Season of Mellow Fruitfulness

Check out these beautiful pears I got at the Bellevue Farmers Market on Saturday--the baby ones from Johnson Orchards were too adorable to pass up, and  we almost can't bear to eat them because they're too cute. Apparently there are some folks out there who buy the itty bitty ones and use them in handmade wreaths, but since I can hardly use a glue stick without adhering every stray piece of paper and lint in arm's reach to my "artwork," these pears are in no danger of being merely decorative.

Ah, yes, all that pear and apple abundance at the Market means fall is upon us. Which means the Thursday market has only two more weeks to go. If you've been a Thursday goer, remember that several of our farmers offer CSAs in the off-season (Tiny's and Alm Hill come to mind) and Skagit River Ranch runs a Bellevue Buyers Club for monthly delivery November through April. And, of course, the Saturday market continues through November 20 in its location by Top Pot Donuts.

Speaking of sweets, let me put in a plug for Little Prague Bakery's pinwheel-shaped danishes. I don't actually remember what they were called, but I picked up blueberry-custard and apricot-custard ones before my son's soccer game, and my youngest daughter and I wolfed them both down on the sidelines, while he ran around like a madman and received only a couple orange slices. Good teaching moment about how life is not fair.

While Little Prague danishes and Jonboy caramels might not always be on the menu, our farmers have plenty of nature's guilt-free sweets available. Try the gorgeous and amazing yellow watermelon at Billy's--this variety still has seeds, and I had to explain to my children what to do with them, for Pete's sake. And there were even still raspberries at Canales Produce. Not to mention all those apples, pears, Asian pears, and pluots coming into their own.

Hope to see you these last couple Thursdays!

P.S. For you literary types, the post title is from Keats' "To Autumn." Not my favoritest poet, but I did get a chance to hang out in the house where he died this June, and that kind of thing creates a lasting bond.