Ballard Farmers Market

Sunday is market day in the Ballard neighborhood, and you know I never turn down a market day, especially here.

We started with coffee, of course, and Amy was going to spend time working while I shopped so she settled in at Ballard Coffee Works. Don't you love their cute chairs made from coffee sacks?

Gotta love a pretty latte design

- as an aside- I want my font to be larger as above but every time I move below a new picture it returns to the default and I'm too lazy to reset every time. if someone - Yogi? knows how to set the font size and style permanently is some sort of setting, please let me know. Ugh.

This is the colorful entrance to the market, who could pass this by?

Flowers grow so easily here. This is a $10.00 bouquet!

How about some Chinese spinach? A color combo that I love.

Doesn't this just encourage healthy eating? Mound of colorful food fresh from the farm. I've enjoyed a delicious beet lasagna and vegetarian risotto made with faro here with my mostly vegetarian family.

Love the different potatoes. We have a few varieties but not the fabulous choices here. More potato pics below in the post.

Crazy about this smoky blue plant

What??? 5 bucks for all that beautifulness???

Dahlias!

I should have put a quarter beside these little tiny beauties so you could appreciate their smallness.

I'll have one of each, please

Now on to soap, the thing I ask Amy to buy me from time to time.

This is one of my favorite soapers. I love her geranium bar, the pink, purple and cream on the left.

She hot processes her soap which is kind to the fragrance but leaves me longing for a harder, longer-lasting bar but her fragrance and superfatting is so yummy that I just let them air dry for a few months to get the water out for a slightly more durable bar.

I also love that she makes soap "cakes" too!

The soap maker -she remembered Amy and that we tried to branch out in fragrances and always return to the geranium- I did buy one lemongrass, which is the most popular. Below in the "market haul" shot you'll see my extravagant purchase.

Now back to things to eat for a moment.

The breads are exquisite and there are multiple bread makers.

Seattle is a big biking town and I loved seeing all these bikes parked for the market and an open air restaurant next door. Lots of the businesses open all the way to the outside.

Berries, berries and more berries. Blackberries, raspberries, blueberries, huckleberries.

And how about some edible flowers with your spring green mix for dinner tonight?

Several musicians around the market, I especially liked these guys with music that inspired folks to dance!

I was very tempted by these boots and shoes. If they'd had the flats in my size they would have gone home. The boots I had to think about. She's phasing out her shoe and bags for other endeavors so they were more than 1/2 off. But, I just couldn't decide.

The maker and the ones I almost bought.

These are wild mushrooms and huckleberries that are foraged and sold.

Thought that the labeling on the slice of tree trunk or limb was clever!

More pretty flowers

And luscious blueberries

Ah, potato heaven here- loved the slices on a stick so you can see what they look like inside-sweet!

Below was lunch- a vegetarian quesadilla! It was so yummy.....

Don't these just make you happy?

Tomatillo and garlic

More bread- this was the one that I bought- Wild Rice and Onion

More taters with some squash blossoms for color!

Lunch!!

Coffee, coffee everywhere! Three shops in a row- Starbucks, Ballard Coffee Works and Veritas at Cupcake Royale.

I thought this idea was a hoot!  The Cycle Saloon! A group of folks pedaling from bar to bar.

Speaking of cupcakes!! You know I never miss an opportunity to stop in here for a cupcake or two?

this one turned out to be the hit!

My choice and it was just like pumpkin bread with cream cheese icing

Some hilarity on the cash register

going home with us!

Tasty and pretty, too!

The beautiful flowers with the blue sign

The cupcake icer at work!

And on to my own little farmer's garden plot!

Love all the hands that grow my food :)

ripe for the picking!

This sage was in the beet lasagna

the first heirloom of the year- a Cherokee Purple ripening on the window sill

THE HAUL!

My soap log- 11 bars of fabulous soap just waiting to be cut! Won't my clothes smell good when they come out of the suitcase? It has made the whole house smell good. Of course, a bar was cut to stay in Seattle with the hostesses.

Honey Crisp- a fav

Peaches and Nectarines

Number 2 tomatoes that went into a bruschetta last night

on this bread- oh so yummy!!

We ended the day with a long walk to see the mountains and moon at the top of the neighborhood. A half block from the house I tripped over uneven sidewalk and thought I might catch myself, oh, oh, wobble, balance, wobble, forward momentum just too great and down I went. My poor back suffered the brunt of it and I thought through a miserable night that I'd need to see a physician for muscle relaxers to avoid pain and a ruined rest of the trip, but was better by morning. I managed a 5 mile walk late yesterday with the help of ibuprofen. 

I'm still sore and one false move reminds me to be careful.

It was a lazy day here with the girls both working from home on Labor Day, but it gave me time for a nap and to finish  The Book Thief- which I loved- please read it if you haven't.

Today- downtown Seattle and to a friend of Amy's dissertation defense. A preview of her's to come next summer.

Make it a wonderful day!