Saturday morning market.

The first — and only — tart cherries of the season. It’ll be a one-pie summer, cherry-wise, and damn that crazy March weather, anyway.

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Posted at 8:31 am in Detroit life, iPhone |
 

37 responses to “Saturday morning market.”

  1. alex said on June 23, 2012 at 9:09 am

    The critters already stripped my blueberry bush of anything ripe. It’s gonna be a no-pie summer at this house.

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  2. Charlotte said on June 23, 2012 at 11:43 am

    I have a grove of feral sour cherry trees in an empty lot down my block. I put up pint after pint in the summer — I just put them up in a little light syrup, then use them for everything the rest of the year — over ice cream, in cakes, on yogurt in the morning. I might do a batch of spiced ones this summer — saw a recipe in a nouveau canning book I’m going to review.

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  3. maryinIN said on June 23, 2012 at 12:27 pm

    I hear it is a bad year for peaches as well. But people were lined up at the farmer’s market this morning to get the first of the corn. I eat a couple of ears a summer, but it’s not my main delight, so I wish some of the corn acreage could be turned over to other things I like better. There are never enough cucumbers for me — the pickling kind are great even if you don’t pickle them. My mom did, and so she bought them by the bushel. Who does that anymore?

    Alex, my daughter is planning her next year’s garden all in raised beds, even the blueberries. I assume it will be a miniature sized bush. Wonder if those would be easier to net for protection from birds and such. A friend has espaliered (spelling?) a thornless blackberry bush along a fence and has had good luck with that so far.

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  4. David C. said on June 23, 2012 at 12:52 pm

    The cherry harvest is a bust up in Door County too. They say it will be about 5% of a normal harvest. I guess no Door County trip this year. Fruit was the only thing to make it worth dodging cars with Illinois plates and self-important snobs at the wheel.

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  5. Dexter said on June 23, 2012 at 12:53 pm

    For thirty-five years I have varied my dog walking locations to take advantage of the many mulberry trees and the blackberries and raspberries that grow wild along certain fence rows. This year, only about ten days of mulberries, and very few really juicy and big…most only 3/4 ripe before drying up on the tree.
    The wonderful raspberry bushes which I really enjoyed every summer simply dried up weeks ago, brittle, leaves dead, no fruit at all this year. Dinner last night was sweet corn on the cob , lemon cake, and market-bought tomatoes in my secret spices and oil and vinegar recipe. The local fruit and vegetable stand has cherries…I better go buy some.

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  6. MichaelG said on June 23, 2012 at 1:48 pm

    MaryinIN, I do my own pickles. I put them up in Mason jars, about four jars at a time. It’s a pretty light cure with brine, dill, pickling spices and garlic. No vinegar. I like them.

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  7. basset said on June 23, 2012 at 2:06 pm

    I made pickles last week for the first time in over thirty years, hadn’t since we used to do them out of the garden. Bought them at the farmers’ market this time, made about a dozen jars and in a month or so we’ll open one and see how we did.

    Not so good on the berries here either, been terribly dry and the blackberries are small if you can even find them.

    Door County… anyone been to that Swedish restaurant with the goats on the roof? We saw something about it recently and now Mrs. B. wants to go, pretty long drive from Tennessee though.

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  8. Charlotte said on June 23, 2012 at 3:07 pm

    I do all that crazy stuff — can up the cherries and plums from my yard, make fermented pickles, kraut and kimchi (much to my Beloved’s alarm), make chutney or cider from the backyard apples. I’ve even been known to make cheese and some easy charcuterie. Our fruit trees did okay this year — we had some late snow but not while they were flowering. The canning thing though — it’s still rural enough here that it’s considered normal or old-fashioned, not hip and progressive. I like making things, which is part of it, and I have a tiny leaning toward the notion that if everything goes to hell, I’ll be able to feed the two of us out of my backyard.

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  9. maryinIN said on June 23, 2012 at 3:27 pm

    Basset, My sister goes to Door County every summer, but she already lives in Wisconsin. Al Johnson’s is the Door County restaurant with the goats on the roof, but it is Nordic, not only Swedish. Famous for Swedish pancakes with lingonberry syrup. Has a Nordic giftshop: Finnish, Norwegian, Danish and Swedish authentic stuff. There is also the Sister Bay Cafe across the street, featuring heart shaped cardamom waffles with cherries and hazel nut syrup. If you like fish, and I doubt one would go to Door County if they didn’t, try the traditional outdoor fish boil – signs will be posted where they are featured -huge cauldrons of water heated to boiling outdoors and when the fresh fish, potatoes, onions, etc., are dumped in, the whole thing boils over. Lots of small craft shops, boat rides, other nature things to do. You should be able to find a bed and breakfast or cottage for rent by the night or week.

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  10. alex said on June 23, 2012 at 3:53 pm

    Just harvested my garlic scapes today, a good several hundred. Now I’m going to pulverize them with olive oil and use that for sautéing, dipping, etc. Any other good recipe suggestions out there for scapes?

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  11. Jolene said on June 23, 2012 at 5:18 pm

    Many possibilities if you google “shapes recipes”, Alex. Here are a few that sound really good. http://www.saveur.com/article/-/Garlic-Scapes-Recipes

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  12. alex said on June 23, 2012 at 7:15 pm

    Thanks Jolene! Right now making a batch of scape pesto with plans to freeze some of it. Using pistachios and lemon basil and parmesan. Next batch will be different nuts, different basil and different cheese. Then I’ll try some other things, including just sautéed.

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  13. Sue said on June 23, 2012 at 8:58 pm

    basset, you go to Door County, email me. I’m not close but probably on your way.

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  14. Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on June 23, 2012 at 10:36 pm

    Gorged myself on blackberries on a hike this afternoon. Southern Ohio has plenty of ’em, anywho.

    (OK, technically black raspberries.)

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  15. Dexter said on June 23, 2012 at 11:03 pm

    We had the ‘Day in the Park’ celebration in town, and fireworks tonight, and I wasn’t even aware it was to be held today, we always had fireworks on a Sunday. It’s just too damn early to get fired up for a 4th of July tradition. I pedalled my bike around until I found a good location and watched from a mile away. I must be a curmudgeon for sure now, as I got no enjoyment out of the show.

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  16. Prospero said on June 24, 2012 at 9:05 am

    Alan Turing.

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  17. Jolene said on June 24, 2012 at 9:47 am

    From ABC News, a report on the gathering of Republican poobahs in Utah this weekend. I get a shiver up my spine reading stuff like this. I cannot overstate how much it gives me the creeps to think of being governed by these people once again.

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  18. nancy said on June 24, 2012 at 10:35 am

    Yes, and I noted this passage:

    Ambassador Charles Cobb, who served as ambassador to Iceland from 1989 to 1992, said (Condoleezza) Rice was “spectacular” and described her as a “very bright, sophisticated, articulate lady.”

    “Articulate.” I can’t stand it.

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  19. brian stouder said on June 24, 2012 at 10:40 am

    Jolene, that article you linked actually does make me a little sick, while at the same time it reads like satire.

    Seriously, this excerpt encapsulates Cooz’s little ditty from the other day, when he responded to an article about an apparent GOP-leadership fixation with sex clubs, not to mention sex clubs with champagne fountains located in their bathrooms

    Larry Conti who came with his friend, a bundler from Los Angeles, as his plus-one describes himself as “a big Paul Ryan fan” and was thrilled to meet him. Conti thought he would impress his friend when he took a photo with Ryan, who introduced himself to him as “Paul,” but instead the friend told him he had just spent 10 minutes talking to Ryan in the bathroom.

    Eugene Atkinson, a bundler from New York City, said he thanked House Majority Leader Eric Cantor and turned away only to have Cantor come back to him and ask him, “So how many years were you at Goldman Sachs?” Atkinson spent almost 20 years at the bank (he is now the founder and managing director of Atkinson Capital), and Cantor’s wife used to work there

    PS – here’s Cooz’s post from a a couple days ago:

    Sung to “Champagne Charlie”, Leon Redbone version.

    I walked into the pissoir
    I’d been there before
    but the RNC was there in socks
    all playing twister on the floor.

    I thought this was a restroom
    with the sex club just outside
    they was a bicycle chained to a dance pole
    and the LDS offered me a ride

    They said

    Champagne, Charlie, is a blast
    Champagne, Charlie, is a blast
    They’s Dom Perignon in the unisex john
    And I just stuck a bottle up my ass.

    http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/06/21/1101887/-What-is-it-with-Republicans-and-sex-clubs

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  20. Jolene said on June 24, 2012 at 10:57 am

    If you have al Jazeera on your cable system, you should check it out right now. (Second best: CNN) The scene in Tahrir Square is just incredible. The world is changing in big, big ways. The idea that someone with such apparently simple-minded ideas about foreign policy as Mitt Romney might come to power while all this change is going on is frightening. Whenever he talks about Russia or China or Iran, I get the sense that he thinks he can get the rest of the world to behgave he wants by speaking loudly and pounding a stick on the table.

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  21. deb said on June 24, 2012 at 10:58 am

    Alex, I used my scapes to make pesto too (with raw almonds, mmmm) but now I have another giant batch from my CSA so I need to get busy. Any tips for freezing it? I’m thinking the same method I use for leftover tomato paste — put little mounds on cookie sheets, freeze it and bag it. Is that how you do it?

    My raspberries are weird this year too — I have canes with fruit on them that have already dried up, which is very strange. First picking was yesterday (about two weeks early) and I only got a dozen or so. I’ll be lucky to get one pie. And my just-planted blueberries died. Wah.

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  22. beb said on June 24, 2012 at 12:21 pm

    The thing about the Koch Bros big shindig in Utah is that even though they are Masters of the Universe, the confab is still highly secretive. The GOP don’t want the people to know just how far up their butt the Koch Brothers are.

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  23. Prospero said on June 24, 2012 at 12:31 pm

    Y’all have me at a disadvantage. I don’t know what scapes are, but feel overwhelmingly that I should. Please ‘splain.

    Some people need a good smack in the face:

    http://www.mandatory.com/2012/06/22/woman-hit-with-baseball-sues-11-year-old/#page=1%3Fncid

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  24. Jolene said on June 24, 2012 at 12:37 pm

    Prospero, here is chapter and verse on scapes.

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  25. alex said on June 24, 2012 at 12:48 pm

    Deb, I just finished several batches of scape pesto and put about 2-3 tablespoons each into freezer bags and used a Sharpie to write the date and ingredients. I varied between pistachios and a big can of leftover mixed nuts that I wanted to use up, as well as both parmesan and asiago cheeses and a variety of different basils. And lots of lemon juice and very expensive olive oil (not EVOO however).

    We had the first taste of it last night, sparingly, over penne rigate. Heavenly.

    Today I’ll probably use the remainder to make some hummus and also my old standby, a dipping oil for bread. The oil is pretty easy—just blend the scapes into olive oil and keep it refrigerated and it will last for months. This can also be frozen. And I’m preparing to make a pesto soup with chicken, white beans, spinach. It will include fresh red bell pepper and celery from the garden. I have spinach in the garden, a climbing variety, but it’s not ready for harvesting yet, so I’ll be picking up a bag of it at the store.

    I’m getting annoyed with my new Mac. It corrects my spelling—usually quite incorrectly. Scapes comes out as scopes and rigate comes out as frigate. It’s kind of like a Republican—not half as smart as it thinks it is, but enough to be dangerous, and annoying in any event.

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  26. Prospero said on June 24, 2012 at 12:53 pm

    Thanks Jolene.

    Is there any lie so scurrilously baseless and absurd that Mitch McConnell won’t blurt it out?

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  27. basset said on June 24, 2012 at 1:01 pm

    Sue, we’ll do that… probably be down in the fall if we go, though, gonna be staying close to home for awhile.

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  28. Sue said on June 24, 2012 at 2:02 pm

    basset, fall is a nice time to go to Door County, but they do roll up the sidewalks once the weather gets cold; a lot of shops and restaurants close for the winter with occasional special weekends where things open up. Take that into account when you choose your time. Galena IL is a nice cold-weather substitute, I actually prefer it to Door County at any time of the year.
    My favorite Door County B&B. I don’t feel like I’ve just been mugged by Laura Ashley when I go there, and it’s on a little bay.
    http://www.theblacksmithinn.com/
    edit: It occurs to me that some of you might look at the room rates and be impressed by how massively wealthy I am. Nooooooo….. I’ve been there twice for very special occasions during the off season after careful planning and saving. It’s a nice place if you can afford it and extra nice if you can’t but still find a way.

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  29. LAMary said on June 24, 2012 at 5:15 pm

    At least he didn’t say the Condoleeza Rice was clean and well dressed. Articulate is bad enough.

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  30. Kirk said on June 24, 2012 at 6:12 pm

    … or a credit to her race.

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  31. MichaelG said on June 24, 2012 at 7:09 pm

    Dexter, I just saw that KFC commercial. It is very creepy on several levels. I always wonder what goes on in meetings at the ad agency where something like this is worked out. And then I would like to be there when it’s presented to the client and see how the agency sells it. I can just see all those dolts laughing and slapping each other on the back, congratulating themselves on producing a great commercial. Whatever are they thinking?

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  32. Prospero said on June 24, 2012 at 7:42 pm

    The FEC and the IRS should be all over those superpac aholes that were hanging around with the Rmoneyites in Utah. I mean, some sort of separation is the fig leaf Scalia, Thomas, Alito and Roberts hung on their pindick decision in Citizens United, and everybody knew for a fact there would be no way that is polically feasible to do a fracking thing about it. In the meantime, ther’s this nutcase, Adelson, that gave Newt $20mil because he despised RMoney almost as much as he thinks a brown Democratic Party President is unacceptable. Now, he’s given $10 mil to the RMoney Pac, and the same amount to the Koch Bros. Kriminal Konspiracy and also another $10 mil to Rove’s pac with Dick Armey. $60mil in a few months, common sense says the ahole is trying to buy himself a government. The NYT speculates on what Adelson is buying:

    http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/24/opinion/sunday/what-sheldon-adelson-wants.html?_r=1&ref=opinion

    Adelson wants to purchase US military power to be used against Iran and Hamas. (Shit give Michael Westen $100grand and he could take out Hamas, which only came to power in the Occupied Territories because of Israeli interference with Palestinian elections–sort of like fucking over the Shah and getting the Ayatollahs.) He also does not want the Tax Code altered to require him to pay American taxes on all of his offshored profit and income. He shares both these interests with the Lord’s Liar, Willard Windsock.

    What a great time watching Olympic Trials diving and track today.

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  33. ac jones said on June 24, 2012 at 8:21 pm

    Don’t forget the VP and his similar comments about his future boss. http://articles.cnn.com/2007-01-31/politics/biden.obama_1_braun-and-al-sharpton-african-american-presidential-candidates-delaware-democrat?_s=PM:POLITICS

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  34. brian stouder said on June 24, 2012 at 8:28 pm

    Let me just say, as a motor-racing fan, if the United States Supreme Court is right and money is speech; and indeed, if “corporations are people, my friend” – then how on earth can it be constitutional to tell a tobacco company that they cannot advertise their product?

    And racing series cannot display a tobacco company’s logos or other advertising?

    How does this square with some bat-shit crazy Las Vegas billionaire dumping his damned money into the political campaign of a megalomaniac moron like Newt Gingerich, or nameless, faceless people pumping dollars into the control of the Turd Blossom himself, Karl Rove?

    Speaking for myself, I’m much less harmed by Marlboro on the side of a car, than I would be by a chest-thumping bomb-thrower chucklehead like Gingerich or Perry or, indeed, Romney, if any of those people win the presidency.

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  35. basset said on June 24, 2012 at 10:32 pm

    “mugged by Laura Ashley,” I like that… the B&B looks most appealing, reminded me of one where we stayed outside Asheville, NC: http://www.redrockerinn.com

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  36. Prospero said on June 25, 2012 at 2:35 pm

    Mugged like Laura Ashley? Did somebody force you into that narrow whatever? I am not pointing out anything bur you have got to be kidding. We know.

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  37. Prospero said on June 25, 2012 at 2:37 pm

    I don’t know? I do.
    Know shall she know. I think I know what we mean better than you do. I KNOW AND YOU DO NOT.

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