A Monday off...

Last week I had a day off. I decided to go visit my parents, run some errands... joyride a bit... the normal Monday stuff. One of the first things I did was stop at Randy's Farm Market. This place has been in the same spot since my mom was a kid, she worked there as a teen. It's family owned and they grow a lot of the stuff they sell there.

I parked my car on the gravel and blacktop, not even bothering to lock it when I got out. The market is a small wooden building, painted red and white, with a small storage area off to the left for hay and pumpkins, when they're in season. The front of the stand is open, the doors pulled up like a garage one might be. Concert floor, wooden tables for produce.... the kind of thing you see on the country roads in the middle of nowhere, which this almost is.

My toes curled in the best way as I walked in, the warm afternoon sun bringing out the smell of the fruit up front as a few tiny stones got stuck in my sandals. Fresh Red Haven peaches, yellow and red plums, cantaloupe and watermelon... there's even a pile of sweet corn sitting off to the right, still in the husks and just begging to be taken home and eaten. I made a b-line right for the peaches after a shake out my sandals. Nothing is better then a warm, perfectly ripe Red Haven. They smell so good... all of it does.... it took me back to when I was clinging to my mothers knees and helping her pick out fruit for the house.

It's that nostalgia I thought of as a stood there, doing what I had seen my mom do for so many years. Grab a bag, pick up the fruit, smell it and look for bruises... branch scars are ok, but no holes, place it in the bag and repeat with the next fruit. Pretty soon I had three bags. Early Bartlett pears, Red Haven's, and nectarines. I almost hated putting them in the bags, it seemed like they should have room to breathe, to show off their colors.... I picked up a half a cantaloupe on the way to the checkout, just for good measure... that and it was 99 cents for a good sized half a cantaloupe....

I took the bags back to my car, set them on the floor of the back seat and put on my sunglasses, causing a small cloud of dust to kick up behind my car as I headed back to the real world. A few minutes into the drive, my car smelled like the Market, carrying that with me all the way home and into my apartment when I was done running around for the day. I let it all sit out for a bit, basking in the colors and the small of my fresh fruit.... they did not disappoint either, when it came time for snacking, each piece was just ripe enough to make me with I was walking barefoot through the grass.

Some things we can't forget. Whenever I small a peach, I think of the Market, and that makes me think of home... sitting in the backyard and watching my mom garden. I can't help it, I was kinda raised in the 'country' of southeast MI. I eat green beans, berries, and peas right out of the garden without even washing them. I love to walk barefoot, I do it whenever I can, and the stars are something everyone should lay down and look at before they die.

Things don't always have to be as hard as life makes them..... go eat a peach and play in the dirt a little ;)