I went to Farmers Market today for a couple of reasons. I heard that the peaches grown in this part of the country are one of the best crops since 2004. Everyone has had a meally peach and who doesn't love a delicious peach? Second, going to Farmers Market got me out of the house. If you know me well enough, you know that doesn't come easy for me. Third, I wanted to take a couple of pictures. Second to music, photography is my passion and fruit is very colorful! Being that it was a weekday at the Farmers Market, only two of the four sheds were open and busy with farmers and their goods. There was a small crowd of customers who were mostly families with children. I did get some people pictures but that is a different blog. This weekend, is the 4th of July weekend. Stay away from the Farmers Market. They jack up the prices for the tourists. I took my parents there years back on the 4th of July weekend and Gene my mothers husband couldn't get over that, "$12 watermelon!"
The blackberries today were sweet and visually flawless. I am not a big rasberry fan but they were pretty. The blueberries were as good as I have tasted. There is a blueberry cake recipe out there that someone, and you know who you are, is holding off on giving to me. I am waiting for the recipe, Mother. For now, nothing tastes better than a stack of blueberry pancakes. The trick to cooking them is to let the blueberries sizzle and pop open a little on the griddle before you pour on the batter. Real butter and real maple syrup are assumed.
Back in the day, canning was used to preserve foods for the winter. I recently got a hold of way too many apricots and I think that it is fair to say that it is much cheaper and less time consuming to let others and machines can our fruit. Canning is a wonderful thing to do with loved ones but I find it would be better to have a nice dinner and a couple of glasses of wine instead. After our day of exhausting canning, I have to assume that in the old days, it was a matter of survival for the woman to stay home and spend most of her summer days dealing with the job of canning. Screw the daddy plowing the fields. Canning is hard work!
