Chicken and plums galore!

Ooh, I have been waiting for this day for about a month now: the folks at Eco-Friendly Foods spent the past few days slaughtering (as humanely as possible) spring chickens which grew up pecking through grass and dirt, living life the way they should. This morning  at Dupont, I picked up six, never-frozen beautiful whole chickens (some for foodie friend C) and feel grateful to have these little birds.

The market also felt like a proxy plum festival, and I found one quart of Shiros (the beautiful yellow ones), the first of the season. AAAH! You know what this means?! Shiro plum and basil jam pronto. Next week there will be many more, and I intend to buy a flat. Here too are Methley plums, aka sugar plums. Gorgeous.

It seems I picked up whatever has plagued the boys since the 4th, and I feel dreadful. I'm staying inside and taking it easy for the rest of the day!

Farmers market, flowers and windstorm damage

On our way to the farmers market this morning, the boys and I were really struck by the amount of damage Friday's windstorm wreaked. Huge trees seemed to have been snapped as if they were mere twigs. A number of blocks are cordoned off with police tape, cars crushed, covered and otherwise damaged, wires flapping around like rogue spaghetti. But it's totally random as some houses and blocks are totally unscathed. As I'm always impressed by the beauty in nature that is nearly impossible for us to replicate, I'm equally respectful of the strength of the natural world, its powers of destruction and rebirth.

"Community Services Van Covered by Felled Tree"

"For Sale" We did bring home some gorgeous stuff from the market: two types of plums (Methleys are the purple ones, can't remember the little yellow ones' name), Sungold tomatoes, fresh corn, some incredibly fresh shallots, white and yellow peaches. I'm going to make my Lusty Sungold Love with the tomatoes -bliss!- which also means I'll need to cook up some fresh ricotta. No problem there!