Have you noticed? Well, it’d be impossible not to. If you’ve been to your farmer’s market lately, at least. I’m talking about the awesome time of year it is and the great diversity of options that are fresh produce right now.
Tomatoes next to pears. Peaches next to persimmons. Apples and eggplant and yams and corn.
It’s the super-cool crossover from summer to fall when you can buy both plums and pumpkin. You can see one season giving way to the other, but you can still get your hands on both. Produce-alogical win-win.
But it won’t last forever. Get thee to a farmers market and take advantage.
Just this weekend I bought onions, peppers, summer and winter squash, apples, and mushrooms, and I’ll be using all of it – well, except the apples – to make a major pot of crossover season soup. I’m going to add bits and bobs of beans and grains, using up packages that are rambling around in the cupboard, and a bunch of homegrown tomatoes, which are still producing like crazy in the back yard. I’ll throw in some herbs and spices, and when it’s all done, I’ll freeze my soup in one- or two-cup portions so that I can enjoy it for lunches and dinners while my kitchen is being put back together.
What? Oh yeah. I haven’t told you about the flood that decommissioned my kitchen. Well, that’s another story. Which I’ll tell you another time.
Meanwhile, enjoy the farmers market and all that it has to offer during this plums-and-pumpkins time of year.
(Speaking of pumpkins, I’ll be teaching a hands-on cooking class called Harvest Celebration of Pumpkin on November 13 at Ramekins in Sonoma. Click here for my schedule of classes and events.)
