En Garde!

We went about some of our usual Saturday errands this morning. Hilary, mercifully, was relieved of going in to round on psych patients, so she got to come to the Farmer's Market for the first time in a long while. The selection this time of year is about what you'd expect for Minnesota in February. Still, we have a reliable supply of onion, potatoes, and apples. The cheese people had the cheddar that Hilary really likes, but we were stymied in getting some fresh mozzarella - it was too cold in the cheese house, apparently, to pull the mozz. The cheese house needs to get up to 75 to make the job of drawing up mozzarella balls palatable, and they couldn't make it happen this past week or two. Bummer. We did manage to get some unidentified greenhouse-grown greens, and a few tomatoes that will ripen up in a paper bag in, oh, about a week.

We still pine for outstanding European-style bread available through someone local. The Great Harvest has wonderful American bread - dense, wheaty stuff good for sandwiches and peanut butter. But for a typical crusty baguette (let alone Ciabatta) that you can put olive oil or hummus on, our best source around here is still Panera - the franchise. Bummer. But, at least we can have some fun with our food.