Have I told you how much I like pink eye purple hull peas?

I should say that this was my first trip to the Farmer's Market this season . . .but I actually went last weekend . . .but they told me that they don't take checks anymore. I know this is crazy but I almost cried. I was ready to buy my bushel of peas and couldn't! I've written a lot of checks at the Farmer's Market over the years - I promise I'm good for it . . .but evidently everyone is not. So since I'm off on Fridays, I decided to try again. I went early Friday morning before the crowds. I love the Farmer's Market. I guess it is about a 25 minute drive from our house. It is located in a different part of town and several of our friends always say, "you go to the farmer's market . . .by yourself?" Yes, I love peas that much! But also, maybe I'm just naive but I'm not afraid. I actually feel pretty safe. I didn't buy any watermelons because Glenn brought us two more from Auburn - I think one weighs more than the last one . . . remember it weighed in at 44 pounds!! The watermelons just look so pretty stacked together.

I love the smell and the way everything looks. I love the old-timey scales where you can weigh your squash or beans. I love the bright colors.

After leaving the Farmer's Market, I stopped by Weight Watchers and weighed in for the week. I lost 1.6 pounds this week - have to stick with it . . .wedding is coming soon.

(how funny that there is a van in both the farmer's market picture and the WW picture - van driving folks must run lots of errands on Fridays when I do :-) I couldn't stay for the meeting because it was about 104 degrees outside and I wanted to get all this lusciousness home! I bought ten pounds of already shelled peas, lots of beautiful yellow squash, peaches, tomatoes and okra (which I called Okry when I was growing up - I had no idea it was okra until I was a young adult!!)First order of business was to get those peas in the freezer. I brought the water to a boil and dropped some in for 3 minutes. I had peas all over my kitchen :-)

The peas need to boil for three minutes in order to blanch them.

But you want the cooking process to stop immediately so you have to cool them rapidly - ice in the sink; ice on top of the peas.

Then I spread them out on clean paper towels on a cookie sheet to cool a little bit more. Aren't they pretty?

Then I put three cups in each bag. I had enough for 12 bags of peas for the freezer (except we ate one tonight!!) I forgot to tell you about cleaning the peas - you have to pick out any little pieces of shell or dirt or yucky peas (common sense I guess).

A pretty good day's work for my day off!!