Drenched With Color

Asian Lilies at Kopke's

I found I could say things with color and shapes that I couldn't say any other way--things I had no words for. Georgia O'Keeffe

Edelweiss cheeses

 How important is the color of food?  Would you eat this cheese if it was brown?

from Natalie's Greenhouse

"Why do two colors, put one next to the other, sing? Can one really explain this? no." -Picasso 

from Bonde Bee

"The only reason for making a buzzing-noise that I know of is because you're a bee...The only reason for being a bee that I know of is making honey....and the only reason for making honey is so I can eat it. "
~ Winnie the Pooh in A.A. Milne's 'The House at Pooh Corner'

You could cook your way through the market by color....so here is pasta-

-and here is cheese from Schroeder's.....

orange tomatoes from the Flyte Family Farm

...a recipe from layers of sunshine.

Prairie Farm hanging basket

"I cannot pretend to feel impartial about colors.  I rejoice with the brilliant ones and am genuinely sorry for the poor browns."  ~Winston Churchill   (Do you believe that Churchill said this?  Nope, me either.  )

Tulips from Kelly Lor, lilies of the valley from Jean Statz

We could switch from color to scent.....

If you identify the theme in the comments section, be sure to check at the market information tent to see if you won the gift certificate.  Last week's winners, Beth and Barb, have certificates waiting for them.  

"Let a Smile Be Your Umbrella.......

...and you'll end up with a face full of rain," said George Carlin.  The savvy market shopper is not the least bit intimidated by a little spring rain.....

"Umbrellas, like faces, acquire a certain sympathy with the individual who carries them...." said Robert Louis Stevenson.

"A banker is a fellow who lends you his umbrella when the sun is shining, but wants it back the minute it begins to rain."  said Robert Frost who may have been paraphrasing Mark Twain.

"Partly cloudy thoughts; a chance of thundershowers; possible brainstorm."  Kathy Payson

You hope for rain when you have an umbrella this wonderful.

"Compromise makes a good umbrella, but a poor roof..."James Russell Lowell

 

..."He was so benevolent, so merciful a man that in his mistaken passion, he would have held an umbrella over a duck in a shower of rain...:Douglas Jerrold

"...the best thing to do when it's raining is to let it rain..." H. Wadworth Longfellow

A Shooting Star can be a reward for shopping in the rain.....from  Pasque Flower farm while they last.

A polka-dot raincoat is better than an umbrella.

 

A little rain at the market=good chance to show off your fashionable rain boots.

Climate is what we expect; weather is what we get....

Mark Twain said that and after 85+ temperatures mid week, we got this on Saturday:

The look is adorable in January, but this is the 14th of May.

Most of the time, you bring a few fun bags to market, not your afghan.  Check out the shoppers on the right peering from hoods.

 

But this has been a Tulip Spring.  Warmer temperatures burn them up too early.  Lor Chang's lily-flowered tulips were stunning.

 

Dress for warmth, floods or  fly fishing

It does look like spring behind the Madison Sourdough crew....that's the garden waiting for you from Indian Trail greenhouses. 

This has got to be the best way to travel...ever.

 

Another version of making lemons into lemonade.  This purple loosestrife  flower honey from B's Honey is amazing.  (Note:  we are NOT burying the botanical hatchet with the plant, but as long as it's still around, why not throw a little free-market economics at it.)  If you can't beat it, eat it.  (The pumpkin flower honey was sold out; you must try that too. No, it doesn't taste like pumpkins....more like an afternoon in August)

 

Kale plants at West Star Farms were confused....May or November?

The very thing for a day like this.....

Setting up the market

Before dawn, Saturday morning.....and the market begins in a windswept parking lot. 

Vendors start to arrive around 5 am and within an hour or so, there will be fifty stalls.  This doesn't seem like enough space when the people arrive, but after watching this video, we stopped complaining
http://www.wimp.com/vegetablemarket/

Now come the customers....

...musicians.....

...let there be commerce!

The southern style baked goods at Ethel Ann's sell out quickly.

If you could get past the fans at Dreamfarm, you would see.....

....more reasons to get to the market early.

Welcome

Take a visual stroll-at your leisure and without weather gear- through the Westside Community Market to see what you might have missed while you were sampling the maple popcorn from Sunnyhill Acres:

Radishes from JenEhr farm, so electrically colored in the rare April sunshine that we saw them from the opposite end of the market, and so popular that they were sold out before we could get to them.

 The mint plants bully their way into this photograph just as they do everywhere in the garden.  Harvest Moon has Lemon Verbena plants which you MUST  have in your container herb collection.  The taste is richer and more complex than shabby old Florida citrus and without the puckery bite; trendy cooks combine it with rosemary and basil.  (Lemon Verbena is easy to winter over, but let's save that discussion for later.)

The Moldy Jam musicians tried using the car hatchback as a windbreak, but the wind was relentless last Saturday.

The end of April and we are still bundling up like this.

We lingered at Kopke's stall for all this color..... 

 

....and then paused at Morningwood to think about how pleasant it would be to sit under a Stellata magnolia tree sipping a lemon verbena julep.  A local naturalist once told us to sit quietly near a magnolia  as evening comes on and watch the petals laying on the lawn.  The petals fall and lie flat, he said, but later you will see some begin to stand on end and slowly disappear into the ground.  Earthworms  gradually pull the flower petals into their burrows as they eat them...magnolia flowers are just like candy to a worm, he said.  Under an old magnolia tree is a mighty fine place to dig for bait, he added, somewhat deflating the dramatic mood he'd created.  (If you try to catch the earthworms at this trick, please have a videocam handy.)

You might have seen this calla lily-blooming early for Earth Day-at the Information Tent when you stopped for a cup of free coffee or cocoa, to sign up for our newsletter or purchase gift certificates for all your foody pals.  Several vendors will have these easy to grow plants soon.