Waiting for the Yarn to Dry

The greatest blessing and joy of being a virtual gardener is a trip to the farmers market. This week I went with my dear friend Rozie. We spoke about (among many other things) ways to be more creative in ones life. When she dropped me off, she said "Now I have to go home and deal with these vegetables." I thought I would have to "deal" with my vegetables as well. But when I took them out of my canvas bags, I was intrigued by this week's selection and decided to arrange them in an artful still life. Aside from the first harvest of tender spring greens, this is time of year most anticipated. After reading "Animal Vegetable Miracle" by Barbara Kingsolver, I have begun to eat vegetables and fruit in season and locally grown when I can. This meant no apples all summer. Those 2 honey crisp apples have been long anticipated. Honey Crisps live up to their name!
Another favorite of mine is Cranberry Beans. They are so much fun to pop out of their pods because each bean is unique and almost seems to be hand painted. Alas they do turn bean colored after they are cooked, BUT they cook in 20 minutes without soaking or anything. Of course, if I dried them I would have to soak them overnight and cook them for a long time. I freeze them, so I can enjoy fresh beans all year long. When I take a bag out of the freezer, they still take only 20 minutes to cook.


After I dealt with the vegetables, I decided to whip up a little bean, fennel, and corn soup. I didn't use any of the cranberry beans (I froze them). The beans on the left (I can't remember their name) I had never seen before. They were already shelled, so I don't know what their pod looks like either. They looked really yummy and mixed them with a little of the black beans.
I guess I should post a picture of the finished product since the soup is fabulous. I have plenty so I'll snap a picture at my next dinner.