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Although we were late in the season, we did go strawberry picking yesterday.  They came in late this year, and we were able to grab the last of the little, beautiful red ones.  We missed sugar snap peas, but the English peas had bloomed, so we’ll try those today.  Anxiously awaiting blueberries before these girls start to withdrawal.  I could buy all of this at Meijer, but it isn’t nearly as fun as hauling the wagon out the fields, sniffing my childhood, and picking the produce on our own.

Something I started to appreciate a few weeks ago, but couldn’t seem to stop the car to capture, are the trees that line our fields.  Now that the state is awash in green, they take on their annual brilliance and stature.  I have always considered these crooked monsters to be rather…ugly.  And then it hit me that these trees represent Survival of the Fittest.  They survived the clearing of the forest that once covered this entire state.  They are scraggly and angled and all sorts of heights because everyone knows the pretty cats die young.  These tough birds stand watch over our Culture of the Agri, reminding us that we were once something other than corn and beans.  Also reminding me that the farming roots of this state are wonderful, and worth preserving.

Addendum:

We hit up the City Market’s Wednesday Farmer’s Market this morning.  BLUEBERRIES!  Delicious, fat, Willy Wonka Violet is turning Violet Blueberries.  I’m a green bean aficionado, so I’m excited to steam these beauties.  Baby reds for roasting with rock salt and cajun seasoning, flavored honey sticks for Sara’s buttermilk biscuit fetish, and apple cinnamon spun honey for The Momma.  Greg has never found my fruit butter/infused everything habit to be catching, but I’ll convert him yet!