To market to market.

Bella and I had a wonderful opening day at the farmer's market. Even though we weren't regulars last year, it was refreshing to get back into the groove, see old vendors. The stands had moved around quite a bit, and people were buzzing around getting the bearings like bees in a new hive.

It's the beginning of the season, but it has been uncharacteristically hot and dry here. That means we even had a bit of fruit to decorating the stands! And it was a bit inspiring to see the garlic and radishes and green onions that I'll be pulling up (sooner or later).

For the most part visiting each farm stand was like seeing old friends. Of course, there's always the exception. At the nursery stand I asked the woman which variety of cherry tomatoes would grow best in part sun on my porch. Honestly, I was asking mostly just to start a conversation. She had been sitting there, people watching with a rather sullen demeanor. She asked exactly how many hours of sun and seemed even more offended by my response, eleven to five. And then as I thanked her and told her I'd be back at the end, all she said was That baby's getting red.

Well, duh. It was over 85 and sunny. People out here just aren't used to the heat. But really, why would you attend a booth at a farmer's market if you're not even going to make pleasant conversation?

But mostly we're already back into the groove of making vendor friends. We stopped by the meat stand and bought our first bit of local grass-fed beef. And the people there were so nice. I have to say I'm looking forward to the market every week this year.