Monday, April 8, 2013

Fast Forward

I want to say I'm anxious for spring, but that's not quite right:  I know technically spring IS here.  It's just that I'm anxious to get a little further into spring, to the time when fresh fruits and veggies are available and I can get back into the farmer's market routine.  I know it won't be long, but I'm ready NOW.

On Saturday, a friend and I took a little road trip.  The idea began when I started dreaming of fresh tomatoes and it grew into a combination birthday celebration and miscellaneous shopping trip--my friend's birthday is coming up a little later this month.  So we had lunch out, went to a quilt shop, visited the nursery for tomato plants, and then hit six or eight vintage/antique/thrift shops in the foothill towns of Loomis and Newcastle.  Oh, and we visited a produce store called Newcastle Produce.   The shop is owned by a local farming family who also has a booth on Saturdays at a nearby farmer's market.  They carry all sorts of fresh produce, packaged specialty items, spices, etc.  They even have cooking classes.  I love that place!

During our trip, I found this pretty blue bowl at one of the vintage/antique shops, but even more special, perhaps, was this beautiful book called Farm-Fresh Recipes by Heather Cameron of Missing Goat Farm.  Heather's farm is in British Columbia and she has a blog called A Day in the Country where you can see some of her beautiful photography and her wonderful recipes.  Here are a couple pages from the book--the beginning of the spring section -- 


and the start of summer--


I found the book at Newcastle Produce.  It's such a beautiful book, I just couldn't resist buying it.

Saturday night, I did some grocery shopping and cleaned out the refrigerator a little.  I had a package of blackberries that needed to be used soon, so I made a simple blackberry sauce and served it on vanilla ice cream for dessert.  For breakfast on Sunday, though, I thought pecan waffles would be a perfect way to use the rest of the sauce--and they were! 


And those tomato plants I told you I was so anxious to buy?  I planted them in a raised bed.  It's probably not surprising that all three of these varieties I picked out are early season tomatoes!  (As an after thought, I also grabbed a yellow cherry tomato variety, but that's potted separately--not enough room in this space!)


There's a lot I like about fall and winter in Northern California, but I sure do miss the variety of locally grown fruits and veggies we have available to us in the spring and summer.  I suspect spring produce will start filling the farmer's markets sometime in the next month or so.  In the meantime, I'll just have to be patient and watch my tomatoes grow.

I'm glad you could stop by for a visit!

3 comments:

Missie of Traditional Primitives said...

YUMM! I can't wait to get started as well, but we have to wait until Mother's Day to plant. I think I will get larger plants with a shorter time until fruit comes this year. Last year we had tomatoes ripening in frosty times!

Donna said...

I can't wait either! My husband set his seed in the greenhouse two weeks ago and things have started to come up. We had snow over the weekend (about 3 inches) and can't plant anything outside here until June.

Laura K said...

Being in Utah, I can't plant tomatoes yet either. But I do have several plants that are about three inches high that I started from seed. They are under the grow lights safe and warm for at least another month. I have some cherry tomatoes and some San Marzano plants. My BIL is going to have to take some though as I don't have enough room for all of them on my little balcony! He has an actual backyard and is just going to have to get busy making some room for them! Oh and I just love the bowl on the front of that book. Those are the mixing bowls my mom had when I was growing up. I love them so much I stalked ebay until I found a set that wasn't absolutely outrageous and bout some for myself. Thank you for sharing your weekend with us!