abundance

Housework, hymn prep, and commissions are going to take up the rest of my day, but I ran errands this morning, which got me out of the house, which was a fine thing, because it is beautiful in Nashville today. Perfect weather for going to festivals or sitting in parks if you're not under the weather or under deadline. (Knight writes about some of it here.)

My main reason for getting myself to the Farmers' Market this a.m. was to get two kitchen knives and a penknife sharpened by Cathey Grossman, whose Edges service had gotten a rave review from Chris Chamberlain. She's located between the Tamale Pot and the pizza station. She's friendly as can be, her prices are good (total cost for my three = $9), she got the job done in 30 minutes (there was another customer's set ahead of me), and she put the blades in sleeves when I picked them up. She didn't have the equipment to sharpen scissors today, but told me to bring them next time. (This is all a huge contrast to the last sharpening service I'd tried.)

The market itself didn't seem crowded, although parking on the Rosa Parks side was already a mess at 10 a.m. I'd accounted for three-fourths of a bottle of cava last night, so I was pleased to learn that the Tamale Pot was already serving tamales, although I ended up asking for the stuffed pepper platter instead...



...and also an order of beignets. Toppings were free today, so I had one drizzled with chocolate and the other with caramel.

I'd stopped by the market earlier this week as well, so I didn't need to pick up much in the way of veg or fruit -- just long beans and raw almonds from Shreeji's. (I couldn't resist peering at the shelves of frozen Indian pastries and paneers, but I behaved myself.) It being October, the place is teeming with chrysanthemums and pumpkins, as well as shelves of salsas and pickles and sauces, and butternut squashes thicker than a football player's arm. The longest line, though, every time I've been there, is in front of the Moose Head kettle corn kiosk (they have a looong list of flavors -- I think I saw "green apple" in there...).