I'm in the southern Appalachian mountain town of Highlands, NC. To stock up our airbnb we drove a few miles north to the town of Cashiers. They have a small farmers' market that's open every day. The selection was limited, but very interesting. There were a few things I've heard about but never until yesterday ever laid eyes on. There were muscadine grapes and also scuppernongs! Both were larger than any grape I've ever seen. I was surprised how thick the skins were; I ended up sucking out all the fruit and tossing the skins. Of the two I preferred the green scuppernongs. There was pristine fresh white corn, which was good. There were greenbeans that were the best in memory. They were clearly very fresh and actually tasted like....GREEN BEANS. Better than any beans I've bought at farmers' markets home in the Bay Area. We splurged on a quart box of blackberries, also delicious. The rest of the haul hasn't been tasted yet: baby crookneck summer squash (so Barbie fucking cute!), a mix of tiny baby fingerlings that were various different unlabeled shapes and colors. Pale yellow onions that are the exact whole size of when I really want a half an onion. A pint each of fresh shelled Black Eye Peas and the same for Butter Beans. A customer in the market swooned when she heard me talking about them and said she liked them just boiled for twenty minutes or so and eaten with just gobs of butter and salt. Sold! We're going to eat the peas or beans tomorrow night for dinner and take the remaining pint down to my daughter's in Decatur. I'm told my twin granddaughters who recently turned two, adore all beans. I hope they never decide to do what my husband did when was two, which was put dried beans so far up his nose that he had to be taken to the hospital.
We then proceeded to an Ingles supermarket the size of a soccer field. Just a rough guess, of course. I admit I don't do much of the shopping any more, but I never imagined the way the cereal aisle has evolved. Some of them were higher than any child's eye level. In fact they were MY eye level. OMG. There was a box of KitKat cereal; mesmerizing chunks of KitKats floating in a bright blue sky. My husband saw my trance and said, uh, no. I hardly ever even eat cold cereal. If I'm still thinking about it the next time we hit up Ingles I may have to make the leap. After all I'm on vacation!
