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MARKET pages


12 June 2016 : Ile d’Oléron            jump to this page > > >
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14 June 2016 : Noirmoutier-en-l’Île            jump to this page > > >
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19 June 2016 : Paris            jump to this page > > >
Versailles Market
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More iffy weather. Everyone's complaining, "We don't know how to dress!" People poking each other with their umbrellas, the usual iffy weather drill. 

Versailles has a Sunday market, and we've had our fill of the Chateau and garden, so we're glad to go. This is the biggest and most concentrated market yet ...and very little of the hangers-on crap that mars so many provincial markets. As you'll see, I'm more captivated now by the market people, both behind the stalls and out front, though most of these are behind the stall and many are caught right in the act of fulfilling the sale. There's magic to the exchange of goods for money.

We noted a new pattern: the serving staff filling the bags, calculating the price, and then you pay at the caisse, the cashier. I mention to Rochelle it's a new pattern, and a fellow shopper turns to me and says (in French) "Yes, a very bad thing, a bad precedent. Where did the trust go?" 

Part way through the market I heard what I thought was heavenly music ...but it turned out to be this fellow with his South American pipes.


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Only a few new things in this market. The apricots are finally from France ... and what about that gorgeous big ray? Haricots verts from Kenya? What do you suppose those orangey-tan round things are? 


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(they’re giant shrimp)


10 July 2017 : Caspar & Mendonesia            jump to this page > > >
Mendocino Farmers’ Market
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And the very next day, the Friday Market in Mendocino hits its stride, with one of our favorite farmers, Bebing, returning with her wonderful selection of berries. We came home with this amazing haul. 

Especially in Summer and Autumn we live in a basket of amazing abundance, and can hardly eat a disappointing meal. Our seven weeks in France in 2016 may have helped us refine our appreciation for freshness, preparation, and presentation, but here on our sliver of western North America, with many local mindful farmers and two markets a week, and a stellar megamart (Harvest), we eat very, very well. 


20 July 2017 : Anini Beach            jump to this page > > >
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Off to the Kilauea Farmers Market at 4:30. Lots of duplication, and a lot of gorgeous fruit. We bought pineapple, mango, watermelon, longan, papaya, avocado -- the ones on the tree in our yard aren't nearly ripe yet. Plus corn and lettuce.

About 16 stalls, and plenty of people coming from all around. The next north shore farmers market is in two days. Farmers Markets are the new big thing here in Hawaii.

Big contrast when we go to the supermarket in Princeville: lots and lots of name brands, but not much alternative choice. Milk and cheese of course all imported, as with the vegetables (but this is true in Fort Bragg, too.)


22 July 2017 : Anini Beach            jump to this page > > >
Ana’ina Hou Organic Market
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We drove up to the market in the same park we walked in yesterday. A beautiful, compact, all-local, all-organic market. As always, I only took pictures of produce; it takes me awhile to remember that Markets are People, and that I need as many pictures of vendors and buyers as fruits and veggies.


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This island is particularly generous with its fruit-growing. Tropical natives from several continents thrive here.

 

So let's play a game: Name That Fruit! 15 points for the correct name of each of the fruits in the first column, and 5 points for each of the correctly named fruits in the second column.

 

90-100 : Fruit Master
75-89 : Fruit Monster
50-74 : Fruit Eater
26-49 : Fruit Voyeur
0-25 : Seek help

 

 

 

 

 

 

( hint: mouse-over (be patient; big file!) for what I *think* the names are. )

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The veggies include the staples – we could easily live here, if all the mattered was the fruit and veg – and the quality, given the confounds of growing organic in the tropics, is amazing. Bugs give beet tops a hard time, but here's  perfect basil. And those amazing Hawaiian flowers, so plump and meaty they're almost vegetables.


next group : Anini Beach

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