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If I ignore the parts of the day that involved hacking through thick ice on the various animal troughs with the back end of my trusty axe, today was a lot of fun. Too much fun, in fact, to try to include everything in one blog post.

After morning rounds (which, with all the water hauling, ice chopping, etc. took exactly twice as long as usual or a full four hours) we headed into town to one of my favourite stores, Russell Books. There, I found copies of two books I’ve been meaning to read for ages:  One-straw Revolution: Introduction to Natural Farming, by Masanobu Fukuoka and
and  Greenhorns: 50 Dispatches from the New Farmers’ Movement edited by Zoe Ida Bradbury, Severine von Tscharner Fleming, and Paula Manalo. This is a companion collection of essays to the documentary the greenhorns (which is on my ‘must watch’ list).

Books in hand, we headed over to The Hudson Public Market as Wednesdays is the day when they host a local farmer’s market and I was, of course, curious to see what was being offered up. I also had another reason for popping into the office – not long ago The Hudson ran a felfie contest and my entry won! This meant I had $20.00 market bucks to spend!

In case you missed it, here’s my Regal Hen and her Farmer entry…

Who says selfies/felfies can’t lead to fame and fortune? Or, a modest fortune, anyway – the people in the office didn’t recognize me, perhaps because I didn’t bring my chicken. Fame, it seems, remains elusive…

First stop was the Damn Fine Cake Company where Dad and I enjoyed some delicious coffee as we perused our new books (and maps – Dad is in the throes of planning a trip to the south of France… Without me, I might add, because I will be here hacking into hog water buckets with an axe. I’m ok with that. Really.) 

The cakes were, indeed, mighty fine!

Oh… look at all the chocolate [this one’s for you, Melanie in IA).

I had a more modest snack – a VERY tasty chocolate, banana, walnut muffin –

Between the lovely coffee, the tasty snack, the good books, the funky decor, and attentive service, I have to say that was a most excellent use of half of my prize money!

We browsed through various other market vendors – both the permanent businesses and the temporary vendors who are there only during the Wednesday afternoon farmers’ market.

Though we chatted with Zach from Amuse, a restaurant associated with Unsworth Vineyards in Mill Bay (and I was sorely tempted by the duck liver pate), tasted some delicious sprouted peanuts from Salt Spring Island, and sampled an invigorating herbal tea from Infuse Herbals, it was the Baker on the Bike (Il Forno Di Claudio) who won my heart and took the rest of my Market Bucks.

Came home with some of this:

Sfilatino

Origin: Piemonte and Lombardia regions Ingredients: Organic white wheat flour, figs, walnuts, malt extract, sea salt, yeast. Description: The sweetness of figs married with the savoriness of the dough and bitterness of walnuts makes for a unique flavor. This is a rich in flavor bread with a chewy crust and inner crumb. It is an excellent bread to eat with any blue cheese or any strong flavor cheese; or you can just make a bread and butter sandwich and enjoy it.

and some little cookies and a couple of varieties of these:

Focaccine

Origin: Liguria region Ingredients: Organic white wheat flour, extra virgin olive oil, sea salt, yeast. Description: A small size focaccia bread with nice crumbly texture. Available with different toppings, commonly with rosemary, or onions. The onions version has a nice sweet and juicy taste. Great snack for quick bite, a kid party or as appetizer. They make also a good base for a sandwich.

Oh. So. Good!

Then it was home again, a quick trip out for a bit of hay and some pumpkin scavenging from Michell’s before feeding all the critters, chopping more holes in more ice, putting in all the poultry and then rushing back out to the most excellent Deconstructing Dinner talk by Jon Steinman. The evening, though, deserves its own post, so I’ll save that for another day. If I’m very organized and I don’t chop off a limb or something during the ice wars, I might get a chance to write up my notes tomorrow, but if not, then look for that on the weekend.

Visiting the local market reminded me yet again of how lucky we are to live in a community with such an interest in supporting local food and food producers. It also reminded me how much fun it is to get out and about and off the farm every now and then! Even if I can’t get to France this spring, there is no reason not to explore more of the fun food festinations [that’s not a word, but it should be) right here!