No Eggs

My egg lady wasn't at the market on Sunday. She was harvesting her walnut crop so we haven't had eggs. It hasn't been a problem. I welcome the change.

A real problem was several weeks before when the coffee trailer hitch broke and the market was caffeine dry. People were not the same.

But that's how the market is; it's rarely the same place twice and never as reliable as a grocery store. Eating seasonally requires fluidity, letting go. It requires improvising, substituting, a bit of creativity. And then sometimes it requires none of those things. Just eat the damned local apple and enjoy it.

But I've gained more letting go of grocery store reliability than I ever had with it.

I found three varieties of eggplant on Sunday; violet, lavender and white. More art than food actually. I bought stemmy coarse parsley that tasted as strong as it smelled. And the purple torpedo onions I carried home tasted like candy. I was going to add cauliflower to a dish of fried rice tonight but I ate it all before I could. I wouldn't have bought these foods at the grocery store but at the farmers' market they're a must have, almost a challenge when presented by my favorite growers.

I never know what I'll find to buy or how it will actually morph into a meal. But I'm rarely disappointed and we seldom have the same meal twice.

No eggs is simply a chance to eat something else.

6 comments:

Green Bean said...

Indeed. I've found the same thing with the farmers market - you never know what you'll discover, what new produce will be there or what you'll decide to try. Last night, my husband held up the persimmon he was eating. "How have I gone my whole life without eating these" he asked. They are his new favorite fruit - for the season any way. How indeed?

Anonymous said...

So, so true. I love rolling with the seasons. Eating something glorious and just as I start to tire of it the season is done, finding new morsels of deliciousness, savouring the goodness of food just picked and grown locally and honestly. No fluorescent lights. Blissful shopping and blissful eating.

Donna said...

That's a good way to look at it. Our farmers market egg man sells out about 25 minutes before the market officially opens, or at least that's what happened the last time I tried to buy eggs from him. I arrived as the last dozen left. The egg man offered me a dried prune as some consolation, but I declined. Maybe I need to figure out how to survive a week without eggs.

Kale for Sale said...

green bean - We have the same conversation at our house. All the years with nothing but bananas and we never knew the flavor we were missing. I love persimmons too.

Dani - The seasons are a natural complacency buster that way aren't they? No getting too tired of anything before it disappears for the next favorite thing. Nicely put. Thank you.

Donna - LOL. A dried prune. Probably delicious but oooh, ugh. Maybe it's just the name.

Doyu Shonin said...

I grew up around 'simmons in Georgia but haven't seen any here (Eugene).

Every year we have LOTSo fwinter squash but not this year. Miss it ... But we're eating lots of potatoes, applesauce -- and eggs! (The flock has been very kind.)

Kelly said...

i love it. living this way. i think we all live life according to prescriptives, limits, and living loca, (sounding a bit Ricky Martin here)provides sch boundaries. its a challenge i love and makes life for me a connected adventure. i do love your writing.