Hand Me Downs

 

Lucky, lucky, blessed, blessed, Katy.  Tomorrow, after a couple of months of whining, the East Nashville Farmer’s Market begins again!  A couple of months ago I realized I was out of my homemade pesto.  And the frozen blueberries from last summer.  And most everything else.  There’s still a little frozen Red Russian Kale from the garden that I never quite worked up to using…\

This is the most delightful time for me.  Fresh everything, grown here, in middle Tennessee and southern Kentucky.  Food my neighbors gave grown, nourishing and gorgeous and waiting for me.  It’s the beginning of season, so strawberries, lettuces, early garlic…  Well, here’s their list:

Strawberries, kale, lettuce, onions, beets, arugula, collards, broccoli, cabbage, parsley, radicchio, asparagus, honey, eggs, milk, cheese, beef, chicken, pork, lamb, breads, pastries, jams, cakes, and flowers.

I could cry with joy.  Strawberries out of season are a sham.  Asparagus is an annual happening- and then you wait again.  A few years ago, we joined a CSA- community supported agriculture, where we received a half-bushel of produce every week.  We shared it with Matthew and Alice Smith and still had plenty to spare.  Every week we received whatever was growing, which often included things I had never eaten, let alone seen.  The good folks at Hill and Hollow were kind of enough to give us a guide with our basket- a few recipes to kindle the imagination and get us familiar with kale, collards and garlic scapes.  

Alice told me a story a bit ago about finding a vegetable in the frozen section of an international market and asking an employee what to do with it.  He said something to the effect of “You wouldn’t know how to cook it, what to do with it.”  I was so proud to hear that Alice bought the whatever-it-was anyway and learned.  Alice gets amazed that God has made such an amazing variety of foods, all different and appealing to all of our senses.

 I could babble on, but there’s a whole market season for that- more to come, I’m sure.  To whet your imagination, here’s a list of good sites for recipes and general food-fantasy.  Happy wandering.  I hope this season finds you enjoying vegetables you’ve never known!  Amazing all of the creations, inventions under the sun.  

East Nashville Farmer’s Market

What Geeks Eat

French Laundry at Home

French Women Don’t Get Fat

Hill and Hollow Farm

Animal Vegetable Miracle

River Cottage