Forgotten Photos and (therefore) Farmers' Markets

I was wanting to post some more pictures of our trip, but alas, as the unpacking was eventually completed last evening, we realized that we left all the pictures -- which we had removed from our digital camera to have my dad make us a CD -- in Virginia. *sigh* So much for that plan. My mom is sending the CD to us, but until then, I'm afraid I'll have to entertain my readers in other ways. ;)

So, instead, I thought I'd write about our excursion to the Farmers' Market yesterday. Scintillating topic, I know, but I'm a little low on material, as you see. ;) Every Wednesday is farmers' market day in downtown Portland. One section of the Park Blocks is set aside for the flower-bed of tents of varying sizes which shelter similarly varied merchants hawking their wares to the numerous passers-by. Most of the items sold at the market are of the fresh, edible variety, though there are a fair number of vendors selling simply flowers. There are also a fair number of vendors dedicated to serving such temptations as authentic Italian gelato, hot grilled Italian sausages, local cheeses, freshly baked bread, cookies and tarts and even a booth which only sells pesto. . . but it's really good pesto. ;)

I love to go mainly for the smells -- the fresh basil and cilantro tied in bunches and the grilled mushrooms and veggies at the pita-sandwich vendor's booth. Yesterday however, I actually had an errand to accomplish and that was to buy some mushrooms and a salad to go with our dinner. My secondary motivation yesterday was simply to be out-of-doors -- at this time of year, there aren't many 70-degree, sunny-blue-sky days left to be had, but yesterday was just such a day. I wasn't about to sit quietly inside my dark office during my lunch hour when there was such weather to be enjoyed.

So Dan and I set out for the market, hand-in-hand (I absolutely love working with my hubby!) with our solitary $5 farmers' market token bouncing around all by itself in my purse. You see -- if you don't happen to have cash on you (as we often do not), you can buy wooden tokens which are only good at the market and the vendors treat them the same as cash. We had bought four or five such tokens at some point in the past and had this one left over. Happily, I was able to get mushrooms for $1.50 and a fantastic organic salad (which, in addition to the usual ingredients, contained arugula, calendula leaves and some kind of flower?) for $3.00. The salad proved to be so voluminous when I later took it out of the bag that we couldn't even begin to eat it all and will probably last us the rest of the week. I pocketed the remaining 50 cents feeling very well satisfied with my purchases.

Honestly, that little excursion to the market was the highlight of my week so far. I know, I need to get a life, right? Hmm. . . Maybe tomorrow I'll go to Starbucks. ;)

And I will post pictures of the beach trip and all my cute little siblings once they arrive in the mail.