My freedom of being unemployed was rather abruptly snatched away from me 2 weeks ago. I turned up on a Wednesday afternoon for an interview, and I have been in the office ever since. This seems to be how New York works: there's no pause, no time for reflection, it's one crazy rush from one thing to the next, with only enough time to grab a coffee to sustain you in between.
So I will no longer be spending my weekday mornings perusing the quiet, relaxed Farmers' Markets. Instead, I'll be following the crowds to the markets on a Saturday morning, fighting my way through to reach the stalls, standing in line waiting to pay, moving from stand to stand as quickly as possible to make sure I get my hands on one of those last butternut squash.
With cold hands wrapped around a hot apple cider (non-alcoholic for you confused Brits who think I've taken to drinking hot cider early on a Saturday November morning), I filled a bag with beautifully red apples. The small tags detailing the varietal origin, the taste, the best use for them are so amazing: we spent a little while discussing which ones would suit our plans best. This week, Winesap were selected for baking, and Candy Crisp were chosen for munching on on the way home.
Long stems of sprouts remind you that Thanksgiving and Christmas are just around the corner. We resisted for now but it won't be long before we're cooking these up until they're crisp and bright with hazelnuts and bacon.
Apples dominate nearly all the stands. The presence of apple related products continues to grow as the weeks go by: apple cider, apple sauce, apple butter, apple pies, toffee apples... It's hard to not just ignore everything else and eat your weight in apple by-products for the rest of the week.
Root vegetables in all the colours of the rainbow are piled into astoundingly tall towers. I'm always slightly fearful that if I pick up a bunch of beets the rest are going to come toppling down and bury me under the circular roots and long leaves.
The sugar snap peas looked like the perfect antidote to all the wintery-vegetables, but we questioned their seasonality and left them there for a less suspicious customer. As we were leaving B found an aubergine eggplant as big as his head (excuse the post-run outfit here!): who knew that this country created supersize vegetables as well as fizzy drinks sodas, burgers and steaks?
Prospect Park Greenmarket, Grand Army Plaza, Prospect Park West, Brooklyn, NY 11238
No comments:
Post a Comment