Farmer's Markets Redux

I really love the word redux. Redux, redux, redux.

Anyway, I digress.

Ever since reading Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle and ever since Green Husband, Sprout, Pip and I have been attending our local farmer's market on a semi-weekly basis, I have seriously become in tune with what is in season and what is not.

It's actually turned me into a little bit of an in season/out of season snob, but I'll come back to that.

If you buy your produce at a farmer's market, you really cannot help but become acutely aware of a particular fruit or vegetable's growing season. Say, "Nah, I'll wait 'til next week to pick up blueberries for freezing."? Sorry, Charlie. Next week they'll be gone, done, outta here. Or you can be like me and say, "This is the week I'm making that peach cobbler!" Uh, hate to break it to you but we've moved on to pears. It's pear season, baby!

This week, in my neck of the woods, we're just starting the apples, the zucchini is in high gear, and the smaller pumpkins for soups and baking have finally made their appearance.

What are you "up to" in your region?

So this all makes for an interesting experience when I go to the canteen at work and they are serving...asparagus. Now, I love asparagus, don't get me wrong. But it is September and there the asparagus lies. So I loudly proclaim while standing online, "Asparagus? Where the heck do you get asparagus this time of year?" It is astonishing to think that most people in that line don't realize that it is not asparagus season in the Commonwealth, or even the District, or even The Garden State, or the Bay State or the Live Free or Die state!

For me, for now, I'll stick to our farmer's market...and see what next week's season brings.