Farmers' Market and Pics of Downtown Baltimore

Farmers’ Market morning:

Like usual we were up at 6am to head to the farmers’ market to load up on fresh produce. But unlike usual it was dark when we left the house at 6:30am. There really is something not quite right about leaving the house in the dark to grocery shop. ;-)

When we got to the market Rudy (Cat’s Paw Organic) had already unloaded his truck and had things set up. That gave us more time to chat about the book he is writing, which I can’t wait to read. We talked about that a little while I shopped for produce. From him we got: 6 beets, 6 cucumbers, pint of French breakfast radishes, 2 bags of baby arugula and a quart of green beans. Rudy will be having a winter CSA that I am anxious to take part in since it will be a lot of dark leafy greens and root veggies, my favorites. If you are interested he has paperwork at the market on Sunday. He is going to deliver to the market area in the winter if we get enough people participating.

Next we stopped to talk to Pam at our CSA (Calvert Farm) when she mentioned that she had been spending a lot of time reading my blog. Dan said I was beaming like a proud blog momma. If you are reading this Pam you absolutely made my morning. :-) Pam commented that they way we eat without oil is like the hunter/gatherers used to eat. I had not thought about that but she has a good point. We talked a little about why I don’t use oil and the impact oil has on the endothelial cells. I was in nutrition heaven this morning. This is the last week for the summer CSA with Pam so we signed up for the fall round which starts next week. If you are interested bring your check book to the market next week.  From Pam we picked up: 3 bunches of kale (love those green smoothies), 2 pounds of leeks, 1 pound of fresh shitakes, package of concord grapes (the smell was intoxicating), and a bunch of cilantro. Next week I will need to load up on fresh ginger again.

Then we stopped and bought another 25 pound box of tomatoes to use for salad and to dehydrate for the winter. While we were at the market we also picked up cabbage, cucumbers and bell peppers for my folks. We get a market list from them every Saturday.

On the way back from the market we swung by downtown to take a few quick architecture pictures. The farmers’ market is only a couple of blocks away.

Here is a picture of one of my hubby’s favorite old buildings.

The top of the building is particularly ornate and interesting.

This is a shot of the statuary on the building where Dan's office is located.

Here is the Midtown Yacht Club which is a restaurant and bar where Dan and I spent too many lunches back in the day. We haven’t been in years but it was a fun place that had peanuts that you were supposed to toss the shells on the floor. It used to have typical pub food but I have no idea what they serve now.

This is a shot of typical street in downtown with row houses/brown stones lining the streets. I thought this might give those of you in the middle of the country an idea of city life.

Here is an old house that was turned into apts. I love the widows walk on the top.

I hope you enjoyed the brief tour of downtown from this morning. I will try to do more of this since everyone seems to like these types of pictures.

Breakfast:

When we got home from the market we decided smoothies sounded like the way to go. My smoothie had 1 ½ kale leaves and stems shredded, 1 ½ collard leaves and stems shredded, 1 frozen banana, ½ cup wild blueberries, 6 walnut halves, ¼ teaspoon cinnamon, ¼ teaspoon powdered ginger and water to process. Since I didn’t start the cold processed green tea before we left for the market I had to use water.

Dan’s smoothie was almost the same as mine except he had a handful of walnuts in his for more calories.

After our smoothies I made a small pot of roasted barley tea to share with Dan. It satisfied my desire to smell coffee without resorting to the espresso machine. Hopefully I stick to my guns and avoid that temptress (the espresso machine) today.

Lunch:

It is a cool rainy morning here today so we may end up making a big pot of soup. Dan just mentioned barley soup would be good. Unless Dan changes his mind barley soup may be lunch with my folks today. I will keep you posted.

Since this post already has a few pictures I am going to post now so it does not slow down the loading time much. I will be back later with a lunch and dinner update. I hope everyone is having a wonderful weekend. Talk to you all again soon. ;-)