Farm Fresh

After desirously waiting for who knows how many weeks, yesterday we finally went to our neighboring town’s Farmer’s Market. The preschooler and me, both were galvanized by the thought of buying farm fresh juicy fruits and nutritive vegetables. On the way to the market we kept on talking about all the dishes that we will bring to life using the succulent strawberries: fruit smoothies, fresh plump blueberries: loaded pancakes, firm juicy tomatoes, crispy cucumbers: great munchies, crunchy carrots: stir fries and are also great when hunger attacks at non meal times, sweet peas: well I don’t love peas but any fresh produces seduces me to just bring it to the kitchen and do something about it! But what an anticlimax!! It would be a sham to call it a farmer’s market when only 3 tents are selling produce a.k.a. Lettuce but where you could buy plenty of bagels, a tiny baguette for a princely amount, syrup flavored iced tea, hand painted glasses which cost more than a case of wine, though this painting tent had something which we enjoyed, I’ll come back to that in a bit. Let’s focus on the annoyances for the moment!! My preschooler’s first words after reaching the market were “This is funny, they don’t have any fruits and vegetables mamma. What are we going to cook now!?” This let down reminded of the times when I used to go with my mum to vegetable shopping. One side of the street were the vegetable and fruit vendors and the other side house the little shops like a halwai (sweets maker), spice store, a small bangles shop from where I occasionally could score a set for being a nice girl to mom. The street was a bustling with business while the traffic went on its pace in the middle. Cows who were looking to grab a prize from the occasional inattentive shopkeeper used to give us company too! Amidst this hustle bustle, mom’s hand with a tight grip on mine made sure that her girl is safe. And here I am taking my girl to a special trip so she can see that things can be bought in fresh open air as opposed to the “climate controlled stores”. The other day she said, “When daddy’s birthday comes, I will go to a surprise store and buy a surprise for him”. Anyways, overcoming the letdown, we made up our mind to make the little outing fun with whatever it has to offer. My girl did get to taste home made applesauce that she seemed to really like. Coming back to the painting tent. The preschooler got a chance to paint a towel hook that was shaped like a sailboat.She went on and on about what a nice job she is doing :-)and it gave her the much sought after "being important" feel as people were watching her do it. Of course, what else would people do at a farmer's market where the only produce they can put their hands on is lettuce. How many leaves can one eat after all! Though it being advertised as a mini art class, no one was giving any instructions or tips,but remember we made up our mind to enjoy, so lets not fret about that! On the way back we talked about sailboats, painters and the place where we can hang the masterpiece.


As for bringing farm fresh food to the table, we made a snack using ‘Pepperidge farm’ pastry sheets,inspired by a number of food blogs.It was eaten fresh out of the oven.