farmer's market

i met matrushkaka at the farmer's market today, where we both bought more than we could carry without a stop to drop things off in our respective vehicles. i have tomatoes so ripe that i'll have to use them tonight -- i'll make a basic tomato-basil sauce, cooked as briefly as possible to preserve the fresh flavor of the tomatoes. i have arugula for a salad and organic strawberries for dessert.

i bought garnet yams, red onions, and lemons from my very favorite stand, where two yams, four onions, and five of the most fragrant lemons at the market cost me a whopping $2. oh, and i mustn't forget -- a pound and a half of lovely curly spinach, which i'll steam and have with whatever i make tomorrow -- maybe the yams! leeks and potatoes, perhaps for soup. apples and oranges. cilantro, of course. carrots, gnarled and bunched with their greens and still dirt-covered from the ground but smelling, as matrushkaka put it, "exactly like carrots." pumpkin paratha and cilantro chutney from the lovely indian gentleman who thrusts samples of everything into your hands faster than you can eat them. and a bar of handmade lemon-lavender soap, which smells almost edible and is alleged to have aromatherapeutic properties that are good for muscle and bone soreness and stress relief.

we sampled fresh almonds -- before their shells harden, you can eat the whole thing. they tasted odd, sour and crunchy, making me think of the crunchy seed pods of sorrel that i used to eat as a child. matrushkaka got a variety of things, including sun-dried black walnuts that tasted absolutely heavenly.

the sun was out and it was just the right temperature, not too hot, not too cold. a beautiful day, good company, and all the vegetables i can possibly eat.

i spent $30. who says the good life has to be expensive?