Color Abounds at Farmers Market

            Farmers Market has a little something to offer everyone.  Not only is Farmers Market a great place to shop for your favorite fruits, vegetables, meats, crafts, baked goods, and other items, if you are into photography, as many people are these days, it is a great place to bring your camera and capture the colors of autumn.    

The cornucopia of goods available right now covers just about every hue imaginable. . . red apples, red bell peppers, red hot cayenne peppers, orange pumpkins, blue/gray pumpkins, white pumpkins, white onions, green bell peppers, green podded lima beans, dark purple concord grapes, red-purple cabbage, eggplant so dark purple it is almost black, yellow apples, yellow squash, pink zinnias, Indian corn with kernels of every shade, and the list could go on and on. . .

Maybe you aren’t too interested in taking photographs.  I know that I’m usually too busy to take many pictures at market unless I am taking one with my phone to post to Facebook to remind people to come out and shop.  But you don’t need to be looking through the lens of a camera to enjoy the sights at Farmers’ Market.  Take home some of these colorful items to brighten up your own home.  Make an autumn display on your porch or simply put assorted apple varieties in a glass bowl on your dining room table.  The beauty of the produce will speak for itself—so pretty that it almost seems like artwork. 

However, don’t forget that the produce is perishable and leave your tomatoes to rot in a bowl the counter as sometimes happens to us all.  Cook what you have in a timely fashion and come back to market next week and replenish your supply.  In addition to being a good year for apples, there seems to be an abundance of plums.  Here is a tasty plum dessert from “Farmhouse Cooking,” by Kathy Blake.

Purple Plum Tart

Shell:   1 ½ cups flour

            ¼ cup sugar

            ½ tsp. salt

            ¾ cup shortening

            1 egg yolk

            ½ tsp. white vinegar

            3 Tbsp. milk

Filling: ½ lb. Cream Cheese, softened

            3 Tbsp. sugar

            2 Tbsp. orange or apple juice

            1 tsp. vanilla

Fruit Topping: ½ cup red currant jelly

                        2 Tbsp. orange or apple juice

                        1 Tbsp. butter or margarine

                        12-15 ripe purple plums, pitted and cut into thin wedges

Prepare shell first: Lightly grease a 10-inch tart pan with removable bottom; set aside.  In a bowl, stir together flour, sugar, and salt; with two knives or a pastry blender, cut shortening into flour mixture until it resembles coarse meal.  In a small bowl, stir together egg yolk, vinegar, and milk.  Quickly and lightly stir milk mixture into flour mixture just until it holds together. Cover and refrigerate for 1 hour.  Heat oven to 375 degrees.  Gently knead dough seven or eight times, then roll out on a lightly floured board.  Set aside to cool completely.  While shell is cooling, make the filling.  Beat together cream cheese, sugar, orange or apple juice, and vanilla using an electric mixer.  Spread into cooled crust and chill 30 minutes.  To make the fruit topping, in a small saucepan melt jelly with orange or apple juice and butter; set aside to cool.  Arrange plum wedges on top of cream cheese filling in overlapping concentric circles.  Gently brush with cooled glaze; refrigerate 2 hours before serving.