Heirloom tomatoes were everywhere this year. Little sign of late blight is ensuring a decent crop of tomatoes this year. At least something is enjoying the heat. These, on display at the Amherst, MA Farmers Market.
These rainbow colored carrots were small, but organic. They are about the same size as ours at home, obviously due to the lack of rain this summer.
The handpainted signs are always interesting to me, as a graphic artist.
An August Saturday morning at the Amherst, Massachusetts farmers market is the perfect way to spend a nice, cool, sunny morning. With a touch of fall in the air, the high summer harvest was sure to be expressed at every stand. Even through we grow a lot, it’s those things which you don’t grow that are most desirable. This year, I was looking for Dahlias, different heirloom tomatoes, Okra, and sweetcorn. I ended up with Russian fingerling potatoes, fresh, home made yogurt and sweet churned raw milk butter, black cherry tomatoes, about 4 heads of Napa cabbage since they were marked down to a dollar each ( for Kimchi), and sunflowers since, hey, it’s summer, right? Here are some shots of other things. Many vegetables were small due to the heat and the drought, we’ve had very little rain here in New England all summer. A few brief downpour in spotty thundershowers, and that’s about it.
More heirloom tomatoes.
The garlic is in. We bought three varieties, all, hot and pungent. We could never have too much garlic, I was think if I had to limit myself to one vegetable most critical when cooking, it would be garlic.
Organic? You betcha. Look at that Onion Thrip damage to the foliage. I skipped on these.
Small bouquets are naive and pretty. Here are some pale pink Lobelia cardinalis, and a variegated hybrid tea rose, along with some Buddleja.
Handpainted signs are the best! I especially love the way that letterforms are simplified, and how counters don't always match up. There's a new mechanic in town that painted these blocky letterforms all over the building, wherever there was room and I love it, since everything else on that street is one monotonous chain or another.
I'm quite tired of the ballpoint pen variation of this look that took over after Napoleon dynamite though.