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I am having a blissful day -- details and photos at 10 as they say. In the meantime here is a teaser.

First day of Summer Part I: The Chesterton European Market

( Cut to save your FL )

First Day of Summer Part II: Playing in the Park

My first day of summer wandering begin back in the Part I post. Part II begins with me on my way from Chesterton's European Market to Valparaiso's Farmer's Market, I stopped by Ogden Gardens. I spent a couple of delightful hours. Cut because it is very, very photo intensive.
Clicking on the photos will take you to flickr where you can see larger versions.

( Some things I saw and things I did behind the cut )

The rest of the day will be in Part III.

First Day of Summer Part III: Rich Bounty

After I shopped at the Chesterton European Market and played in the sunshine at Ogden Gardens, I stopped by the Valparaiso Farmer's Market which was a complete flop. There were a few vendors selling plants, one selling homemade dog treats, and one selling roasted peanuts. Nothing I wanted or needed. So I headed off toward Johnson's Farm Stand, Marilyn’s Bakery , and Remus Farms. Getting there was a challenge. Hobart, IN and the area immediately around it are a strange sort of Bermuda Triangle. Even with a map in my hand and a pretty good idea where I was going, I still get misplaced nearly every time I go there. The roads on the map and the actual roads have little resemblance to one another and the signs (or lack thereof) in Hobart don't help. On top of those things a bunch of the streets were closed today. Eventually I ended up circling around much farther to the West than I needed to be and made it to where I wanted to go.

Marilyn’s Bakery and Johnson's are connected. I started with the nursery portion of Johnson's. U-Pick Strawberry season is underway and lots of special events were taking place (jam making demonstrations, live music, etc.). They were also having a buy one get one free sale on all plants in there huge, I mean HUGE, nursery. I found some sweet potato plants; the real food type not the ornamental ones, and bought some herbs. The herbs were mostly more unusual things like lime basil and pineapple mint. Along with my herbs I purchased a handful of stalks of rhubarb, 4 quarts of sugar snap peas, and 4 quarts of strawberries.





From Marilyn’s I purchased lunch in the form of a slice of veggie quiche and a fabulous white raisin and spice scone. The quiche was fine and the scone was very, very good. I also brought home a 6 inch strawberry rhubarb pie and a 6 inch angel food cake to go with my strawberries.

The next stop and final stop for my outing was Remus Farms. From Remus I purchased a dozen Creighton Brothers and Crystal Lake eggs , the asparagus (local) that was back in Part I cherry photo, the potatoes in the photo with the rhubarb, some very non local but cheap avocados, and some cherry cider.

I splurged a little on cheese and plants but I don't feel bad about it. Today along with visiting sacredchao this past Wednesday were my summer vacation activities.In addition, without those cheese and plants the cost of things was in line with what the grocery store would have cost and in some cases cheaper. For example, the 4 quarts of peas were only $4.69 and the avocados were 4 for $4.39. The grocery store would have been faster and more convenient but infinitely less satisfying and fun. Tomorrow is for planting the herbs and some more seeds; baking bread; processing the strawberries, peas, and rhubarb; cooking my OLS meal for the week; and working on teaching things.