I wiped away the weeds & foam. / I fetched my sea-born treasures home... Ralph Waldo Emerson







Wednesday, May 14, 2014

Lavender - Farmer's Market




Hi! May is fickle here at the beach---and probably by you too, though I remember many long hot sunny Mays in southern Ohio while we waited for school to finally end. Sunday at the flea market the temps were in the 80s! Delightfully soft spring breeze but hot.
Today the sky just heaved a big sigh and whimpered "November, right? It IS November?"  Beyond ''mackeral sky", instead pewter grey doldrum overcast, looked like it was gonna pour all day. And cold. brrrr.



My farmers market however was fun! Spring flowers and produce actually prefer a cool wet day.
The herb vendor was back...



How could I resist! I got one  of each in honor of today's Flower Full Moon.*






Spanish lavender in two shades, like fat purple bumble bees. I'll try them in my deck planters, though I don't think they will re-bloom this year.


 
 



My friend got one of these darling topiaries. Greek basil. It might not survive on my deck, but her house is more sheltered.




This week I focused on the cheese vendors.


I chose multi-seed little breads from Bread Alone. I slice them for my cheese platters; rolls like these are more economical than a big loaf of bread.
The cheeses: an alpine cows' milk cheese, on the left. Aged mozzarella, sciamorza, on the right. I can't wait to try the new cheese seller's other cheeses! He was very friendly and proud of his selection, which included both sheeps' milk cheese and cows' milk cheese. The aged mozzarella is from my Brooklyn guy who brings delicacies from my old neighborhood in Brooklyn.



I love cheese, especially handmade artisan cheeses, though I admit I shopped with this deluded fantasy of sitting out with a glass of wine and today's finds, with friends, watching the spring full moon, the Flower Moon!--- rise over the water. [only if we wore our winter parkas,lol.]



I also love the Brooklyn pasta-n-cheese guy's handmade noodles. I chose perciatelli this week. They are like fat spaghetti with a hole in the middle, or long slender tubes. I plan to use them  for a pasta primavera later in the week: pancetta, spring peas, asparagus, shaved asiago and parm. A little lemon or white wine, a splash of cream... Mmmm!




*Flower Full Moon: May full moon. Also indicates last late frost date in most of the US. I always thought this was the Herring Moon, as it is when the herring return to spawn in the creeks of Cape Cod. Maybe it's a local tradition.....Paine's Creek Brewster MA herring run






love
 
lizzy
 
...............................................gone to the beach