Things I Learned at Farmer's Market 9/5/2009

I learned what Pomodori is, and that it's very good. Better yet, I copied down the recipe for making it.

I also learned about Boursin Cheese. It looks to me like cream cheese, and it has herbs and spices mixed in. The ingredients included garlic, white pepper, parsley, and chives. The cheese was spread on New York Style Bagel Chips, then topped with slow-roasted Roma-type tomatoes coated with olive oil and spices.

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One jobless young man in Hutchinson is a fan of Austrian economist Ludwig von Mises, whose theories most Libertarians are in agreement with. He also identified himself as being involved in praxis (practical application of a field of learning) related to a category designation I've forgotten--something about people being self-sufficient and not depending on the government.

The young man's discourse began when his wife spotted the poster on our table advertising the just-begun-laying pullets that Lowell is selling. She wants her own chickens.

The man asked where Hiromi came from, then told us a story about his Chinese friend, whose "amazing story" illustrates the "truth" of the von Mises theory. The Chinese man arrived in the US as a member of a team of acrobats. While performing in Hutchinson, he defected, and has since become financially very successful, with a number of businesses to his name. He lives elsewhere in the state now.

Our family saw an acrobat performance by a team from China a number of years ago. I wonder if the young man who defected was on that team.

In what was probably a case of TMI, the young man today lowered his voice and said that his wife was actually married to the Chinese man at one time "just to help him with immigration and everything," but that he was OK with that, and the present and former husband of the same lady were "good friends and everything."

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I learned that Donald stayed home from market today because it was his turn to preach tomorrow and he needed the day to prepare. God bless him.

This reminds me of an exchange I overheard several weeks ago between James and Arlyn. Arlyn was not enamored with the new job he acquired in the recent church offices election, especially because it necessitated excusing himself from the social event we were all involved in--because he had to go to a meeting.

James (who is a minister) commented that he thinks the office Arlyn is filling now has term limits--which was a gentle reminder that, for ministers in our setting, there are no term limits. Arlyn smilingly conceded the point.

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I heard something about the experiences of a person who is learning from a Christian counselor about how to deal with his own bondages--to multiple personality manifestations, and "voices" that suggest wrong actions. God bless him too.

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I learned that one stray female Muscovey duck hatched sixteen ducklings, after the woman who unexpectedly acquired the duck found a mate for her. This is the first year she does not have a grasshopper problem.

She also told me that three of the ducklings drowned when they could not get out of the wading pool she had provided for them. They needed a step near the wall to get out over the slippery side, but she didn't know that.

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My bunches of dried flowers were in demand today. Fresh flowers, though were a tough sell, even though they were beautiful, and people told me so.

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Last week Hiromi gave one man a zucchetta rampicante, and he and his wife liked it so much, he called Hiromi to ask him to bring several more for him this week. He reported that they had sliced it about 3/4 inch thick, brushed on a bit of olive oil, and grilled it. It was a little sweeter than zucchini and very good. He said it reminded him a bit of spaghetti squash, which his mother used to grow, but he couldn't remember what it looked like.

"Like that," I said, pointing to Norma's table next to ours, where she was selling some spaghetti squash, along with her baked goods.

We sent several to Colorado with the young people from here that are camping there this weekend. Camping food is not famous for being vegetable-rich, and I don't know if this will find takers or not, but it's out of our kitchen, at least. Yay.

I cut up and cooked another one tonight, and I plan to try making some pumpkin custard with it.

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We learned how the wooden nickel program works at the market. People use their credit cards to purchase the wooden nickel, which can then be redeemed for produce. The vendor who gets the wooden nickels in exchange for produce turns them in and gets a receipt for the dollar value. The following week, the vendor gets a check from the market for the value of the wooden nickels he turned in.

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One elderly gentleman who saw the pullet eggs we were selling for Lowell said, "I haven't seen pullet eggs since I was a kid on the farm."

Another person looked longingly at the eggs and said, "I love brown eggs," but she didn't buy any.

James asked his wife Betty, "Would you like to buy some of Miriam's brown eggs?"

"No, I'm sorry. They're pretty small, and I wouldn't know how to make my recipes with small eggs." (Add an extra egg maybe????)

James loves to hang around a while and talk plants. His wife is always ready to go before he is.

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The lady who sells Mexican food would like to buy some fresh milk to make cheese with. She also leaned that grocery store milk often contains hormones, and she doesn't want to feed her daughter hormone-laced milk.

I told her about Dwight's diary where she could buy milk. Later she asked if I could bring her some if she gave me a container and money. I promised to do so.

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Donna told me that one year they planted garlic in October, and it bolted to seed. She wondered if that was too early to plant garlic in the fall. I don't know.

I do know that fall is the right season for planting garlic, which does not seem to be common knowledge among gardeners. The clove puts out roots in the fall, and begins growth early the following year, and produces much larger cloves than spring planted garlic will.

They were selling soft-necked garlic, which is distinct from hard-necked garlic. Besides the firmness of the neck, I don't know how they are different.

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Someone in the area is preparing Five-Alarm Chili this weekend. At our stand, they loaded up on Jalapeno peppers, and also bought the Holy Mole and Ancho peppers I had packaged separately.

If you see someone walking around Hutchinson with smoke coming out of their ears, you'll know they had some of the Five-Alarm Chile.

They told me that I also should grow Habenero and Chipotle peppers. Hiromi wrote it down.

I actually have one Habenero plant that has the first peppers just turning yellow.

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One shopper was very pleased to find red Jalapeno peppers. She had a recipe that called for 47 Japapeno peppers, and all she had was green ones. Like any good cook, she wished for something to add color to the product, and knew that red peppers was what she needed. She found it at our table today.

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Jim and Lisa told us about eggplant pickles, which sounded like something we'd enjoy. She's emailing me the recipe.

The brief description she gave sounded a lot like the process we use to make many of the Japanese style pickles we eat.

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When the musician of the day was singing "You Are My Sunshine" I wondered what he thinks when he sings it. I thought of his ex-wife, who might have had some of those same thoughts somewhere along the way, especially the ones about leaving me to love another; you'll regret it all some day.

Actually, I doubt any such deep thoughts were involved in the singing and playing.

Compartmentalizing one's life is all too easy to do.

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The friendly young boy who usually helps his grandpa sell peppers was missing today. He was in Wichita with his mother. His dad was there instead, with huge silver doughnut-shaped earrings snugged up to his head at both ears. It reminded me of the pictures I've seen of what is considered fashionable in some "primitive" cultures, where inserting progressively larger pegs in the ear lobes results in ears that hang very low--the lower, the more admired.

Admiration was not the first sentiment I felt when I spied the ear rings.

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Nevin stopped by the market today. He was in my class in grade and high school, and has lived elsewhere ever since--until several months ago, when he moved "home"--into the house in Partridge Joel and Hilda bought right after they got married.

It's really good to reconnect with him a bit. He's been a teacher all his working life, and now is married to a teacher. Neither of them is teaching this year, however, but they are both very eager to be involved with children and young people. She has experience in and passion for helping children with learning difficulties, and would like to do tutoring.

From my front door I can see the farm where Nevin grew up two miles away across the fields.