Frog Log

Last Saturday, two friends came by the market who hadn't been there in a long time. They live in Saline, which now has its own farmer's market, and they have generally chosen to forego the ten mile drive and city traffic that an Ann Arbor trip would involve. But they decided to take a little jaunt last Saturday and surprised me when they materialized in front of our stall. Paul reported that he had very little traffic to deal with, and was pleasantly surprised to cruise easily through the city streets. But as they approached the Ann Arbor Farmer's Market area, Paul and Maryanne said that street activity noticeably increased. Shoppers walked purposefully down the sidewalks toward the market; parents pushed strollers with baskets dangling from the handles; cars on the street jockeyed for parking places; the cityscape seemed to come alive. It was only 9:00 AM and over at the Farmer's Marlet, Ann Arbor was very much awake! Yes, the market had been jumping for almost two hou...

Cruising by the strawberry patch at the end of the day when I scooped up a red beauty and popped it in my mouth -- and stopped in my tracks. Now THAT was a strawberry. Believe me, I have spent hours crawling through strawberry patches, picked thousands of berries, tasted at least well into the upper hundreds. You would think I might be a little jaded. Or at least a bit cool toward these innocuous looking little fruits that take over my life and back for the month of June. But I really had to stop and just taste that berry. Somehow the perfect combination of springtime rains, sweet organic earth, afternoon sun, and essence of berry had conjoined to splash a sparkle of flavor across my tongue that deserved the silence and stillness of utter appreciation. In an extremely busy time for market gardening when strawberry picking becomes yet one more huge task in a day overfull with patches to tend and fences to mend, I appreciated the reminder to stop and savor the fruits of our labor. You ma...