6/11/17

Rainy Day at the Farmers Market

We were intrepid gatherers yesterday. Earlier in the week, we'd arranged to go to the Farmers Market with Erik and Mae. It was the first time we'd seen them since we got home. Then, the rain went from good to bad...pretty typical for Oregon...and we gave them every opportunity to back out. They were steadfast, and so we donned our rain gear and off we went.

It was a nice day at the market. The rain kept the crowds down. We're still kind of in the season of greens, and we get plenty of that in our CSA. I was in search of were things to pickle. Also, I was hopeful of finding some tomatillos, but I'm afraid it's a little too early for that. Nevertheless, we came away with a pretty good haul. So, what did we see?

Oregon berries are in season. This is where our diet willpower had to hold fast. Mike can't have the strawberries because of the seeds. Nevertheless, I love them enough that I'll spend the time cutting the sides off of them and ridding them of their seeds so that I can make strawberry ice cream and strawberry shortcake. Alas...nothing I would make with these is going to be on our diet, and we are highly motivated. For now. It's good that it's early because it's really, really, really hard to let our annual Oregon strawberry season pass us by.


Of course, we saw lots of greens and lettuce. Also, these pretty red radishes.


My favorite short fat carrots. I like these because they are a good size for the Spicy Dilled Carrot Spears I like to make each year. They are positively addictive.


Also...lots of blooming things. This is where we lose Mae, the consummate gardener. She loves the plants and vegetable starts she finds at the Farmers Market.


Some of the flower arrangements contained some very unusual flowers. Check out the pod flower in the middle on the right of the image below. There are also some fuzzy ones there that look like something you might pet.


Here's another with some interesting pod flowers.


This one is called a Red Tiger Abutilon. Interesing, huh?


This next one is called a Brugmansia or an Angel's Trumpet Tree.


I liked how the raindrops looked on these big hosta leaves.


We were lucky to avoid any rain showers while we were there. Our visit lasted a little over an hour. I came home with some sweet cherries, radishes, and the carrots.


And now I have my day's work cut out for me. I'm making Pickled Radishes and the Spicy Dilled Carrot Spears. I've linked to the recipe above. Also, I'm going to try this recipe from Food in Jars for Sweet Cherry Barbecue Sauce. When we got home yesterday afternoon, I washed jars and lids and got things prepped for canning today. One thing I wanted to do was to get the cherries pitted. If you click on that link I gave you for the barbecue sauce, you can read Marisa McClellan's tip for pitting cherries when you're just going to cook them down. You remove their stems, dump them into the pot you're planning to use for cooking, add 1/2 cup of water, and them set them on the stove top to simmer for about 10-15 minutes. Then, let them cool, and you can easily pit them with your fingers.


That was a nifty trick. It was so little liquid, and the cherries made liquid of their own. Although it doesn't say what to do on the Food In Jars post, I decided to leave them in their liquid and refrigerate them over night. Now they're ready to go this morning. The carrots and radishes are both raw pack, and so I can get those ready while the barbecue sauce cooks down. It's multi-tasking at its most delicious.

Since I still had time in the day yesterday afternoon, I caught up with the rest of the world on the Spring Quilt Along on The Inbox Jaunt. You might recall that I made this little quilt top while we were in Pahrump.


Now it's ready for quilting. I'm using a pink thread in my bobbin and I'm starting with the pink on top. When we get to the aqua strips in the middle, I might switch off to the aqua thread on top, depending on my confidence level.


I was four motifs behind, and so I just went to work. The first was a "basic" motif for quilting half square triangles. Pretty simple, although mine weren't as consistent as I'd hoped. We're just practicing and learning here, so I'm not overly worried about these little imperfections. It's surprisingly hard to hit those corners just right.


The next was called "X Marks the Spot," and that was pretty simple too.


In fact, all of these were pretty simple. The next one was "Flowers."


And, finally, "Suns." Those were pretty much the same as the flowers, only with points instead of petals.


And now I'm caught up. Here's how it's looking from the back. I've messed with the color and contrast a little so that you can see it.


Part of the reason for putting this off as the last thing to catch up on was so that I could get my free motion quilting legs back under me. If I have time left in the day when the canning is done, I'm going to start quilting the Snips and Snails quilt, which is my goal for this month's OMG challenge.


This quilt is very special to me, and so I'm excited to finish it up.

14 comments:

Lynn - JnL4God said...

Looks like you did great on the quilt along. I have had mine sandwiched and ready to go for a week now just need to start on it. Did you do all the stabilizing? Have fun canning - it all sounds wonderful.

Vroomans' Quilts said...

I hope to hit the market today for some fresh greens - our growing season is a bit behind yours. The quilting is looking great. Went back thru you prior posts - your catching up progress is going well. Love seeing more of Smitty and Sadie - they were rather hidden on your travels.

Quilting Babcia said...

It's going to be great seeing Snips and Snails all quilted and finished. Not much produce from our garden yet, just a bit of lettuce and rhubarb. Your photos of all that gorgeous produce make me hungry.

quiltzyx said...

The Farmer's market looks delicious and beautiful! The salad & flat bread "pizza" looks very nice too. Looking forward to hearing about the cherry BBQ sauce. I have a box of cherries in the fridge right now. Almost every week we have a guy that comes to the office with all fresh fruits. YUM!

WoolenSails said...

Those strawberries look delicious, should have them at the farms here, soon.
Love how that thread looks for quilting, really stands out beautifully in that design.

Debbie

Brown Family said...

The fruits ans vegetables look delicious. The flowers a beautiful. I wonder what those strange pods are?

Your quilting motifs are nice and even! It looks like a lot of fun!

Dana Gaffney said...

I'm with May, I'd be lost in those flowers. That Red Tiger is so interesting and just a touch scary :). The Angel's Trumpet grows like crazy here but I know people who have cut it down because of the poison in it.

Olka said...

there is also a strawberry seaseon in Polnd now. I love strawberries, my husband is baking a strawberry cake sometimes, I love to make strawberry and banana shake for breakfast. This year we have strawberries on our loggia, but we're still waiting for the fruits!
Cherry barbecue sause sounds nice, I'll try to make a few jars!
And what a wonderful cats fabric!! <3

Olka said...

*season - sorry for the typo ;)

piecefulwendy said...

You came home with some tasty items. I just emailed the BBQ recipe to hubs because he loves all things cherries. I may need to try the pickled carrots. Sounds yummy! Your QAL is looking good!

claudia said...

I need to get out to our Farmer's Market again. The last time I went it was mostly crafty things, which was good, I was looking for some local artists wares to gift to my sister for her birthday. I made stuff for her for Christmas, but I like to "spread the wealth" and support my fellow crafty people.
I'm hoping there will be more produce happening next Saturday, and I need to get back to my WeightWatcher's lifestyle. I've been slacking and that has to stop!
Work happened on my catio this weekend!!! I'm so excited!!! My daughter and her boyfriend came to spend the weekend. (He's an awesome carpenter) I bought the plans from the company you told me about and we went from there. He changed it up a bit, and made it SO sturdy, If a hurricane blows through, I think my house will go before the catio! I'll post pictures soon on my blog. I'm so proud of it!

Dots said...

That God packed so much talent and ability into you is just amazing! I enjoy your blog so much. Cooking and sewing and cats! Love all that. I really love that quilt Snips and Snails, I can't wait to see that finished. It is unique. Just am enjoying your post. Thanks.

Lyndsey said...

Pretty but simple quilting. I must get on and practice my FM quilting and I love the simpler designs as they are very effective when finished. Thanks for the tip on pitting cherries if you are cooking them.

Kate said...

Beautiful flowers at the farmer's market. You'd loose me there too. I can totally relate to May's interest. Looks like you've gotten back into the quilting frame of mind pretty quickly.