NOTE: To find a farmer's Market Nation Wide, go here (USDA search site) or here (Local harvest Search Site or here for the California Certified Farmer's Markets.
Comfort, Joy, Abundance and More!
One of my favorite places is the Pasadena, CA Farmers Market. On Saturdays from 8 to around 12:45ish it teams with the lush products of Southern and Central California's naturally and organically grown produce. Often I run into the market, grab what I need and rush out. The organic lunches (if I've not grown it myself) for my Reference Point Therapy Classes come from this market. I get to the market at 8 and out by 8:30 with luscious greens, fresh peaches, strawberries, blueberries, and other goodies for the continental breakfast, break snacks and organic lunch.
This Saturday I took my time. Nothing was rushing me. And, I had my camera. So my first circle around the market was simply to satisfy my photographic appetite. Sunlight through fresh beets,
white radish iridescent in the morning sun,
freshly shucked corn, tomato cornucopias, peaches that should be in a magazine. As I was taste testing, another gentleman doing the same said, "Now that's what a peach should taste like!" I heartily agreed as a bit of peach juice escaped.
Potatoes and Melons. At one stall there were fresh new potatoes in shades of red, white and purple, and several varieties of melon. Now I know cantaloupe and honeydew and not much else. A couple of the varieties looked like cousins of the cantaloupe and were clearly different. These were melons I knew nothing about, and were "oh so delicious." (The proprietress had made available samples.) Next Saturday I'm going back to find out what the names were. For now, I purchased one that looked something like a spaghetti squash but tasted like a sweet distant relative of a honeydew. Can you tell I'm in over my head here? I'll take a photo of it. Maybe you'll know the name. I took this photo just a few minutes ago at home.
Flowers, plants, herbs and more flowers. Sunflowers, lilies of many varieties, flowers I don't know the name of, eucalyptus, gladiolas, and a whole booth dedicated to orchids. The flower booths alone delight my senses. Even though I have my own herb garden, the rectangular baskets of herbs always temp me. It was at this Farmer's Market that I discovered Rosemary flowers. That time the proprietor allowed me to take pictures to my heart's content -- well over an hour. Rosemary flowers are small (no bigger than the fingernail on the little finger of a small hand), and a soft powder blue. I have over a hundred photos on a hard drive -- somewhere.
MORE! MUCH MORE! There's the apple and pomegranate juice man, the fresh nuts, baked goods, Mexican food on the spot, eggs, seafood, honey and soooo much more. Then there's the section with other "STUFF" -- my technical term for non-fresh berry, fruit and veggies. It includes homemade preserves, hummus, fresh pita bread, politicians for Jerry Brown, people offering light blessings, and this Saturday I found someone selling worms, worm tea and worm farms. That's my next article, by the way, complete with videos if they turn out. Worms and worm casings are sooo amazing for the soil in any garden, flower or vegetable. I spent almost an hour learning about growing worms, making worm tea, and on my third tour around the market bought a worm-tea making set-up. My next article is going to be all about worms and in the meantime if you want to know more, go here.
Stopping for now so that I can get this and another article explaining why I've been away so long up on the blog. Oh, if you are curious what Reference Point Therapy (RPT) is, go here.