Ah, the cool weather. The need to wear a sweater to the market - and keep wearing it throughout marketing - means I can finally accept the fact that fall is on the way, and purchase some squash. I celebrated with three squash and a pumpkin. I like the produce this time of year - everything lasts so long that you don't feel this crushing need to cook right now. I made a (vain) effort to keep things light this week - we've been working a lot and haven't been doing very much cooking.
I started off the morning later than usual, having turned my 7am alarm off and waking, instead, at 9. No matter. I headed to the Worthington market, where I stopped briefly to pick up some Gala apples, sweet red peppers, and red onions at Zemnicki Greenhouse. I strolled around a bit - we're in that kind of weird time where the tomatoes are waning, there aren't very many beans out (what does it take to get someone to grow beans in this state?!), but it isn't quite cold enough yet for those greens which make me so happy after the first frost. I didn't even see any Brussels sprouts on my trip this morning, but I suppose I wasn't paying close enough attention.
I swung through the Clintonville market, being on something of a mission to find some fennel bulbs (above), and was pleased to find a few remaining at the Sippel Farm, where they also had single-serving, lunchbox-sized watermelon. Alas, I resisted, and settled for just the fennel. I was pleased to see that the Wayward Seed farm has begun selling at the Clintonville market, and I bought a nice little pumpkin from them whose name has of course completely escaped me. They also had golden kabocha and a great, bluish, knotted Tuscan squash (which is apparently quite tasty, but I didn't want to get carried away). It was then off to buy some duck eggs. Alas, I can't remember the name of the farm, but it's just a few stalls north of 2 silos, and the duck eggs are terrific. The yolks are so firm that the last time I was frying some up, I broke one of the yolks and it didn't spread. It cooked just like normal, only the yolk was a little misshapen. They are so rich and decadent, if you try them you might never want to go back to chicken eggs!
Speaking of chicken eggs, our CSA chickens finally decided to start laying again! In other CSA news, our box this week contained a watermelon (above), lettuce, garlic, onions, wax beans, a golden zucchini, nice red tomatoes, a giant yellow heirloom tomato, and a pint of Sungold cherry, yellow pear, and red currant tomato mix. I think I'm going to stir all of those together with a little salt and balsamic to take to work with me. We also received a sprig of dill (my favorite garden aroma, hands down).
And then it was off to buy a few more eggplants and my weekly allotment of Toby Run shitake mushrooms. I stopped by Wishwell Farms for another jar of their hot pepper relish, which I love, and a few more squash - golden kabocha (above), acorn, and butternut. It's time to do some roasting!
And what did you get at the market this week?
Also, today was the gathering of the Columbus Cutters, the Columbus scooter club, so Husband has weeks of listening to me beg for a scooter to look forward to. Here's the super cool Jeni's Ice Cream Scooter:
