Rusty and I Go to the Farmers' Market

Yes, after nearly two months of fobbing you all off with occasional webquizzes and such, I’m really blogging today. I hope to be more intentional about this now that the Dog Days are over (I mean the hot hot days of July and early August, nothing to do with Rusty.)

Today was one of the days that the Brunswick Farmers’ Market is in business on the Mall. For those of you who have never been here, the Mall is what Brunswick calls the green stretch in the middle of downtown that in other New England towns is often the Green or the Common. (We have a Town Commons as well, it’s more woodsy and a place for hiking and such.) Two hot dog stands have been set up there since time immemorial, and there are park benches and a gazebo. On Tuesdays and Fridays from May till Thanksgiving there is also a local Farmers’ Market.

I’ve been meaning to take Rusty down there ever since we got him, but was a little nervous about his manners. They were not perfect today, but I was able to keep him from eating all the produce (he is very fond of fruit and vegetables and will eat radishes, rose hips, bananas, etc. with alacrity and no apparent ill effects.) As usual he made many new friends, both canine and human, and was much admired. He scored a green bean and two apples, and a tiny squash when we got home. It was also a long enough walk (1 ½ to 2 hours all told, much of which was wandering about the market stalls) that he was quiet for about 5 hours after we got home.

Here is a picture of some of the gorgeous local stuff I bought.




I bought more potatoes than that, of course. I asked about the onion tops on the beautiful red onions, and was told that some people cut them up and put them in salads ( much like scallions, just a bit bigger). So I may try that.

I can’t show you the sweet corn because I ate it for supper, along with a sliced tomato sprinkled with sugar (the way my Grampie used to eat them). I want to make a ratatouille with the eggplant, tomatoes, onions and squashes, and I may have to wait till Friday when there’s another market because the exigencies of keeping Rusty under control made me forget to get garlic, green pepper and basil, all of which were on offer. Note the size of the blueberries if you can see them – they are wild Maine blueberries, not the giant-size cultivated ones. I had a few on some Gifford’s French Vanilla ice cream with a little maple syrup. Probably I will make some blueberry muffins as well.

Some time ago I mentioned that Onkel Hankie Pants is appearing as Sitting Bull in Annie Get Your Gun in Lewiston. The show is midway through its run now. The last weeks of rehearsal, as reported by Onkel H,, put me in mind of a Cole Porter song, “Another Op’nin’, Another Show” from Kiss Me Kate. And so did the preview, which I saw last Thursday:
“Four weeks, you rehearse and rehearse,
Two weeks, and it couldn’t be worse,
One week, will it ever be right?
Then out of the hat comes that big first night!”
I’ll be seeing it again on Friday evening with my brother, sister-in-law and their son. Good times!