Do You Like Farmers' Markets?

Hey everyone!  Do y'all go to Farmers' Markets?  We don't go every week, but they really are fun even if you aren't buying produce.  We have a Farmers' Market every Wednesday right here in our neighborhood, so we like to go and snoop around once in awhile.   

      

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This beauty is one of our Rec Centers here in our neighborhood -- The Barn!

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It's a pretty cool structure, huh?

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Our favorite place to shop is from The Farm at Agritopia.  If you've never heard about Agritopia, you can read the story and history HERE.  If there had been any homes for sale that met our criteria when we bought a couple of years ago, this is the neighborhood we would have moved into.  Anyway, the people who work the farm are here at the market every week with the freshest produce you have ever seen.  Of course, it varies from week-to-week, depending on what they harvest from the garden that day.  It's all organic, too!

This little 6 day old baby had everyone's attention!  The owner was promoting the raising of goats on   small ranches, which are actually fairly common around here.

The landscapers who maintain all the common areas in our neighborhood have been very busy.  These almost didn't look real -- so gorgeous!  These are the bedding plant of choice right now around 

The Barn!

Sometimes the prices at Farmers' Markets can be quite high, but the Agritopia Farm has very reasonable prices -- these 2 huge heads of leaf lettuce were $1.50 each.  They came home with us!

I washed all this lettuce in one sink full of water, and there was not one speck of dirt -- pretty incredible, right?

Everyone seems to have their own unique method for storing lettuce.  Mine is to wash, spin (if you don't have a salad spinner, you should get one), & divide into zip bags.  I decided to go ahead and tear & blend the two lettuces for quick salads.  I also kept some in a bowl for a salad I was having that  night, and I saved some whole leaves for wraps.

I squeeze out as much of the air as possible without crushing the lettuce.  This method works very well for me and keeps lettuce for a week or more.  The key, I believe, is spinning as much of the water off prior to bagging.

A few random pics from the last couple of days.

This is what citrus trees look like around here right now.  This is a lemon tree at our favorite Mexican  restaurant -- perfect weather for dining on their patio!  In another week or so, the air will be filled with the most intoxicating aroma from all the citrus in the area -- love it!

We normally go to the gym every morning, but The Man said he would like to walk our neighborhood and pick up some trash he had noticed when we were in the car.  There wasn't a lot, but you just hate to see any.  Oh yeah, Mr. Good Citizen!

In the next couple of weeks, these cottonwood trees will be leafing out and all the brown grass 

will be nice and green.

Ahhh......this was much more fun than the treadmill at the gym!

Thanks for stopping by.  Hope y'all have a wonderful weekend!