Labor Day Weekend

I am getting the hang of not laboring! I'll throw out one example: it's 1p.m., and I am just finishing breakfast on the porch.

It's a stunning day. Cool in the morning, sunny and pleasantly warm going forward. I get up a whole hour later than yesterday. (See what I mean?) It's market day and I plan to take in the Downtown market at a snail's pace. I feed the animals, snip some 40 spent lilies...

(remembering Sissinghurst...)

... and I head out. 

Early fall markets are all about color and abundance and I see both. Since I'm there easily before 9, it's not too crowded -- a pleasant stroll, even if you're not intending to buy much. And I am not intending to buy much.

Ha.

Wouldn't you be tempted?

I pick up carrots, arugula, beets, mixed mushrooms, dill micro-greens, radishes, cheese curds, door county peaches, and flowers. I think I showed great restraint!

From there to Madison Sourdough. I'm back to croissant love. 

And now breakfast on the porch. Extending over a couple of hours. Really truly.

Birds heard at the farmette: Field Sparrow, Northern Cardinal, Red-winged Blackbird, Common Grackle, and European Starling. Hummingbird sighted just now. The point is, it's a gaggle of sounds, and a feast of color, and a sampling of delights. I could get used to this.

In the afternoon, I bike over to Stoneman's farm. 

(en route)

I need to stock up on corn for the winter and we are on their last three days of corn harvest. 

 

 

Most corn people will tell you to cook/steam the corn briefly before you freeze it (shucked, of course). I have never done that. Shuck and freeze raw corn has given me excellent kernels for soups, and chilis, and all those other preparations that could stand for a cupful of corn. However, I have this free weekend. I know blanching corn before freezing preserves the flavor and nutrients to a greater degree. So that you can make salads and salsas and dishes where texture matters. (Not that I will ever use corn this way, but still...) So I prepare a few bagfuls of the blanched kind. And I will do more on Monday -- the very last day of Stoneman's for the year.

Oh, could it be that summer is ending? Are we even ready for that? 

Late summer evenings are gorgeous, despite the fading gardens, the tired landscapes. In the amber light they dont look so tired anymore.

 

Two days of the weekend behind me, two ahead. I hope your Labor Day weekend is equally labor-free. We need these pauses in our lives. A detox of sorts, an emptying of the mind. It's lovely to get mine now, at the end of summer, when the sun is still warm, and the birds sing their heads off, and a breakfast on the porch can last sooo long...