plant life!  But the Farmers' Market has also started to have some wonderful things in.  I've been buying truckloads of green onions, some baby spinach, and funky fun lettuce varieties.  This week my favorite vendor was out of town, but some of the others picked up the slack.  Here's a sneak peak at some of what was there:

One of the booths just setting out produce.

Farmer Ralph with his eggplants, cucumbers, and chokecherries.  The cucumbers were

4 for just $1.  Yummy creamy dill cucumber salad will be made!  The chokecherries

were $3 a bucket.  They went very fast.

Oakleaf Lettuce (Foglia Quercia Rossa) is a strongly-flavored red-tinged leaf lettuce that really does look like oak leaves.  It is best in the spring and fall to avoid bitterness caused by the heat of summer.  Very lightly dressed in a vinaigrette dressing with pear, Gorgonzola and walnuts is a good use for this lettuce.

I'm hoping that there will be more variety there next week.  I'll have to check their blog on Friday to see what will be in on Saturday!   Other than the baked goods of course.  I find those a bit pricey, and I'm not always pleasantly surprised with the taste or texture.  Better get busy now, since I need to make a salad and a cake for the potluck at work tomorrow.  Eat well!