To Market We Go

{photo by cleber via flickr}

The children and I had a lovely day today with an outing to the farmer's market. The sun seemed to shine just for us as we headed off down island :)

I never know what we might find at the market and actually had no plans to really purchase anything except for a few cookies for the kids as we wandered around the field checking out all of the vendors but I just couldn't resist all of the lush tomato plants that greeted us as we entered *grin*. I ended up with two bushy little heirloom polish paste starts that I just had to have because they are the exact variety that are giving me a really hard time here at home. For some reason those ones just won't grow for me so of course these would be the perfect replacements *grin*.

There were oodles of fresh greens, baked breads, jams, meats and more. I found some lovely red peppers and long english cucumbers grown not far from where we live and had to get a few of each. The ones in the supermarket have been from Mexico lately so it is such a wonderful treat each spring to find so many different vegetables grown right here on the island. I love it!

Just when I thought we had seen about everything I found a small table full of the softest alpaca fleece you had ever touched in hues of creams and browns :) I just wanted to take it all home with me *grin*. Thankfully my wallet wouldn't allow a purchase today but I did take a business card and she has given me a good price on a pound of uncarded fleece that I can process myself. I will have to put away a little bit of money so that I can get it the next time we are down. I can't wait to spin it!

I've been reading Sara's journey this spring over at farmama of how she has taken the raw fleece from her own sheep and scoured them, picked, carded, spun and then knit it into clothing for her family and this is something that I've longed to do for quite some time. Hubby and I are planning to build a lean to for the cows this year and I think I'm going to have to put on a space for a few sheep... I haven't told him yet but he knows I'm crazy for farm animals LOL.

On the topic of Hubby, I know some of you asked me to update you on how he's doing but I actually haven't heard from him since we spoke late Thursday night. I know he's surrounded with lots of help so he's in good hands. I just have to try and wait patiently for him to get phone service again so I can find out what's happening now :)

Hugs,
Rosina

Girls Day Out

It was girls day out this weekend and my mom and I took my daughter down island for a day of shopping at Costco and a special stop at Coombs. Actually we were there twice. Once on the way down and once on the way home *grin*.

We had lunch, ate ice cream...

picked up some fabulously fresh island vegetables...

and of course we watched the goats. Goats on the roof, goats in the barn, goats in the field... seriously a stop at Coombs in the summer is all about goats *grin*.

Hope you all have a great weekend to!

~ Rosina

Market Day

I had planned to get back and finish off our camping weekend earlier today but I did a little visiting today with a really neat French couple that live here and I ended up bringing home a huge bunch of a delicious heirloom lettuce (she gets the seeds from her family in France) similar to a butterhead lettuce but even more tender and a giant handful of baby leeks that I transplanted into my garden this evening :) I sure hope the leeks take because they will be so good in soups and quiche this fall!

Okay so back to our weekend *grin*. On Sunday before we packed up the camper to head home we wandered down to the pier to check out the weekend market :) It's pretty much a big arts and crafts show with just a handful of bakers and such but it's always fun to see what people are making. On Saturdays one town further south is an AWESOME farmers market with produce, meats, baking, preserves and so much more. I wish this one was like that but I guess there just isn't enough interest or supply to make it a true farmer's market.

As we were walking by one of the bakery stands the fellow called Hubby over saying that he had noticed that he was wearing a special shirt for Father's Day (one of the ones the kids made him) and that he had something for him to.

Out he pulls this little red box and tells him to open it and for the kids to watch very carefully. I thought for sure that something was going to jump out at him as he lifted the lid and I think Hubby did to as he was a little hesitant to open it *grin*.

Inside were three little mice puppets that he popped up and wished Hubby a very special Father's Day wish with. The kids loved it :)

Before we left we grabbed a giant bag of kettle corn to share for the ride home and watched them make a batch. The drum is so incredibly hot that the fellow is wearing welding gloves to protect his hands!! I can't imagine how hot that job must be during the dog days of summer.

To end our day we shared cake and fresh strawberries with my daddy and gave him silly music cards :) I hope everyone had a lovely Father's Day weekend to!

~ Rosina

Coombs Country

Today we took a little trip to Coombs, home of the famous goats on the roof :)
They actually have real live goats that live on the roof of their market! The roof is covered with sod and they graze up there all summer long. The kids get a real kick out of watching them and they sell the most comical sticker warning of falling goat turds! LOL.

I just love perusing their flower market with all of the annuals, herbs, vegetables and more. So colorful :)

Then there is the food portion of the market with it's fresh vegetables, many of which are local from here on the island or the rest of BC.

And oooh the fruit. You could nearly taste the peaches as they smelled so good!

There is so much to catch your eye....

And tempt your pocketbook *grin*.
These quilts were just begging me to take one home :)

Of course after all of that window shopping you work up quite an appetite and you must have lunch at their fabulous restaurant where they have fresh breads, pizzas, sandwiches, and we even had some delicious halibut today.

I made sure to leave room for dessert though!
So many sweets. There are cakes, tarts, cookies, sticky buns, all cream filled or sugar topped. It's calorie laden pure bliss *grin*.

Thank goodness we did a lot of walking at Costco after lunch! Oh my that place is huge and heaven forbid you forget the coffee until you get to the till and have to navigate clear through to the opposite end of the store through the throngs of hungry shoppers clamoring to get free samples.... yes this did happen to us! LOL. One super perk was that I picked up some 100% SKAL certified organic pj's for the kids at a bargain of $12. What a find! I love that more and more organic clothing is becoming available without having to pay an arm and a leg for it. Keep on requesting it everyone. The more we demand it the more options and price savings we will find :)

Hope you all had a lovely afternoon to :)
~ Rosina