a strange month of produce

As spring turns to summer, hopefully you are enjoying all the new products that have been coming to your local market.  We have just started to get zucchini, which for me has been the first welcome sign of summer!  This last month of produce has been a bit odd.  The fruit has been great - we've been getting a steady stream of strawberries, apricots and cherries.  The vegetables are full of old stand-bys like swiss chard, lettuce, stir-fry mix (fancy term for mixed kale/chard/collard greens) and carrots.  That's just fine, but I'm ready to mix it up a bit and lose the swiss chard just for a week or two...  I have to admit this is kind of a let-down after the bountiful months of March (green garlic, artichokes) and April (fava beans, snap peas).  

I'm ready for a fresh, vine-ripened, probably-heirloom, salmonella-free TOMATO.

*I started writing this post entitled 'The Next Step' - all about meat.  In the past 15 months, we have gone from doing all of our food shopping at the grocery store, to about 30 % of it.  That's a pretty big change and one that we are very proud of.  We have started buying much of our meat at the farmer's market, and soon through a local meat CSA.  I want to explore this further in a separate post.