Wednesday, April 23, 2014

Fresh and Local


A head of red lettuce with leaves so tight it looks like a rose. Dark green lettuce. Tiny turnips with their leaves attached. Broccolini in a little bunch. Sage, parsley, tarragon. Red and golden tomatoes. Avocados. Lemons and limes. Lilly's eggs, laid in the morning, and strawberries from Oxnard which we maybe saw from the train. Patty pan squash picked in the early afternoon to be sold at 4 PM and not a bit earlier. I love shopping at the Santa Barbara farmers' market. Also in the basket: some Ojai Pixies, a local type of tangerine sold at Gelson's supermarket.

Dinner last night was tuna salad with those eggs, tomatoes, parsley, tarragon, lemon juice, mayo. Also a lettuce and avocado salad with olive oil from an earlier market trip, and some sliced strawberries. For a future meal, I made a stew of lamb (from Gelson's), herbs, onions, dried fruit, and tiny turnips. Washing and chopping vegetables, sautéeing lamb, boiling the eggs... all this took over an hour: maybe I've started to crave food that takes a little more than 10 minutes, even in theory.

3 comments:

Kitchen Riffs said...

Sounds lovely! We're just starting to get local produce -- my favorite time of the year!

Tina said...

That all sounds very good. Nothing like fresh natural ingredients to pull together a great meal.

Debra Eliotseats said...

I love that stack of produce. I think I have started to crave food that is ready to go quickly.