Not exactly my favorite holiday, but I’ll take any excuse to bust out my heart-shaped molds!

Saturday morning I headed to the Midtown Farmer’s Market for the second time of the year. Unfortunately, last week’s prayers for asparagus went unanswered; still no fresh fruits or veggies anywhere to be seen. According to their website, I shouldn’t expect fresh vegetables until the end of May. 

But just because there aren’t any vegetables doesn’t mean you can’t have fun at the farmers’ market! For one thing, there are delicious tamales and excellent coffee from Fireroast Mountain Cafe. Tamales and coffee is one of my favorite breakfasts; the spice of a tamal seems to make the coffee taste even stronger. All so burny and delicious. As is my habit, I opted for pork.

With no fresh vegetables in sight I was pretty sure breakfast was going to be the only thing I got out of the trip to the market, but as we were leaving one of the vendors of pickled goods caught our attention with the promise of free samples. And that is how we got to know Martha’s (a different Martha) Joy homemade pickles—asparagus, beets and okra. A note to vendors: if you get me to try a free sample, I am pretty much guaranteed to buy something from you, possibly out of a sense of guilt or to avoid offense. In this case, I really thought the pickles were good and picked up a jar of hot pickled okra. And Martha got to meet Martha!