Farmer's Market

It's Saturday. Saturday means the Burbank Farmer's Market. 

The mushroom guy sells these huge tubs of various mushrooms for twenty bucks. I am intrigued but can't imagine a situation or a dish that would call for twenty bucks of mushrooms. 

 I bought a hunk of wood ear destined for a risotto.

And then: the egg line.

 The egg line is legendary. There's usually 20-30 people in it, but the woman collecting signatures for ID'ing genetically modified fruit reminded me that next weekend is Easter. Oscar got in line, fired up his DS, and I went shopping.

Bacon and Hass avocados. 50¢ each.

 There was an article in the LA Times today about cherimoya, AKA the custard apple. This is not the article but will give you a good idea.  I didn't buy one today but after reading about it, I will next week. I'll eat it with a spoon or blend it into a cocktail and report back. (The ones in the picture are pretty big -- this stall, where I get my avocados from, has a large selection of prices and sizes.)

 They also have my favorite flowers, but I was feeling frugal this morning and limited my purchases to edible stuff.

 I stopped back to visit Oscar in the egg line. He was playing DS and was happy as a clam. He had at least another 20 minutes in line.

 This is the Asian booth. Gai lan, bok choi, every kind of pea shoots and beans you'd want. Gorgeous hunks of ginger, fresh and half the price of anywhere else.

 An old family farm that's been at the market for 30+ years. I buy tomatoes from them in the summer and apples in the winter.

 Flowers. I love my weird bunch from the avocado guy, but more traditional flowers are at this stall.

Finally, I make it back to Oscar and we are up for the egg line.

The egg booth is run by a lovely lady and, sometimes, her daughter. We usually get a flat of 20 jumbo brown eggs for $4 (free range, vegetarian but not organic). We lucked out the weekend before New Year's when we bought a flat of lucky double-yolked eggs. This week we got a dozen each of brown (to eat) and white (to dye). $4.50 for two dozen glorious eggs right off the farm.

 And then the egg lady (not at all like the John Waters version) said "Can I give your little boy an Easter basket?"

And how!

A sweet little basket filled with candy that they made for all the kids at the market. Now, I might be able to get eggs 25¢ cheaper at Trader Joes, but they aren't nearly as tasty as the ones from the farm. Visit me and I'll scramble some up for breakfast, and you'll be a convert. But! To buy them every week from the same lady who can talk about the farm and the chickens and makes baskets for all the kids she sees every week? And who remembers us as the family that bought the lucky eggs and has the 8yo who stands in line every week? I miss my small town of South Orange desperately, but moments like that make me happy to be here.

 Strawberries. They are cheap and yummy all year round here.

There's this booth that is a crazy organic farm and staffed by a bunch of filthy hippies with disgusting dreadlocks and their food always, but always has all kinds of creatures crawling all over it. But I like them for two reasons: their veggies look like real food that grew in real dirt, not the plastic looking crap you buy at the grocery store. And they are the primary source of the fabled $2/lb organic heirloom tomatoes I buy and live off of in the late summer. Not to mention, they will drone on and on about how it's better that their food is dirty and and how the man tries to keep them down through legal definitions of "organic" and all you can think is, the reason they have twice as many people manning this stand is so they can continually slink off to the parking garage and get stoned.

 Another stand: the cheapest onions. I'm writing this post and tending a pot of french onion soup right now.

 The tamale stand. Haven't tried them yet; they are on the list.

 The minute we buy a house I will be all over this vendor. Until then I am happy to let my landscaper/landlord/next-door neighbor take care of the gardening.

Our final stop is always the ice cream truck. 

Our spoils, this week. Our farmer's market budget is usually $40. We were a little under this week, about $30. 

 The greens: three heads of broccoli, the only veggie the kids eat (steamed with butter and dipped in parmigiana cheese. Whatever.). Gai lan, Chinese broccoli, my favorite. To be steamed lightly, drizzled with sesame oil, and sprinkled with toasted sesame seeds. A bunch of parsley and two bunches of frisee from Oscar's bud Sage's folk's booth. They were out of salad mix by the time we got there. Damn you, egg line! Oh well. That frisee will show up with a lemony vinaigrette with chunks of bacon and with be out of this world.

 Strawberries for Arlo and the "four cups for ten bucks" from the ice cream truck. Evan requested the Guinness ice cream, so we got that, Aztec Chocolate (with chilpote chili and cinnamon), salted caramel and grapefruit sorbet.

 Wood-ear mushrooms, my splurge of the week. This bunch was $6 and I plan to make a risotto with it tomorrow,.

 Eggs, one dozen white for dying, and another dozen for eating. $4.50 for the pair.

 3 lbs of onions for my soup tonight, just about to be done as I've been writing this. About 4 bucks, plus the stock and cheese and bread I have in the fridge. A decadent yet cheap supper.

Two bacon avocados, two Hass, for $2 total.

 Arlo is the only strawberry eater of our kids. He's thrilled when I bring them home, as you can see from his strawberry-stained face.

And Frida, our friends' dog who we are lucky to dog sit, loves them too.