Catching Up While I’m in California

I am waking up in California this morning. It is very early here about 5:30 AM. It is 8:30 AM at home. I still feel just a bit jet lagged. Yesterday was a very busy travel day for me. I started at 7:00 AM with a flight out of Knoxville and then to Chicago and then to San Francisco and then a short flight into Redding California. I am here for a Caves Association meeting. I will tell you more about that as the week progresses.

My weekend was great!!! I got home from our sister trip on Friday. If you didn’t catch that post you can read more about it here. On Saturday I had the usual groceries, checking on mother in law and laundry. My nephew, Tyler, had messaged me earlier in the week and wanted to go to the local Mennonite Farm Market near my house. He had never been but had heard a lot about it. So we did that early Saturday morning before all of my other errands started.

The fields around the market are just beautiful. I love the simplicity of the Mennonites. They use every field to raise vegetables. They have sheep and cattle and rabbits. They also bake some amazing breads and cookies. They make beautiful furniture. I have my eye on two Adirondack chairs that I would like to have. I may ask for those as an early Christmas gift. They usually close the market in late December and don’t open back up until early spring. Of course the seasons depend on what they are currently selling. Right now they have an abundance of squash and peppers. I bought okra, green peppers, chow chow, cucumbers, sweet potatoes, and a cantaloupe all of this was about $17.00. Tyler bought several jars of honey, I think he was giving it to some of his friends. He loved the market and wants to go back. He was looking for corn but they told him it was a little late in the season for corn. Spring and early summer is the best time to buy corn there. I plan to go back and get some more okra to freeze so that we can have it all winter.

Many different types of squash.

Muscadines, I do not like muscadines but my husband loves them. We have a couple of trees on our driveway that have quite an abundance of them.

On Sunday I didn’t do a lot except get my clothes ready to pack. I hate packing for an entire week. The temps in California are actually very similar to what East Tennessee is right now. Cool in the mornings and mid 70’s to low 80’s F later in the afternoon. Although I just looked at the weather here and now it is saying mid 90’s for most of the week!!!!

I did cook dinner on Sunday. We had quite a feast from all the vegetables I had gotten at the Farm Market on Saturday.

I love okra and I’m not sure how you cook your okra but I always do mine the way my mama made it. I like crunchy okra. I don’t want it do be soft and mushy. I start out by cutting it and then dredging it in cornmeal or flour. I didn’t have any cornmeal so I used flour. I salt and pepper it and fry it in a large skillet until it is starting to get brown on the edges. I then drain any oil, which is not a lot because I don’t use a lot of oil, and then I transfer it to a small baking pan and finish cooking it in the oven.

So you can see we had quite a feast. Stuffed Bell peppers, a baked sweet potato, okra and cucumbers. All from the Farmer’s Market.

I moved my suitcase into the little den I have upstairs. It’s easier to pack it here and bring clothes and put in it and it’s not in the way while I do this. Kitty Kitty kept watching me from her perch on the loveseat. I think she knew what this suitcase and clothes business meant. Her mom was leaving again. I caught her a couple of times trying to get into the suitcase.

And now I am in California for the week. It looks like a beautiful day here. I know we will be doing a lot of fun things this week and I will be sure to take lots of pictures.

Have a wonderful week.

Always remember

Love your day your way.