Mmmmm, Vegetables ......

I love the Farmer’s Market. This time of year it is an explosion of color, textures, and smells.

This weekend, Brave Sir Robin went to Houston to visit some friends. Saturday morning, we got up early and drove over to the Farmer’s Market in The Heights. It is an amazing area, almost all of the produce passing through town, and really, the entire region pass through this several block area. There are hundreds of mom and pop produce distributors and vendors in about a 5 to 6 block area. Dotted along the way are Mexican bakeries offering Pan Dulce, Bollitos, and (are you listening Anne?) Tres Leches cake.

We filled the car with crates of collards, lettuce, cucumbers, chiles, tomatoes, okra, sweet corn, melons, cherries, onions, green beans, papaya, apricots, strawberries and blueberries. The fragrance filled the entire car with the smell of an orchard, fully ripe and ready to be picked. We took our bounty back to their place and prepared an awesome dinner.

We had sliced heirloom tomatoes, drizzled with olive oil, basil, salt and pepper.

There was a cucumber and purple onion salad,

fresh collard greens,

maque choux, stewed okra, and medallions of pork tenderloin with a little Marsala reduction.

Dessert was an apricot and cherry tart with an almond crust.
(I forgot to take a picture of the tart.)

Add a pitcher (or two) of sangria and dinner is served.