August 28, 2018
There’s a rumor floating around town that this writer was recently seen swiveling, stomping and strutting her usually decorous stuff …and it’s all true! Or not. (Is truth really truth?) In any case, and in my defense, I call your attention to the lost boys of the Lost Northern Tribe, who managed to find their way to the Lansdowne Landing this past weekend and laid down their zany zydeco beat. It was a Cajun chaos conspiracy! Short story: It’s true what they say. The rhythm IS gonna get you.
Speaking of conspiracies…did you notice the apples at Fruitwood Farms this week? The army advances. Bold reds now among the green, and considerably more table real estate. And I have to admit, the thought of biting into the crunchy sweet-tart meat of a HoneyCrisp is starting to….but no! Stop! Not in front of the peaches, for gosh sakes!
Maybe we can ease the turnover (mmmmm…apple turnovers!) with some nice yellow Bartlett pears, which are just about ready for their own close-up.
THIS JUST IN: We interrupt our normal programming to bring you this news flash:
It’s Labor Day Weekend* y’all! Let’s take a moment to wish a productive year to all our students, wherever they are on the learning curve.
*It comes every year at exactly this time, and yet I never see it coming …until those darn apples…
But don’t panic just yet. The truth is we still have at least another month of warm weather and summer fruits. In fact, the melons are really just coming into their prime. So let’s talk…
When it comes to watermelons, there are about eleventy-seven ways to tell if it’s really ripe. Here are just a few:
- The yellow patch test is the easiest…the darker the belly patch, the riper the melon.
- We’ve all spent a foolish amount of time knuckle-knocking on melons…mostly because that’s what we see everyone else doing. But it’s really to hear that nice hollow tone that says, “Pick me!”
- Check the stem tag where it was cut from the vine. If it isn’t brown, put it down.
If you want the other eleventy-four clues…you’re on your own.
Note: Watermelons do not ripen once picked…so what you got is what you get. Choose wisely, my friend.
I’m sure there are some industrious and virtuous canners out there who might find pickling all that leftover watermelon rind just the thing. I will leave you to it.
For those of us not that deep into the whole canning thing, there are some cheats that can take us and that pile of produce at least halfway to redemption. Refrigerator pickles! Slice up those cukes, cauliflower, beans, etc. and drop them into the brine left over from that last jar of store-boughts…pop in the fridge and forget for a week or so, and BOOM! No one need be the wiser, if you get my drift. Hmmm…wonder if that would work on the aforementioned watermelon rind?
I hope everyone got a chance to visit the Landing side and our Community Day tables. Got to give our local start-ups and organizations some love and attention. My favorite this time around was beekeeper Dan. Bought a comb dripping with very local honey. There will be one more Community Day on Oct. 27…our last full Market of the regular season. More on that in a few weeks.
In the Music Tent: Rita Miller and Friends
Artist of the Week: Maddy Tree Books. A perfect gift to tuck into your college-bound kid’s duffel bag. Blank and beautifully bound pages for journaling, doodling, sketching.
As always, the entire list of vendors for the week can be found here and here.
Still to come at the LFM
Sept 29 is Dog Day…so there’s just a few weeks left to teach your old dog some new tricks…or vise-versa.
And don’t forget to read the rest of this LEDC newsletter for all of the other doings coming up…like the annual Arts on the Avenue on Sept 9th.
Before I sign off, I’d like to congratulate the LEDC for all that they do to keep Lansdowne moving forward. Be sure to read the great article that appeared in the Delco Times this week. Yay, us!
See you in September!
-Terry Baraldi, Livin’ the Life in Lansdowne