Saturday Downtown

How does one get a day of total enjoyment during her summer of discontent? She goes downtown to the farmer's market with a dear, wonderful friend! The sun stayed away, which was nice. But the humidity made up for the sun's absence. No matter! We had fun anyway.

I didn't take a single shot of the fruits and veggies. I think that was because I was so busy filling up my biggest canvas bag with so many of them that I could hardly carry it back to the car! But everything was so beautiful!

I also didn't take pictures of the French bakery we stopped by because the lady doesn't like that. Nor did I take pictures of our lunch. But that was because we were hungry and thirsty and I was all about the eating and drinking more than the picture taking.

We saw some performers and I took pictures of them---the break dancers:

And the singers:

And the lone musicians:

The art is always pleasant to view.

Especially when it's local art that has been a part of the culture for well over 100 years:

There are always dogs galore at the farmer's market. (Some of the vendors leave small coolers filled with water for them- which I LOVE! I will favor one of those stands over the others.)

Even those who can't get around like they used to---

But mostly, it's just the conversation, the laughs and the time spent with a friend.

How was your weekend?

Touring the Town: Day 3

There is a fantastic Farmer's Market downtown every Saturday from April to December 16. I LOVE going down there. So we took the family. That's the husband, DoodleBug, Niece2, Birdie, Niece1, the stepmom, my dad...

I was in search of a local farmer by the name of Joseph Fields. I've had some of his veggies from Whole Foods and they are terrific! He always has a booth or two or three at the Farmer's Market. And, his farm is certified organic!

Since my tomatoes were coming in at all different times, I never got enough to make more spaghetti sauce to put up. And then there's the fact that I was putting some oil and water mixture on the plants to keep bugs off and I did it in the heat of the day and burnt every single plant. Oops.

But not to worry. Mr. Fields had all the ingredients I needed and quite a few that I wanted, of course.

That's Mr. Fields in the picture below- he is my favorite local farmer!

 Charleston is full of old churches. Here are two views of the steeple on St. Phillips---

Oh, and the tomatoes I bought?

They got a hot water bath---

And skinned---

And boiled---

And turned into spaghetti sauce!

Our time together came and went in the blink of an eye. But it worth every sweaty minute!

Have y'all put up any spaghetti sauce? It's my first year doing it and the first two quarts were so good I did it again! It's time consuming, but very much appreciated when a jar is opened!