Friend went to Market

So, in Ithaca, Community Supported Agriculture (aka farmshare) is a big thing. You pay a certain amount to the farmer for the summer and weekly pick up a load of vegetables from the farm, whatever's harvestable that week. Some farmshares include an unlimited "you-pick" option where you can pick as many of whatever they have too much of as you'd like (for instance, flowers, green beans, cherry tomatoes, etc). We have a friend who has one of these farmshares for the summer and the food apportioned to her per week is a bit much, so often she has left some of it there instead of taking it home. At the same time, she seems sorry for the tomatoes that have fallen to the ground that no one seems to want to take the time to wash and possibly cut out a few bad places from and then make into endless amounts of sauce (they're one of the you-pick items currently).

She had once thought aloud about the lack of things to cook with eggplant. I quickly corrected her and announced a few of my favorite recipes, namely ratatouille and caponata amidst others. Two weeks later she presented us with an eggplant. She had tried the ratatouille and liked it (the week before), but didn't want to have it again so soon and knew that we would find something to do with it. We were so excited about it and she was so surprised at us being so excited that this started a new phase in our relationship. She has most generously offered to pick up whatever food there be each week at the farm, even if it's not something she likes. And she picks even more tomatoes. Then on her way back to home from the farm she stops by here and gives us what she won't eat. This marks Week #2 of this generous bounty of fresh produce and it was so wonderful that I felt like blogging about it. So, in the picture below you shall see the gift that she gave us.

From the top and around clockwise-ish: teddy bear sunflowers, HUGE head of lettuce, sweet pepper (largest), mild pepper (medium), hot pepper (long and skinny), three large round tomatoes, mixed greens (between the tomatoes and the purple stuff and underneath), swiss chard (the purple stuff), fresh parsley and oregano, two large carrots, and a ridiculously large and heavy bag of tomatoes, a mix between cherry-sized "pear" tomatoes and another variety similar to romas.




The bagged tomatoes are for making sauce. She loves going to the farm and picking vegetables, but is rather busy. She has kind of enslaved herself into making large batches of sauce every Saturday. She was relieved and happy to give us this bag of tomatoes this week so that she can have a Saturday free from sauce-making.

Isn't God's grace shown through his children's generosity lovely and wonderful?