touching beans

At the farmers market, there was a stand that displayed a gigantic tub of beans with a sign that said "go ahead, you know you want to!" And it was true, anyone who sashayed by the stand was compelled to dig their hands deep into the pile of colorful beans, swishing around a bit to enjoy the texture. It was like being six all over again.

Blush

Blackberries

Blackberry Eating
I love to go out in late September
among the fat, overripe, icy, black blackberries
to eat blackberries for breakfast,
the stalks very prickly, a penalty
they earn for knowing the black art
of blackberry-making; and as I stand among them
lifting the stalks to my mouth, the ripest berries
fall almost unbidden to my tongue,
as words sometimes do, certain peculiar words
like strengths or squinched,
many-lettered, one-syllabled lumps,
which I squeeze, squinch open, and splurge well
in the silent, startled, icy, black language
of blackberry -- eating in late September.
-Galway Kinnell

Strawberries galore

Red, yellow, orange

Sunflower: to face the sun

This was also found at the farmers market at the ferry building in San Francisco. These are truly that huge -- it's not just b/c I zoomed in or anything. I took the photo manually and it's a testament to the sunflower growers that these beauties are just so. In Vietnamese, sunflowers are called "mai huong duong", and "huong duong" means to face the sun.

'Shrooms

Here are the mushrooms that really caught my eye at the SF farmers market. There's something very intriguing about mushrooms -- their taste, their colors, their textures. The mushrooms so individual and organic, growing as a unit and a family. This first photo shows mushrooms growing out of a block of pungent cheese. Here it is, viewed under glass:

Peaches, strawberries, plums: yum yum

Ashley asked what I purchased at the Farmer's Market last week, so I'm posting some of the sweetest, most delicious organic fruits that I sampled, purchased, then promptly consumed on the premises:

Legumes red, green, yellow

Pick your own, juiciest veggies in town!I know that legumes aren't the most exciting objects to image, but I was sorely tempted by these vibrant colors, so I did what any tourist would do (and did!). Here are some of the freshest colors found at the SF farmers market at the ferry building.

All things lavender

Last Saturday, I was able to wander about the farmers market outside the ferry building in San Francisco. Every Saturday is a big affair, with local artists and farmers and grocers setting up shop inside and outside the ferry building selling their wares. It is a lovely, beautiful, visceral experience. We're at once under the sun and smelling the fruits, flowers, oils, nuts, foods, etc. Everything is everywhere and all your senses are popping; it feels good to be alive when you're jostling into the midst of the crowd, knowing that strangers' hands are being shoved this way and that into baskets and buckets and bowls of samplers. The organic nature, the openness of the atmospher, the hustle and bustle of the crowds -- all of that combine into a very physical sense of self, of being. I love going to farmers markets because they remind me of the connectedness of things, and I feel good, and happy, to be a part of community (even as I am a completely individualized stranger among others).

Are these not the biggest, fattest torpedo onions you've ever seen? I found these while wandering around the farmers' market at the SF ferry building. I love the fact that I can go anywhere on any given day and be able to find a farmers market. It's lovely!