July20 PSU Farmers Market

Hunting Apricots and Cherries

Blissfully snoozing when this brightness appears from nowhere! What in blazes is that??? Oh, is our local star beaming through the blinds. The clock reads 7:00 AM and the thermometer reads 71 degrees already. It's Saturday Market Day! It's gonna be a hot 94 degrees. Ugh!

We roll out of bed and plan our targets: flats of apricots for jam in the pantry, sweet and tart cherries for pies sold to local restaurants. Get dressed and order coffee and a hit of protein with our favorite coffee app. Ready in 5-8 minutes! Yay!

Gather our reusable shopping bags and hit the road. Tune in the soothing voice of Scott Simon on the local NPR station, then pick up our coffee.  Looking forward to that first sip of wake-up juice and OUCH! TOO Hot!  Grrrr. They forgot the creamer and sweetener! Swing a quickie U-turn and back to the coffee house. The place is packed! No wonder they forgot. Sigh. Coffee repaired and back on the road to the market listening to Scott Simon, our voice of Saturday mornings, sipping morning nectar.

We arrive at Portland State University (PSU) Farmers Market and engage Linda's legendary Parking Karma^TM to reveal a landing spot. We make the right turn at the main entrance and not one but two perfect parking spots are presented to us by the Universe! We glide in, tickle the Parking Kitty app for and hour's duration, and off we go in search of our prizes.

A mild shock! We discovered our favorite stone fruit grower sold out of apricots last week! Our cherry strategy shifts into tasting numerous varieties for the cherries that are most flavorful.

Here are some photos as we meandered through the market today. Enjoy!