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| trip to farmer's market dappled sunlight caused these tomatoes to look strange
Watermelon--$3
tomatoes--$4
Scuppernong--$1
This was my first watermelon this year. I cannot handle a larger one and always forgot when exbf was here to pick one up. If these tomatoes are good, I may go back on Thursday get enough to can some for soup this winter. Well, my bank account will have to be consulted...lol. My scuppernong arbor is ruined and on the ground, so these are a treat.
This month, I am going to track carefully what I spend on food. So, putting this on my blog will help since I did not get three receipts for my shopping today. This is the last month for the market.
After I had the barium swallow and before I went to the market, I went to The Pig--Piggly Wiggly. It is very bright, clean, well-appointed. So, I got a sale paper and set about making decisions. I only wanted one thing on sale--Romaine--listed in the ad for $.99. While I was looking at the really wilted heads, the produce manager walked by. All the Romaine was wilted, even the heads he brought from the cooler. So, I got the leaf lettuce for $.99. So much for The Pig.
Unfortunately, I did a price match at Walmart and got the Romaine. I must eat more green, leafy vegetables. I have feta cheese bought half-price from Food World as it marked things down. Now, I have tomatoes. Plus, there is leftover chicken and turkey waiting.
My little pink bistro table is ruined. See it above. I had put plastic over it to paint. Someone moved it and got the plastic all around the legs. Sooo, I could not move the plastic. Wellll, I could, but I kept tripping over the plastic tarp. Now, my table has rust....grrrr. Where did I put that sandpaper?
Hens Patsy Cline and Thelma were interested in my bringing produce from the car to yard. They are always interested in anything in my hands. It could be food for them. I dumped the produce on the table and ran inside to go to the bathroom. While I was in the house, I grabbed two pair of pants that needed to be hung on the line. As I stood at the clothesline with the black pants draped over my arm, the hens were sort of at the other end of the clothesline, not really paying attention. As I removed one pair of pants from my arm, that pair naturally became a little longer. Well, panic ensued. When one hen startles, they all startle. Patsy Cline is skittish, so I am sure she was the one who started it all. Both hens simultaneously screeched, jumped and cackled as they ran in opposite directions. Actually, their actions sort of startled me, then amused me. Patsy Cline ran to the side fence and ran back and forth cackling. Thelma ran the length of the back yard, cackling. I quickly hung the two pair of pants on the line and turned to look at Patsy Cline. She was still walking back and forth, looking at the top of the 6' privacy fence, considering flying up. By this time Thelma was settled down. Giving up and going into the house was the only thing I could think of doing. Thelma has never been afraid of me. But, with Patsy Cline startling every time I bring food into their pen, Thelma rushes to get away from my approaching feet. I found a quarter and a dime in The Pig's parking lot--$0.35. Such was my Tuesday. Your turn Are produce markets in your area still going? Do you have hens that startle and start a cacophony of cackling, run about, and generally act like the sky is falling? |
Wednesday, October 9, 2013
The Market and The Pig and Chicken News
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We do indeed have Farmer's Markets - and I love them. Though I need to shop with a careful eye. Some things are cheaper, and the quality much, much better. Some stalls sell only the produce they can't sell elsewhere.
ReplyDeleteNo chooks here, but my partner's sister loves hers - to the extent that she had a rooster who used to sit in her lap each evening as she watched tv.
That is a shame to bring only produce that cannot be sold elsewhere--unless the price is lower. Fancy would sit in my lap, but none of the others are interested in being a lap chicken.
DeleteWhat are those little things that look like grapes? Damn. I hope they're not grapes. Scuppernongs? huh? wha?
ReplyDeleteWe don't have farmer's markets down here for the obvious reasons. Ain't got no farmers.
Those little things are grapes, scuppernongs. They are delicious and grow in my yard on a fallen down arbor full of thorns and things.
DeleteI think of Florida as having lots of farms. I suppose those are tomato factories with hard tomatoes.
We thought it would be the land of fresh fruit and veggies, but if it doesn't have a sticker that says "product of Mexico" we don't have it.
DeleteI cannot imagine produce being shipped in to FL. Sad.
DeleteMy local road side is closed. All the very local foodstuffs are gone The open ones on the highway sell non-local produce. It has not been a good growing season here this year. Our garden was a total waste of time, but had great lettuce and basil grown in window boxes. Will grow indoors this winter for some fresh tomatoes, more lettuce and spices. My rooster is the skittish one - he will start squawking when the clothes flap on the clothesline. Lucy has started to whine when she can't get out in the yard. She starts, then they all start. Sounds like I have a hundred of them!
ReplyDeletechickenmom
DeleteThose roadside produce stands that don't carry local produce around here hope we will think it is local. I don't go for that attitude. Indoor tomatoes? yum? My two hens help each other with the hen song. I run out to get the egg and see if they will be quiet with talking or food. Silly chickens. My hens don't mind the flapping of clothes, thankfully. I even saw Thelma pecking a towel. I suppose there was lint, or maybe she saw a bug or three.
We have a nice Farmers Market here which runs from April through October. Then the farmers bring remaining crops to an indoor mall to sell.
ReplyDeleteThere's only three more Saturday outdoor market days left. I usually stock up as much as I can before old man winter sets in.
I was wondering the same thing as Lotta Joy, but you answered that question. Grapes ... neat. They look good. Enjoy them.
Helga,
DeleteOur market runs from April through October, but on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. There is no indoor mall. However, one of the farmers is very tech savvy and will come to town once a week after taking orders on the phone or internet. He has a green house and grows greens of all kinds during the winter. He raises them with no commercial fertilizers or pesticides for one woman. He may raise his greens that way all the time. I am not sure.
Those grapes are delicious. I had a brother and sister come and get two bushels from my arbor when I was in school and too busy.
I wish I could afford to have someone put it back up. My neighbor's tree fell on it, my birdhouse, and the fence. Nothing has been restored.
Wow, you have a lot more market days than we have. Couldn't your neighbor help put it back up as it was his tree that made it fall over ? Or perhaps a volunteer group if you have them.
ReplyDeleteHe is an absent landlord, son of a preacher. His FIL is big wig in town with no help for anyone except his cronies. Owner told me to contact his insurance company. The agent was rude, telling me it was my problem. I cannot imagine a volunteer group who would help put up a fence for me when I have other jobs that no one is willing to help me with. Eventually, I had to pay to get the tree cut up since it took up half my yard and my son was coming to visit.
DeleteThat is only one of the two farmer's markets in town, plus lots of farms have a market out front.
That's really sad when the owner nor the insurance agent isn't willing to help. I might have chucked the cut up limbs back into his yard .. I'm nice like that. Lol !
ReplyDeletePeople in town said most people would have helped clean up the aftermath just to be helpful. Then, when I told them who had owned it (father) and who owned it now, they understood. I should have had the people who cut it throw the trunk into their yard in the two foot pieces it was cut into. I told them not to just to be nice. However, they threw about six pieces back there. Oh, well.
DeleteI have no warm thoughts for these people who rent, who owned it, or who owned it before. The renters are the ones who had black game hens that ate my chicken food, laid eggs in their nest, and scratched up the tarp causing holes and laying eggs on the tarp that I had to get someone to remove! Now, that woman has a little yappy dog! No one ever takes care of it.