The produce in California is amazing, and every weekend at the Grand Lake Farmer's Market is a taste, smell and opportunity overload.

Even better, it seems like everyone grows something in their backyard; rooftop terrace; tiny, sunny nook. I'm working on my own nook but in the meantime I was recently the recipient of about 30 Lisbon or Eureka lemons (aka, regular lemons.)

Aside: It seems like everyone on the Internet is koo-koo for Myers Improved Lemons. I loove me some citrus but I feel like I have a dark, shameful secret: I don't like Myers! At first I thought maybe it was shipping time to Florida. Then maybe it was my sister's under-nourished tree. But immediately following the Lemonapolooza that I'm about to describe I was gifted with another six or so Meyers from a kind gentlemen in my neighborhood produce swap. I made these raspberry-topped lemon muffins and ended up throwing most of them out. Horrible, inconsistent lemon flavor. I just don't like Myers.

I briefly considered picking out my precious raspberries before tossing the muffins. I mean, can you blame me?

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Tiny clafoutis made with raspberries, blueberries and apricots. These were made primarily for the baby, so they only have 1 Tb of agave nectar instead of honey. I used almond flour, and added a tsp of almond extract. I prefer it with cherries, as in the original recipe, but the texture is amazing.

Recipe: http://www.tarteletteblog.com/2011/06/recipes-gluten-free-cherry-clafoutis.html

October will always be fall break time in my mind, so a few days ago I hopped on a plane for D.C. to visit one of my favorite people, Bubbles. I know the phrase "Hostess with the Mostest" is kind of a cliche, but Bubbles taxed the upper limits of my sociability with a rigorous itinerary of events. Getting to see Stars was one of the reasons I went up, but by far the cutest thing we did was drive into Virginia to visit an apple orchard. Cue fall weather!

Unfortunately no one thought to call ahead and see if they still had any apples. Why would you need to call ahead? It is apple season, after all. But as we drove up the hill to the orchard proper, Burma-Shave-esque signs informed us that the harvest had been poor due to bad weather. We were all invited to grab our apple-pickers and tromp through the orchard anyway. And when we returned empty-handed we could rummage through a barrel and bag some apples (oddly reminiscent of exactly how you buy apples at the grocery store.)

After some tromping and the opening of several 40s of beer (who says city kids have no outdoors skills?) both Amy and I found apples. They were tart and tasty but the sad truth about apples is that they are an incredibly hardy fruit and taste pretty much the same fresh off the tree as they do a few weeks later after being shipped across the country.

Cathy gets points for style, but was unable to find an apple.

Luckily for everyone the orchard planned ahead. Not only were they willing to sell us pre-picked apples, but they also had the brilliant foresight to put them on sticks and coat them in delicious. The caramel was thick, gooey and vaguely peanut buttery. Nom nom nom.

We finished off the day with some more romping, some relaxing and plenty of delicious apple cider (unlike apples, this DOES taste better when made fresh at the farm.) A great time was had by all, and we pretty much forgot about the dearth of apples by the end of the day.

 

PUBLISH OR PERISH: Sarah gets extra points not only for writing despite the October rush of visitors but for figuring out how to access WordPress at all after I changed her password. Good job! Heather doesn't have anything new this week, but I missed her birthday so I have no room to give her crap. And despite the fact that this post is pretty much all Bubbles alread I will give Cathy another shoutout not only for her PoP phone app review but also her Street Food Festival write-up. Nom nom nom.

Tonight wasn't really supposed to be a celebration of Leo's birthday, but homemade dinner, an Epsom salt bath, a massage and sex sure sounds like one hell of a date. For a lady. Or for Leo.

He spent the day helping his friend Julie get this week's produce ready. She just started up SunCoast Organics, an organic veggie delivery club for the greater Sarasota area. I'm out of their delivery range, but I get a similar service from Lancaster's Hydro Farm. Their focus is not on organic, but on local, though they persist in including apples, which I appreciate as a food but despair as not being local enough (some items being "USA-sourced" rather than "reasonable driving distance"). Long story short, he brought half of his weekly order up to my house and Tuesday is delivery day for me and thus dinner was born. It took less than 30 minutes and yet I felt really positive about incorporating so many veggies.

Too simple for recipes, but the ingredients were:
Pasta: Whole wheat rotini with mix of alfredo and mushroom marinara with steamed zucchini and squash.
Salad: Romaine lettuce, cucumber, cherry tomatoes, Easter radishes, apple, green onions and vinaigrette. Everything but the (organic) radishes came from our baskets!

Kale, carrots, apples, grapefruit, cinnamon, agave, flax seed
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