A Second Farmers' Market

I went onto campus for lunch yesterday. It was the last day of the quarter, and the students were engaged in an epic battle involving polystyrene swords, red capes, bunnies, and Haile Selassi signs (well, okay, one: mostly the garb was faux-Roman), by way of letting off steam. One guy seemed quite badly hurt, though, and was being ministered to by EMTs — there were two firetrucks on the scene. By the time I left there were three police cars. Steady, lads…

The other side of the quad was quite different. There has been an attempt to persuade students to eat more fresh food, and a second farmer’s market has been set up since the beginning of May on a Wednesday at lunchtime. (The real, big farmers’ market is three blocks away, also on a Wednesday, which makes you wonder, which I did.)

Small but a great way for people to connect directly with the people who grow their food. I ran into Kelly who helped me plan my native/herb garden, which is now almost unrecognizable: I urged her to stop by and see it sometime. The poppies have just about finished blooming but they’ve been an infusion of orange all spring, nicely offsetting what is primarily a gray garden with purple accents…

I bought three different colors of beets, which we ate tonight in a profusion of herbs from said herb garden, a vinaigrette, kalamata olive bread, farmer’s cheese, and an Australian shiraz.