Sunday fooding!

Ahhhh, farmers' market day!

Luckily, while the pluots and peaches have virtually disappeared, the peas and the tomatoes remain.

I got peas. Lots of peas. I am sorely going to miss having peas for dinner every Sunday when they stop coming =(.

But! I am now trying to switch to slightly more wintery foods!

I got some sun-dried tomato and basil sausages from the sausage guy (I keep trying them and telling myself I'll get them next time), my usual meat and potato pastie from the pie stand (the nice lady wasn't there today, but her husband was), along with a blackberry pie (someday I will move on to apple and pumpkin, but man, I love their berry pies. I also want to try apricot.).

I got there a little late today (poor fannishly got growled at, literally, when she came to knock on my door, because I was having a very grumpy work dream), and so I seem to have missed the salmon spread =(. And the green onion bread. Boooo. But I still have a little spread from last week, and I got the herb bread, which is good, but not quite as tasty, imho.

And tomatoes! I find that I don't actually much like the yellow ones, my favorites are the greenish-red ones. I wish they'd label them so I knew them name, but I can sort of pick them out because they're totally misshapen and ugly, but they taste wonderful.

And I have succumbed to autumn and gotten apples! I am excited! Usually I don't venture out in the apple world and just stick to my Fujis. Well, there is this one really great apple in Taiwan that looks all rough and mountain-y (I don't know why it looks mountain-y... it just looks like it grew there for some reason) that's deliciously wild and honey-rich and crisp, but I don't know what it's called. Anyhow. I adore the market because I can actually ask the vendors questions, so I asked the apple guy for recs and got some Braeburns, some Jonagolds, some Galas, and (heh) some Fujis, just in case.

So I propitiate the foodies on LJ -- I like crisp, honey-tasting apples that have a bit of bite to them, and I always eat them raw. I really hate the Golden Delicious and Red Delicious and MacIntoshes that you find at the supermarket. I hate mealy apples. Texture is very important. And I don't like it when they're so sweet that they lose some of the punch. And I live in Bay Area.... Anyone have apple recs?

I may ask for a good baking apple later because The Joy of Cooking has this stuffed apple recipe that looks very tasty, but right now I just want snack apples.

And I got five pounds of grapes! Rubies, green ones that I don't know the name of, and flame grapes, mmmmm.

But yes, it was very nice, and then we headed open to the re-opened Kepler's and I got Susan Palwick's Flying in Place. I really shouldn't be buying even more books, but... I figure, I should support Kepler's since they've re-opened.

And then there was a trip to the yarn store! Whoo! Apparently they're having a Halloween sale! Muhahaha! I, eh, could not resist the pretty yarn despite my already frightening stash (one day I will be crushed by either pounds of yarn or pounds of books, or maybe by a Rube Goldberg-esque concoction of yarn and bookshelves and doorknobs and who knows what else lurks in my house). So... yes, my dad is getting a scarf. Someday. After I finish my billion other projects.

But I found that one of my friends in the area is also interested in re-learning to knit, so I may have a third knitting circle in the works! Whoo! I really like going to local yarn stores and farmers' markets and everything because people there are all so friendly, I can walk around and sample things and pat yarns and ogle over what other people are getting.

Anyhow, then there was the trip to Draeger's, which I do not like as much as Andronico's or Whole Foods or Trader Joe, due to their stinginess with samples. Booo. I like samples, damnit. Next time, we go to Andronico's just so I can walk up and down the cheese aisle and taste everything!

Eh, right then. I didn't actually get that much (large haul at the market), but I made fannishly get quince preserves, because I've never tried them before! I tried making baked quince before, but I think I didn't have enough liquid in there or cook them long enough or something, because they were dry and very boring. They smell gorgeous though. And cherry jam, because I like cherry jam.

I miss fooding with my sister, because we'd always split dishes and pick different things, so there would be an even larger chance of trying new and different foods. Plus, we have fairly similar tastes. Fooding by oneself is not a bad thing, since fooding in and of itself is good and happy, but fooding with lots of people who enjoy fooding is even better!

Ahem, rachelmanija, this means I'm dragging you off to all sorts of places next week. Also, we must go off to the used bookstore that specializes in romances because I really want a copy of Seize the Fire now.

Anyhow, are there any particular farmers market foodstuffs that I should be keeping an eye out for now that we're coming in autumn?