Yums From the Farmers Market

This weekend, J. and I hit the big Farmer's Market in downtown Kansas City and came home with some yummy, great-looking veggies.  Chipotle was there handing our free $10 tokens that could be spent at one vendor in the market, so everything in the picture was free.  We had the carrots Tuesday night, and the Yukon gold potatoes mashed last night.  The banana peppers went into some of the salsa we made on Monday evening.

I won't say who ate them, but I'm pretty sure those peaches are no longer present in my kitchen either.  And, shortly, those beets and cucumbers will find themselves pickled.  Sometime (hopefully soon!), I'm going to show my sis-in-law how to can salsa.  That should be great fun.

Ya know, looking at that picture, I'm thinking there's really nothing better than fresh produce from the market, unless it's walking out of your house to pluck it right out of your backyard garden.  Who needs a bowl when you can eat blackberries right off the vine while sitting on your patio?

I suspect everyone is in the middle of canning, freezing, preserving and, well....EATING!  What have you been up to?

A Day for Firsts

I'm so upset about the situation with the house that I just really don't want to talk about it right now.  Maybe in a couple of days.

In the meantime, how about some positive news?  We got our first tomatoes!

The fat tomato in the upper right hand corner is our first Cherokee Purple that we pulled (and J. promptly ate it on a hamburger last night, so I'm glad I took the pic fast!).  The 3 red tomatoes in the middle of the picture from top to bottom are our first Roma, followed by our first 2 Early Girls.

Then a straggler strawberry sitting next to our first blackberry!

On Saturday, J. and I attended Tomato Fest at one of the local farmer's market and they didn't have many tomatoes.  Seems odd, doesn't it, being tomato fest and all?  But we did find a few.  One gentleman had some Cherokee Purple tomatoes that were terribly eaten up with cutworms.  Only the small one on the right side of the picture was decent, so we bought it thinking it would tide J. over until ours ripen.

In addition to the nice bunch of carrots, we also found some purple potatoes.  I've always wanted to try those since seeing them on a episode of Chopped.  If you roast them, they keep their purple color throughout.  When we make them, I'll post some pics.

Apparently I missed some garlic when I harvested last year, because it came up again as volunteer.  I went ahead and pulled them and dried them.  The bulbs are smaller, but I'll be able to use them this fall to start another crop.  A first - volunteer garlic!

And, finally, on Saturday, Christine and Dave from The Deadly Nightshade (our new neighbors!) threw a really fun soiree.  We spent a lot of time talking to a couple who moved from Colorado and bought a huge Victorian house about 3 streets over from us.  I love how you can meet new people and just instantly know you're going to be great friends.

Anyway, it was a potluck so J. and I tried another couple of firsts..... 

Cheesecake tarts topped with fresh raspberries

and....

Mini apple and cherry pies made in a muffin tin.  So easy and cute!

How do they look?  They were scrumptious and must have been a big hit, since we came home with an empty plate.  If anyone wants the recipe or directions on how we made these, let me know and I'll post it.

By the way, I'm sharing this post with this week's Homestead Barn Hop. Go check out what other folks are up to!