labor day
September 05, 2005, 12:02 P.M.

Spouse and I went to Madison for the Dane County Farmer's Market on Saturday. The glorious, "granddaddy of 'em all" farmer's market on Capitol Square. We love it so much, and were afraid we weren�t going to get there this summer. I was thrilled when Spouse suggested it on Friday night. Even with the price of gas, we felt we couldn�t blow the opportunity to get it into our schedule.

This weekend is a great one to go, too, because there are soooo many items available. What came home in my gi-normous eco-friendly canvas market tote, you ask? Well:

• tender, new, baby carrots


• super-sweet yellow onions


• eleven gorgeous, red-ripe, fantastic beefsteak tomatoes


• adorable little fingerling potatoes


• eggplant, firm and fresh and gorgeous


• green beans, fresh and crisp


• mushrooms, locally grown, fresh crimini and whites


• sweet corn, family farmed, and again, local.


• broccoli, tight, new heads, full of anti-oxidents and vitamin A


• green onions, Spouse�s favorite and of a county-fair ribbon winning beauty


• a pint of blackberry jam (for my dad--it�s his fave)


• a pint of "berry basket" jam (red raspberries, black raspberries, and blackberries). This stuff is �Grammie Good�, which is my benchmark for jam, and which very few can meet.


• new crop Paula Red apples, from my favorite old orchard (Ela�s) in Rochester. (So cool to see them at the market!)

Not too shabby, eh? It warms the cockles of this old Iowa farmer�s granddaughter to be eating like that. I make a roast yesterday, with some of the fingerlings and the itty bitty carrots, and omg, did they absolutely rock! The roast itself was from the butcher shop, so it was pretty fine, too.
Today, it will be sweet corn, salad with fresh mushrooms, tomatoes, and green onions in it, and oh, yeah--BBQ ribs on the grill. And maybe even some green beans.

We weren�t there long--Spouse had been up since the night before, and he was too tired to put up with my endless meandering through the used bookstore, or the mystery bookstore, or the artisan�s booths. We really just made a loop around the square, loaded up on nature�s bounty, and headed back. We did kind of meander the backroads home (it was such a fantastical, gorgeous day) and we stopped at the Texas Roadhouse near home for some late lunch, but otherwise it was pretty much up and back.

Spouse, as usual, hid in his room, playing on the computer. But when I finished, we both got cleaned up, grabbed the shopping list, and headed to Racine/Sturtevant for some shopping of the errand type.

I made a stop at B&N to get a CD for myself, though. I haven�t bought any new music in so long that it is ridiculous. I still haven�t, actually. I bought Pete Townshend�s (deep breath) �Coolwalkingsmoothtalkingstraightsmokingfirestoking: The Best of Pete Townshend� , which is from 1996. And which I bought as a replacement, for the cassette copy that got wrecked when my pickup truck was vandalized a few years ago.

It�s a personal favorite, and I can�t believe it took me nearly three years to replace it. I still think �Slit Skirts� is the best song ever on the theme of being an aging rocker.

I'm bad that way. I can be out in the yard, and think that the vines on the fence need to be trimmed, but the minute I walk into the house, it pops right out of my brain. Same with cleaning the sun haze from my windshield, or washing the picture window, or getting the weed killer and going after that thing growing out of the concrete on the front walk... a classic case of "out of sight, out of mind". So this time I'm racking my brain, writing it all down, and attacking, and accomplishing.

I also usually try, on the weekend, to pick a slightly bigger odd job that needs doing --something that takes an hour or two of concentrated effort, but doesn�t need doing on a regular basis--and jump on it. Today, I think the linen closet could use a turn-out, but I might just wash my car, instead. Or not. Come to think of it, the backyard swing has been neglected, too. Maybe I should show it some love, in the form of draping myself over it for a few hours...

The great thing about work is, whatever chore you choose to do, the others will sit patiently and wait for you to get to them. They ain�t a-goin� nowhere.

Oh, lordy, just listen to me! Shades of my mom�s incessant nagging...�do something constructive!�--versus my innate desire to flip off the world and be my own, grasshoppery self.

GYM REPORT: Raji and I did our Saturday Mile, (1.2, actually) and it took about 30 minutes. I power-walked by myself for 30 minutes on Sunday, and it was back to a mile with the dog today.