Sidetracked by The Farmers' Market

Of course today hasn't gone to plan.  In fact a very short while after I'd posted my last post Wendy called to see if I was going to the Farmers' Market.  How could I resist on such a perfect morning .  It's not that I needed anything but great coffee and a beautiful beef fat-free (really?) sausage in cibata bread for breakfast was too good to pass over.  It only took a couple of hours.  I'm not sure where the rest of the day went (apart from the bit where I did the ironing and watched Julie and Julia).

Now I'm not really sure what farmers' markets are like in other countries.  In fact I'm not even sure if they have them.  In the European countries I've visited recently the  town and village markets tend to be more all-embracing than just farmers' produce.  I've always had this notion that farmers' markets should give better value and fresher produce than shops but my experience here doesn't tend to support that view.  Certainly there is a lot of produce available and some of it is very high quality but a lot of the vegetables are less so and some of the prices are more than in the supermarkets.  Perhaps it's a notion that the sort of people who go to farmers' markets are prepared to pay a premium.  Anyway they do have some excellent venison and beef and some wonderful sausages.

I've no idea what one does with a tamarillo and I'd never seen purple capiscums before

A very 'organic' looking stall

Simple packaging is so appealing

Eleven O'clock and All's Quiet

The dishwasher is quietly (well, rather noisily actually but it doesn't create the right ambience for the post) purring away in the background as I listen to Elgar's Sea Pictures (Just for a change I'm listening to Della Jones instead of the definitive Dame Janet Baker recording from, I think, 1965 or was it 1968?  It was a long time ago anyway.) and take stock of the week that's just passed.  One way and another the 44 days 19 hours and 50 mins that have gone by since I landed in Napier have been some of the busiest at a stretch in this country that I can recall since the first time I came here in 2005.  And the last week has seen the busiest of those 44 days.  It's been  wonderful but I'm now looking forward to a quiet week in the run up to the Christmas weekend.

Today I woke with a start rather late at 0722.  Within a few seconds I was up and the kettle was on.  I was due out at 8am with Wendy and Martin to the Farmers Market in Hastings.  The odd thing about getting up so rapidly was that I had absolutely no recollection whatsoever of the dream that I'd woken from except to know that it was deeply unpleasant.  Perhaps that's why in the past I remembered so very few dreams because at one time I always rose within a few seconds of waking.  Now I often turn over and doze for a while.

The weather for the Farmers Market was cold but the rain had stopped for which we were truly thankful.  Unfortunately a combination of time spent actually looking and buying and the miserable weather meant that I took only a handful of photos.

Superb smoked fish - that's a couple of meals catered for.

A huge selection of artisan breads.  I didn't need bread today.

There's nothing better than carrots with their tops on and organic carrots are one of the few organic foods where I can taste a difference.

Note the wheelbarrow on the extreme left of the picture.  The clever ones were shopping with a wheelbarrow.  We had to make four trips back to the car.

All in all it was a successful morning and I think it may well be the start of a trend.  What I had not realised, because I'm never in Napier on a Saturday morning 'cos I play croquet then, is that there is a Farmers Market in the centre of Napier on a Saturday morning.

We got home around midday and I set about preparing a buffet for friends from Napier who had visited me in Scotland last year and The Family - a total of 12 to be fed. 

After a really wonderful, relaxed evening catching up everyone left and I'm now writing this and musing on how lucky I am.  Not only have I had a fabulous day, week and month but, given my propensity to over-cater I will probably have nothing to cook for the next four days anyway.

So now it's time for an early night - I should make bed before 1230!   Life's pretty good.