Vegetable Rainbow ( repost)

There’s a rainbow of color in your vegetable aisle! Have you noticed that bright white cauliflower now has a purple friend? Or that green peppers aren’t always green? I don’t mean yellow, or red, I mean purple!

Purple, my favorite color! Is making its way onto the produce shelves. Thanks to hybrid farming your dinner plate can look like a rainbow. Now, I don’t mind trying something different so purple cauliflower may be the next new thing on our dinner table.

Our vegetable garden has been thriving this season. We are currently overwhelmed with fresh tomatoes. No complaints, we love them even if they are just a beautiful red color. I wonder if someone will develop purple tomatoes! That would be perfectly fine with me. I’ll plant them alongside the red ones.

Our green peppers are green and that’s just fine too. But next year, I think we’ll try purple ones and maybe purple carrots too. Maybe our grandchildren will eat more vegetables if they resemble candy.
Don’t forget to stop by your local farmer’s market and help support your local farms.

Pumpkin Patch

Fall is here and that means a trip to the pumpkin patch with our lovely grandchildren will soon occur. Every year we trek out to the muddy farm about 10 miles down the road. We wait patiently for the hay bail filled trailer to arrive. We climb aboard and hold on for dear life as the noisy tractor pulls the trailer through every bumpy bit of the farm. Each of us clinging tightly to each other as we smile and shake like jelly sitting atop our hay bails.

We anxiously await the arrival at the pumpkin filled field. Brightly colored orange gourds beacon us as we maneuver through the muddy field filled with future jack o lanterns. Each of us begins searching through miles of squash in hopes of finding the perfect one for carving. Our granddaughter Mckenna is a tiny little 6 year old and she inevitably finds the biggest pumpkin in the filed and declares it her own. We enlist the aid of a fork lift, well actually grandpa’s arms, to load it onto the trailer. Our oldest granddaughter Savannah (9) always seems to gravitate to the odd shaped ones. Our other two other grandchildren (Emma 5 and Noah almost 2) prefer the little pumpkins that they’d rather paint than carve. Oh, I just can’t wait to make the trip to the pumpkin patch this season.
Happy Fall everyone!

P.S. The light colored pumpkins are easier to carve. Try applying a coat of petroleum jelly to the carved edges to help keep them from drying out. If your jack o lantern starts to shrivel, try soaking it in a bucket of cold water over night to revive it. Try using a flameless candle( battery powered) to light your jack o lantern .

Copyright ©Bobskatie Enterprises-GoAskKatieblog/Katie’s Corner-all rights reserved

Treasure Hunt

Brightly colored tarps and canopies filled the city museum’s parking lot yesterday morning. The Farmer’s Market was in full swing and the parking was scarce. I parked on the street and I made my way through the crowd carrying my big blue mesh bag (no plastic for me). Anxious to find the delicious ambrosia corn we look forward to every August. There it was! Bushels of it! I had found the golden sweet treasure. I waited patiently to fill my bag and then with a huge grin on my face I began the long stroll through the vendors to find more of the summer’s harvest. I picked up several large (mutant large) zucchini. The truth is zucchini is abundant around here. Home gardens are often over flowing with this delicious squash. I’ve been told that if you leave your car doors unlocked at night there’s a good chance you’ll find zucchini in your car in the morning. But, instead of hoping someone would anonymously leave me a gift of squash I decided to buy a few. I purchased them from the farmer who I watched eating a jalapeño pepper without even breaking a sweat! That was amazing and worth my patronage. I purchased the zucchini and I gently placed them into the bag with the corn, careful not to disturb my golden treasure.
You can find so many things at the Farmer’s Market; fresh fruits and vegetables, whirly gigs, kitchen towels and even fresh pasta. Every trip can garner you something fabulous to bring home. I found some beautiful blue Irises. They were loosely tied and wrapped in plastic and sitting in a bucket filled with water. I bought a bundle shook off the water and started back to the car still grinning with pride over my bag filled with golden treasure. My car had been surrounded by several other cars and maneuvering out of the parking lot was a challenge. But I met it with a smile, nothing could spoil such a successful morning. I made my way home with my treasure and the beautiful, perfect in every way, blue irises.

I photographed one of the Irises for you to enjoy with me. Sorry no photos of the corn. Just my word that it was, de-li-cious!
I do hope you’ll take time to visit your local Farmer’s Market and find some treasures of your own. Maybe you will even write and tell me about what you find.

Copyright ©Bobskatie Enterprises-GoAskKatieblog/Katie’s Corner-all rights reserved