At the farmers market, the winter vegetables are coming in; the market is full of potatoes, squashes, root vegetables and winter greens.
Potatoes arrive in a multitude of colors and shapes: rosy pinks and reds, buttery yellows, and purples from violet to nearly black; tiny orbs, gnarled finger(ling)s and smooth, plump ovoids. Beautiful, but not today.
Carrots come in colors, too: ivory, gold, magenta, aubergine (the color of some, but not all aubergines), and, yes, orange. Round, stubby, tiny as my finger or long as Pinnochio’s nose, all decked out in lacy greens. No, not today.
Acorn and butternut - the winter squashes everyone knows - share overflowing boxes and baskets with ambercup, buttercup, carnival, delicata, gold nugget, hubbard, kabocha. Solid, striped, speckled; smooth and striated; sweet, sweeter, sweetest. So tempting, so… not today.
Why call them greens, when some are anything but? Take this radicchio, for instance; deep maroon leaves, white core and veins. (Is that a tiny shading of green where the two colors meet?) And the greens (kale, chard, collards and kin) that are green? They’re blue-green and black-green, green with yellow stems and red stems, green with purple edges, enough different greens to fill a 64-color crayon box all by themselves. I want to grab my favorite color, but not today.
This season brings a feast of color and form glorious enough to draw me to the market, even when I don’t intend to buy. A loaf of bread and a few crisp apples are all I purchase. Time enough, when the kitchen is finished. Time enough to say yes to all this bounty. Not today… but soon.
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THat is SUCH a gorgeous photo, my dear. That makes me hungry.
Today we are doing pumpkin bisque…. I cut one of my little pumpkins and it is orange beyond belief inside.. My brother is doing the cooking adding carrots, leeks, onion, ginger, chicken broth and some sort of mixture between a sour cream and yogurt. He promises to write the recipe down ….. it’s in his head right now.