Fall Comes To The Market

The seasons certainly are changing. I missed last Saturday's market because I already had enough stuff in the house and with visitors in town I'd be eating out and not cooking. I still have two yellow tomatoes and a bag of green beans from last week, in fact, but there was other stuff I was out of, so here's part of the haul.

Up in the corner is the first of this year's broccoli, gotten from the hippie farmer, who was already packing up at noon, but obligingly unpacked his scale and cashbox to weigh and get paid for this single head of broccoli. The transaction attracted more customers, though, so I don't feel bad about hindering his departure.

Underneath are two red pears. Pears and apples, particularly the latter, are showing up in quantity, and I've always had a soft spot for pears, so I'm trying a bunch of different varieties. These red ones are, I think, going to wind up in a salad with some toasted nuts and some of that slab of Roquefort to their right.

Onions and potatoes are also more in evidence, and these onions in particular looked great. Plus, I was out. Above them, some of the tubular tomatoes that'll top a pizza later this week, and a green-and-red tomato thrown in as lagniappe by the tomatologist's assistant. Just below the parsley, you can see that the last eggplants are kind of funky, but these are actually in better shape than you'd think. And finally, more pears, these juicy as can be, although the skin is very rough, thick and tasteless. These wouldn't work in a salad, and are better out of hand. Two of these no longer exist, in fact, having disappeared very shortly after this photo was taken.

Not in the picture is a head of lettuce, and some Parmesan, which I got at the same cheese shop up the hill in the Halles as I got the Roquefort, and a loaf of bread from the second-best baker in France, whom I saw today pulling baguettes out of his coal-fired oven, since he'd opened his baking room to the street. My shopping is pretty much done for the week, so what remains is to enjoy what you see here.