To Market, To Market

To market, to market, to buy a fat pig;
Home again, home again, dancing a jig.
To market, to market, to buy a fat hog;
Home again, home again, jiggety-jog.

My kindergartner is learning Mother Goose. Words set her off into whole rhymes. Don't mention "pumpkin" or she'll start reciting

"Peter Peter pumpkin eater,
Had a wife and couldn't keep her!
He put her in a pumpkin shell,
And there he kept her very well!



Really. This has been going on for a few weeks now. It's cute, except, I'm not sure how to explain the Peter Pumpkin Eater rhyme? Any thoughts? Interpretations?

Friday I went to the Apple Farm with my middle child. I have photos. Lots of photos. I'll probably blog about it. On Saturday I was reading my twitter and another person mentioned he was going to the Farmer's Market and I realized that there's a farmer's market maybe a quarter mile from our house, yet we've never explored it! So, I excitedly jumped up and said "guess what?" and my husband said "we should go to the farmer's market." I was puzzled; yes.... but how did you know that I was going to say that? How interesting! So we got out our bicycles and rode over to the market. It was a beautiful day. Despite it technically being Fall it was easily already nearing the 90's. I gave each of my kids the opportunity to buy something that they wanted with the warning that they'd have to eat it. Katie immediately chose the strawberries. No surprise there. Conor delighted in looking at more things, and sampling a bit of everything. He finally chose a pound of grapes. The red ones. He insisted they tasted better than the black ones. David also got into the exploration, and chose 4 large peaches, as well as quite a few artichokes. Reid is my picky eater; he likes nothing. No fruit. No vegetables. He doesn't even like corn. What child doesn't like corn? So, he chose a carrot. He doesn't exactly like carrots either; I guess a "lesser evil" to him.



By now it was getting warm. I was having a great time simply taking photos of all the colorful produce. A person noticed me with my camera and said they'd have the market through October. When he discovered I had kids, encouraged me to go over and spin the wheel for a chance at winning. So, we did.



Conor went first, spinning the wheel recklessly! It landed on a question of how many sea turtles were found with plastic inside them. The number was very high, and very sad. I quickly clued into the fact that the answer was always the shockingly high statistic. Even though Conor got the question wrong, he was still " a winner" and got to choose a prize. He chose broccoli and a nectarine. Next was Reid. In stunning contrast to his older brother, he spun the wheel methodically and gently. Too gently so he had to spin it again. His question was also about sea turtles so he had to spin again. I helped him with the answer and he "won" and chose a bunch of carrots. These were very unorthodox looking carrots! My husband jokes they have "carrot-ture".. Get it? Character? (Yes, he's a corny sense of humor) Then it finally was Katie's turn. I helped her with her question too. It was how many plastic bags a person uses in a year. The answer? 300 to 500! Wow. Definitely a sobering number. Since she's so cute he said she could have 3 items. She chose an ear of corn, a tomato and zucchini. Triumphantly she skipped back to daddy and we gently put away all the wonderful goodies in our bike trailer and headed home. By this time it was really heating up and we were happy to be back on our bikes feeling the apparent wind on our faces.



As soon as we were home Katie dove in on the basket of strawberries. We took them away to be washed and then set the whole basket on the table to be enjoyed by all, as well as our turkey sandwiches, fresh pressed apple juice from the apple farm excursion the day before and a few crackers to round out lunch. Katie couldn't get enough strawberries. They kept talking about the experience and how much fun they had and how they couldn't wait to eat their new fruits and vegetables. It was a fun, cheap, healthy outing that they can't wait to do again.



The best part? Since they were a part of the picking and choosing and buying the produce, they are more excited to eat it!