Treats From A Farmers Market

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Buy Local, Eat Fresh

Getting your food at the farmers market is a treat, especially when it is the Davis Farmers Market in California where the bounty and variety delight both young and old. I explored this market that is connected to the bread basket of America before. In this post, I explore some of its specific delectable treats.

Raw Local Honey

Local beekeepers bring their raw honey to the market and taste-testing is encouraged. One of my favorites is the lavender honey shown in the photo above. Pure Honey comes from this beekeeper called Henry's Bullfrog Bees.

Being able to taste the honey made from different flowers is an education in itself. It's remarkable how different flowers create a strong variation in the taste and color of the honey. The wonders of nature.

 
“Where a bee collects its nectar determines the characteristics of honey such as the color, flavor, and composition.”
— Pure Honey
 

Buying local honey is important to help sustain small beekeepers. Our environment also benefits from a variety of beekeepers, not just the mass producers. Most studies say it is a myth that eating honey will help with your allergies, but don't let that stop you from enjoying it in your tea or on toast and in your baking. 

Honey is natural and considered harmless for adults and there is nothing to fear from raw honey. But pediatricians strongly caution against feeding honey to children under 1 year old. Children's digestive tracts aren't fully developed until after that age.

 
 

Farm Fresh Eggs

One of my favorite foods at the market is the fresh eggs from Vega Farms. I was first made aware of their double-yolk goodness when I overheard someone asking for a dozen of double-yolks. What? As far as I'm concerned, the yolks are the best part, right? 

Double-yolk eggs are a treat available only at the market, because eggs sold in grocery stores and the co-op are limited to single yolk. You want to plan an early arrival for these gems, because they sell out. 

The egg vendor knows I always get the double-yolk eggs. If she's not too busy with customers, we exchange a few words together. It adds a personal connection to the food shopping experience.

 
 

Connecting With The Vendors

Going to the same market on a regular basis has the added benefit of connecting with the vendors. I love having a face and a background with the product I'm buying. An added benefit is that the sellers often share good information about their products. For example, he'll tell you how to cook squash blossoms.

Here they are: squash blossoms for sale. The vendor clued me in that when the blossoms are available, people will queue before 8 a.m. (when the market opens) so as not to miss them. As you can imagine, it's a limited quantity and a short season, so people don't want to miss out. You won't be finding these in your supermarket.

Organic Cheese

Happy cows make happy milk and this is the case for our local Nicosio Valley Cheese Company and their pasture-based cows. I discovered one of their cheeses when I first started going to the market four years ago. 

The cheese is called Foggy Morning and it is, by far, a favorite of ours. The name alone inspires the imagination, especially for a fog-lover like me. It's a young cheese with a soft, creamy texture and it's refreshing in your mouth. Pair it with sliced, lightly salted heirloom tomatoes and you will satisfy any gourmet palate.

When the cheese vendor sees me coming, she reaches for a Foggy Morning. She knows that's what I always buy. This particular cheese is so popular, I have to make sure to get there early before it sells out.

 
“Foggy Morning is our American Cheese Society award-winning fresh cheese, it’s soft with a very subtle tang. Excellent on its own or paired with either savory or sweet accompaniments. ”
— Nicosio Valley Cheese
 
 
 

Buying at the farmers market brings me closer to the origins of my food. What a joy it was to share in their good news that our delicious Foggy Morning won a blue ribbon from the American Cheese Society Convention.

 
“We are proud to announce we received 3 awards at last weeks American Cheese Society Convention! We won Blue for our Foggy Morning and Red for our Loma Alta and San Geronimo!”
— Nicasio Valley Cheese
 

Are you able to shop local where you live?

 

Back To School With Crunchy Granola

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Time For Back To School

The dog days of summer are slipping behind us, but the cooler days of autumn have yet to return. Hot summer days linger in every corner, air conditioners hum at full force. 

We tumble down the slippery slopes of summer into fall as we prepare for back to school. We're anxious to wear our new fall clothes, but it's still too hot for wool plaid skirts and saddle shoes.

Time to organize our books, bags and school lunches.

The office supply store beckons. The thrill of the search for pencils, pens and notebooks calls to us.

Surely we need  another notebook. Especially a pretty one like this. Maybe this one over here is more functional. Oooh, look at this pretty paper.

La Rentrée

In France, it's called la Rentrée, (the return, beginning of the school year). The French return home from their August month of vacation and re-enter their work-a-day lives. Children head back to school.

Paris is notoriously empty during August as everyone skedaddles to their favorite vacation spot. I like the expression, la Rentrée, because it embraces everyone getting back into the saddle of work, school, and daily life.

Back to school in the U.S. specifically targets students starting school again, but in truth, we're all caught up in it as we buckle down to another work year.

Getting to work takes longer as traffic increases with children shuttled to school. Waiting behind the school bus, we dream of the summer vacations that are behind us.

Organizing Meals For Back To School

Wholesome, homemade food sustains us in our busy endeavors. King Arthur Flour offers a wonderful recipe for Crunchy Granola. Sweetened with maple syrup, it makes a tasty, healthy breakfast with yogurt and fruit. It's also a mid-day treat, just as it is, for snacking. Pack some in a small container to add to a lunch box.

I'd been meaning to make my own granola for awhile. I can report without hesitation that this recipe is delicious.

Here's a photo of granola on a half sheet pan lined with parchment paper, ready for the oven. If you're making the full recipe, you'll need two half sheet pans. A full recipe makes approximately 18 cups.

Oven temperature is set for 250º F (120º C). The low heat and slow cook seal in the flavors and help protect it from burning. I cooked mine a bit longer than the 90 minutes to ensure the granola was crunchy.

Homemade Granola For Back To School

The freshness of the granola was delightful. Made at home, you can't get any fresher than that. It's easy to gather all the ingredients and what's left over can be saved in the refrigerator or freezer (such as nuts, wheat germ) for future batches.

I added currants to this batch of granola. The tiny bites of sweetness tuck in nicely with the crunchy nuts. I also chopped up some white raisins to help them blend in. The real maple syrup is a splurge that's well worth it. 

I stuck with the sliced almonds, as suggested, because larger almonds could be too crunchy. Since I had walnuts on hand, they were also chopped up with the pecans.

“Chaque rentrée, c’est la même chose. On a, à la fois, trop peur et trop hâte de se retrouver.”
— from the movie, LOL
 
“For each return back to school, it’s the same thing. We are, simultaneously, too scared and too eager to see each other again.”
— translation
 

Enjoy your homemade granola. Here's to a new cycle of learning as we head back to school.

Fading Flowers And Love

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Flowers From Beginning To End

“When you love life totally, how can you avoid death?

You have to love death also.

When you love a flower deeply, you love its withering away also.

When you love a woman deeply, you love her getting old also, you one day love her death also. That is part of her life, part of woman.

Old age has not happened from the outside, it has come from the inside. The beautiful face has become wrinkled now – you love those wrinkles also, they are part of your woman.

You love a man and his hair has grown white – you love those hairs also. They have not happened from the outside; they are not accidents.

Life is unfolding and now the black hair has disappeared and the gray hair has come. You don’t reject the gray hairs, you love them, they are a part of the man.

Then your man becomes old, becomes weak – you love that too.

Then one day the man or the woman is gone – you love that too. ”
— Osho
 

What better teacher than Nature to capture the essence of birth and death and how love hums at the heart of it all?

Observing nature in my backyard, I decided to photograph the blossoming flowers. I positioned myself to capture their humble beginnings of greenery. Eager buds stretched forth as they pushed their way into the world. Twirling out of a spiral, they opened their petals to become the flower they were meant to be. 

Everyone loves flower buds and blossoms.

As I documented their journey through the lens of my iPhone camera, I began to wonder – why isn’t the entire process considered beautiful?

I came upon this quote by Osho and it captured what I was feeling. He gets to the core of the issue. We can love the entire process from beginning to end. We don't have to be limited only to the parts that our limited minds deem to be pretty.

 Even fading petals have a song to sing, don't they?

See the unfolding of the flowers in these photos:

Here, a flower opens its petals from within a spiral.

 Now the flower opens wide in a blaze of color and a fire burns at its center.

 The petals are shifting past their prime and begin to curl at the edges.

 The flower fades further, petals crumple more.

 The full glory of the flower is gone. One tenacious petal remains attached.

 All the petals are gone. Only the glowing ember of a flower remains.

Love From Beginning To End

As flowers bloom, age and wither, beauty can be seen in all the steps of the process.

Love is at the heart of the journey. A love without judgment of whether they’re at the beginning or the end or how frazzled we look when it’s all over. We tap into natural cycles and the love that connects us all.

In our meditations, we become aware of the conditioning and judgments we place on ourselves regarding what we can or cannot love.

We allowed to love the birth, but not the death. Yet, the dying process is our ultimate journey on Earth. It's not about being in love with death itself, but rather, holding love through the “final” process that awaits all of us.

Davis Farmers Market

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Job Transfer To California

One of the advantages of the new job was that I would not have to dig my car out of winter snow and ice in the cold, black hour of 6:30 a.m.

Six-thirty a.m. in the dead of winter is an hour no civilized person should step out of their bed, much less their house. 

I dreaded those early mornings when I opened my front door and waded into the treacherous black night that had yet to turn into day. You'd tell yourself to watch out for an ice patch, but that slick ice grabbed your ankle and smashed you to the ground faster than you could take a breath. I would be left with a thigh-consuming bruise from hip to knee.

Hobbling into work, I'd only get cold stares from co-workers conveying their annoyance that I wasn't there earlier.

Those icicle days were over. No more bags of salt for icy stairs. No more winter woes of shoveling snow to get to work.

California, here we come.

Davis Farmers Market

California – the land of nuts and fruits. This is an old, tired joke but, truth be known, California really does have an abundance of fruits and nuts that grow here.

I discovered this was another job advantage. I would be living near The Central Valley, one of the world's most productive agricultural regions. More than 230 crops are grown there.

Just 20 miles from home, the Davis farmers market throws its arms open wide to welcome a multitude of food sellers. It's an outdoor market with a covering. It's situated next to a large park if you fancy bringing a blanket for an outdoor picnic. 

The farmers market has existed for over 35 years. The market grew from just three farmers with boxes of produce on the ground, some eggs and loaves of bread to a thriving marketplace that now has a growing number of vendors and fruit and vegetable cultivars. 

 
“The market operates under a pavilion built especially for it with public funds, one of the few of its kind in the state, and it draws 7,000 - 10,000 people each week.”
 

The Davis farmers market is open rain or shine twice a week:
Saturdays from 8 am – 1 pm and Wednesday evenings. 

Fresh And Organic

Nothing beats the taste of fruits and vegetables that were picked only a day or two before you eat them. Flavors burst in your mouth and a long-forgotten sweetness romances the cells of your body. The produce is fresh and vibrant – alive.

I am particularly fond of the organic peaches. Just look at this photo of a ripe peach. 

Organic food decays faster, so you have to plan for it, buying just what you need or tucking it in the refrigerator sooner than you'd expect. In the supermarket, chemicals are used to make the fruit firmer and to make it last longer, but it also contributes to a decrease in taste. 

Seasons Of The Earth

Going to the farmers market put me in touch with how our produce reflects the seasons. In our modern grocery stores, foods are flown in from around the world, creating the illusion that nothing ever goes out of season. It's always spring somewhere.

As a steady market-goer, I learned to sense the pulse of our earth. I watched the produce change and respond as the days darken and then lengthen again. Peaches are simply not available in December. 

At the farmers market, I celebrate the arrival of cherries and peaches and wistfully bid them goodbye when they must go.

The sweetest cherry tomatoes are bright orange and red. They sing their song, then leave. I anticipate their arrival a few weeks before they're ready. When are the cherry tomatoes coming? Wait for it, wait for it, ahhhh, here they are.

Grapes have a late summer timing and their sweet nectar is unlike anything purchased in a grocery store.

In winter, we welcome the citrus crops. I rejoice when asparagus arrives on the scene.

"How much longer will the cherries last?" I ask one of the vendors. 

"Only two more weeks!" he calls out to me.

When we come to the end of a season, I try to plan accordingly and stock up. I can't buy enough to last for the rest of the year, but I can extend the season just a little. For example, I'll cut up fruit and freeze it for future smoothies.

Sometimes I won't be able to get to the market for a week or two and when I return, I've already missed it. A certain fruit or vegetable is gone for the year.

If you visit this part of California, it's well worth a stop at the Davis farmers market.

 

 

Honey Bee Rescue

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Honey Bee Down

So there I was, minding my own business... Well, actually, I wasn't minding my own business.

I was in my backyard checking on the resident garden spiders. I've been watching them and learning by observation, but that's a story for another blog post.

A honey bee was caught in one of the older, tattered spider webs. He struggled to break free as he wiggled his legs against the confining threads. I took a quick look around, it seemed this spider web was abandoned. Or, so I convinced myself.

I understand the law of nature. If a spider already had the honey bee and was munching away, I would lament, "Oh pooh. Score 1 for the spider, 0 for the honey bee. Poor honey bee."

Since there was no spider in sight and none moving in for the kill, I decided to interfere. 

Help Has Arrived

I spied a forlorn leaf and scooped the bee out of the sticky threads. He was pitiful, unable to fly. He could barely walk as he fell this way and that on the leaf.

I remembered the sugar-water-on-a-spoon honey bee remedy that I saw on Pinterest. A way to help a honey bee that was exhausted and far from home. It seemed a little far-fetched, but I pinned it on the off chance it might come in handy.

Now was the moment.

I carried the leaf holding the honey bee back to the house. I briefly thought about bringing him inside, then changed my mind. If he had a sudden recovery and started flying about, we'd have another problem of how to get him back out safely. I set him down on the patio next to my sliding glass door.

I bolted into the kitchen and grabbed my sugar container. I poured a spoonful of sugar in a small bowl, added warm tap water, and stirred to dissolve the granules. I stepped back outside to find my honey bee still lying there. He was constantly falling over as he tried to walk. I maneuvered the spoon in front of him. He held on to its edge. He appeared to take a long drink. Or was he just holding on? Hard for me to tell.

He pushed off from the spoon and staggered about on the patio. He fell into a concrete seam and couldn't get out, I helped him up with the leaf.

Recovery Process

He was still staggering and falling over. I was worried. Perhaps I would simply bear witness to his demise. But then, he started to preen himself, cleaning his little antennae. Surely this was a good sign?

After more cleaning, he lied down, tucked in his tiny wings and bowed his head. I swear he took a nap. I know honey bees sleep, having seen photos of it (on Pinterest again). Maybe he even had a miniature honey bee dream when he gave a tiny jerk.

This had to be encouraging, since I usually saw dead bees with their wings open. On the other hand, maybe he was bowing his head as he prepared to die. 

I waited.

He awakened, legs started moving again. He was stronger, less staggering. Another careful cleaning of his legs and antennae. I wondered if he needed more sugar water and placed the spoon in front of him. Nope, he didn't want it. I retreated with my spoon, watching.

He buzzed his wings. Now it really seemed like a good sign. He walked forward with determination. He buzzed again. Suddenly, he lifted straight up and flew away into the blue sky. 

Honey bee rescue accomplished.

The Smallest Amongst Us

“... mysterious and little known organisms live within walking distance of where you sit.
Splendor awaits in minute proportions.”
— Edward O. Wilson, Biophilia
 

Moral of the story: some things on Pinterest really do work. 

 

The first image is from the fable: The Spider and The Honey Bee

The Heart Of A Lion

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Cecil The Lion

“The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.”
— Mahatma Gandhi
 

All of us have lion hearts. Sometimes we have to find them.

Cecil The Lion

Cecil the Lion – with his black mane, was a major attraction and beloved animal in the Hwange National Park in Zimbabwe. He was a source of national pride.

He lived on protected territory and was part of a University of Oxford research program.

He was illegally hunted and killed. The hunters were well aware that what they did was illegal. Cecil had a tracking device that the hunters tried to destroy, unsuccessfully.

The lion killer bragged to a waitress that he "killed the biggest lion in the world."

Great, so none of the rest of us can enjoy that lion? Could you be any more selfish?

Jimmy Kimmel weighs in on the killing of Cecil the Lion.

It's an entirely uneven fight. He killed something and proved his power? Seriously? Shooting a gun full of bullets kills any and everything. That's a given fact and no big surprise. He acts like this makes him important. How can that possibly make you superior?

What if the hunter had said instead, "I saw the biggest lion in the world and look at this photo." Wouldn't we all be able to share in the joy of it and pat him on the back?

Trophy Hunting Of Endangered Animals

What destruction must drive through someone's heart to need to partake of trophy hunting? Hearts devoid of compassion and love, unable to empathize or grasp the pain or suffering of others. The hunters try to justify their actions with defensiveness.

Trophy hunters purposefully use the key word "took" instead of "kill" in an attempt to lull others into thinking it is less violent than it is. That is exactly the word the killer of Cecil used in his letter to his dental patients.

Fighting Our Causes

All of us have political and ethical issues that are near and dear to our hearts. One issue is not more or less valuable than the other. Certainly, one single person cannot carry the burden of every single issue that exists. If this is not an issue that speaks to you, that is your right. 

Working together, on all our different issues, hopefully our combined efforts will change the world for the better.

Because change is needed. Desperately.

“Since 1986, WildCRU, now with over 50 researchers, has grown to be one of the largest and most productive conservation research institutes in the world.”
— WildCRU

WildCRU (Wildlife Conservation Research Unit) is the conservation group that was tracking Cecil. WildCRU is part of the University of Oxford, within the Department of Zoology. You can visit their website to learn more about them or to donate to their work.

The Tears Of A Lion

Sometimes an issue is so difficult to face and full of sorrow that we turn away. It can be difficult to fight or even direct positive energy, because the situation causes us great pain or makes us angry. These are the moments we have to remind ourselves to keep going forward.

We have to walk through that pain or anger. We can't let the darkness stop us from moving into the light, exactly what darkness would want.

We have to find the heart of a lion within us.

Loving And Caring For Our Animals

Some people belittle those who are fighting for Cecil the Lion, for caring so deeply for animals. It's okay to love our animals and our planet with all your heart. 

Our animals need our help. They don't have our human voices to yell about the wrongs, nor the money to make people listen.

We are their voices.

“Until one has loved an animal, a part of one’s soul remains unawakened.”
— Anatole France
 

Say Hello To Pluto

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Pluto Fly By

Hello there, Pluto.

It's nice to finally make your acquaintance. That’s an understatement. It's awe inspiring to finally see you.

NASA hit it out of the park with these recent photos of Pluto. The spacecraft, New Horizons, zoomed by at a blistering 30,000 miles per hour relative to the dwarf planet's surface. Snapping photos and gleaning information like nobody's business.

It will take about 18 months to receive all the information transmitted by the tiny spacecraft that is all the size of a grand piano. A tantalizing feast of treats will be savored over many days by the scientists at NASA.

Pluto is about two-thirds the size of Earth's moon. We have already begun to identify icy mountain ranges extending as high as 11,000 feet  on this mysterious planet. 

“This graphic presents a view of Pluto and Charon as they would appear if placed slightly above Earth’s surface and viewed from a great distance.
Recent measurements obtained by New Horizons indicate that Pluto has a diameter of 2370 km, 18.5% that of Earth’s, while Charon has a diameter of 1208 km, 9.5% that of Earth’s.”
— NASA
 

The Sun Shines On

NASA was on a roll with delights for us mere mortals. They also captured this new single shot of planet Earth in full sunlight.

The photo on the left was caught in 1972.

The photo on the right was snapped in 2015. 

Over forty years is a long time in between selfies.

The difficulty with this particular selfie is that you need to have the sun to your back and be in the just the right position to grab this shot as you're zooming past.

Most of the images we have seen of Earth since 1972 have been composites.

“In order to view the Earth as a fully illuminated globe, a person (or camera) must be situated in front of it, with the sun directly at his or her back.
Not surprisingly, it can be difficult to arrange this specific lighting scheme for a camera-set up that’s orbiting in space at speeds approaching thousands of miles per hour.”
— Astronaut, Scott Kelly
 

Observer Effect In Outer And Quantum Mechanics

Tracking the images and wealth of information that NASA makes available to us is a humbling and yet enlightening experience. Keeping the solar system in mind helps us to keep things in perspective.

Insights into our solar system remind us of the vast connectedness we have to everything.

Talk about a perfect example of "the observer changes the nature of what is being observed" within quantum mechanics. Passing by Jupiter, the spacecraft New Horizons gained a push in speed from its gravitational force. The effect for Jupiter was that its years are now slightly shorter. 

“Jupiter lost as much kinetic energy as New Horizons gained, causing it to fall a little closer to the sun. A year on Jupiter today is slightly shorter than it was before — all because humans wanted to get a good look at Pluto.”
 

That's a stop and pause moment.

Marbles In The Sky

Back to our dear Pluto.

Finally, we have a completed family portrait of the planets in our solar system.

Yes, we are running with the idea that Pluto counts as one of our planets. Besides, look how nicely our planets line up in this pattern of nine.

We don't care what anyone says, Pluto, you'll always be a part of the family.

Maybe you're the eccentric relative we always wonder about. The one whose story never quite matches. We’re all good with that. We love you anyway.

Cheers.