Swiss Chard, Shiitakes and Blueberries - Oh My!

Jo and I got up early yesterday for the Farmer's Market. This is a new weekly necessity due to the pathetic nature of my local grocery store's "produce section." I've been struggling to get Jo to eat vegetables. On our last visit to the Farmer's Market we picked up some summer squash and zucchini. I sauteed them in some butter and olive oil with salt and pepper - nothing fancy and nothing I haven't done a million times before. But this time Jo ate them. And then she told me I should stop getting yucky squash at the grocery store and only get the good kind at the Farmer's Market. Well. I can't argue with that.

So here was the haul this week. Strawberry and cherry jam. Jo didn't like the cherry - good - more for me. I sauteed the Swiss chard last night with some onion and veggie broth. I thought it was great - Jo did not. I sauteed the mushrooms in butter and olive oil, then added a splash of sherry. They were tasting (and smelling) great, but then I decided to add a bit of cream. How decadent! Oops- it's coming out in chunks. Gross. I decided to pretend I had added sour cream (which, actually, it was) and go ahead and eat them anyway. Sadly, I had seen the chunks and couldn't get past that. Jo, however, declared them delicious - in some surprise.

The rhubarb will go into a crisp. My Dad will be horrified to see that I bought rhubarb. As soon as he got his driver's license he regularly ran over his mother's patch so that he wouldn't have to eat it. I love the stuff.

Oh. And there were blueberries. We bought a pint at the market, but then on the way back from Lowe's (our weekly visit) we passed a pick-your-own berry patch and decided to check it out.

The berries were beautiful! Jo kept everyone amused by constantly calling out things like, "I found the prefect berry!" and "Oh my gosh that berry I just ate was soooooo good!"

It was hot and we were unprepared (I was still wearing corduroys from the chilly morning and we had no sunscreen) so we only got a gallon. That's a lot of blueberries!

I don't like blueberry pie or cobbler - I prefer my desserts studded with berries rather than all berry - so a gallon will go a long way. But we eat pancakes every weekend and I also make a lot of blueberry waffles, so we'll go back one day this week - maybe with a few of Jo's friends - and get a couple more gallons to put up in the freezer. Yum!