a love letter

It was the first day of the market!  You know what that means?  It means Erin gets to eat and cook and shop the way she wishes she could all the time!  Asparagus, my friends.  It is the beginning of asparagus season.  Asparagus soup, roasted asparagus, just crisp steamed asparagus plain, asparagus with poached eggs and hollandaise, asparagus stir fry, asparagus on the grill...hell, I'll eat it raw.  Peeled up like a slaw with some asian flavors or a little olive oil, lemon and salt.  Asparagus frittatas, omelets with asparagus and goat cheese.  Asparagus tarts.

I also paid $7 for the privilege of getting four of the first greenhouse tomatoes.  Excellent on a sammidge, but a little mealy on their own.  I'm going to lay off the tomatoes until later.  Eating things before they're ready to be eaten just doesn't really pay off.  I was thrilled to see my favorite lettuce people already selling lettuce and it's better than buying organic romaine in a bag, but it's pretty tough and bitter.  Again, excellent on some whole wheat bread with a smear of hummus, some Golden Legacy turkey, a slice of muenster, a pile of tomato and some radishes.

Radishes!  Oh, how I love radishes!  Raw in a salad, sliced thin on a sandwich-even better if the sandwich is made with a good crusty, doughy bread, a generous slathering of butter and a sprinkle of fleur de sel.  Radishes sauteed in butter and salt?  Heavenly.  Downright decadent.

Neither Otto's  nor Crane's Dance  were there which meant I ended up at the jerky guy's booth for the first time.  May I just say, I am awfully glad I did.  Multiple kinds of sausages (including andouille which means helllllo, gumbo!) and kielbasas and about 9,000 different kinds of jerky.  We sampled so many pieces of dried meat and cold sausages at 9am this morning over our Lemonjello's coffee (Now taking credit cards at the market!  Good god, I love that coffee shop.) we almost skipped breakfast at the Windmill.  But we didn't.  Because Wednesday mornings mean breakfast out and today that meant a bird's nest with a basted egg and rye toast at the Windmill.  Toss in a stop at our local record shop for the recent limited edition release of Timeless on clear vinyl and you've got yourself all of the reasons I love living in Holland, Michigan.

Remember February?

Neither do I.