Sunday Market

Went to the market at Orenco Station this morning. There is a village called Orenco about a mile away. It is a cluster of houses. It used to be all alone but now it has been surrounded by suburbia. The new "Orenco" is supposed to look like depression era townhouses from Chicago or New York. They have one street two blocks long like this. Then it turns into parking lots, tract homes and strip malls, just like the rest of suburbia.

It was a bit chilly this morning and I was just in shirtsleeves so the first thing I bought was a cup of coffee. New Seasons had a booth set up and were selling self serve coffee out of air-pots. $1.50 a cup, and you get to pour it yourself, and if you want creamer, you get to pour that yourself too. I dunno, maybe foodies like New Seasons. I hate the place. They're all friendly and want to talk to you about your food and all kinds of other nonsense. I just want something to eat/drink. The only conversation should be "chicken, here, now" and "yes, sir, right away sir", or possibly "may I lick your boots sir?". And they want a buck and a half for a cup of coffee that I have to pour myself, and into a paper cup to boot. Bah.

And then there are milk/creamer dispensers. I hate these things. They are usually empty, and if they aren't there is no way to tell how much is in them, or whether they are open or not. Do you need to unscrew the lid first? And if so, how much? You pick one up and try pouring from it, tipping it ever so slowly so it doesn't dump a pint of milk all over the counter and nothing comes out. Looks like we have to unscrew the lid a little, or something. Then we get to try again. And what's with the half & half, whole milk, skim milk selection? We are talking tablespoons here. Does it really make any difference? (Yeah, I know, coffee with cream isn't the real thing, but my nose isn't what it used to be, so I don't appreciate coffee like I used to. Putting a creamer in it dulls some of the sour aspects and makes it palatable.)

Picked up some peaches and nectarines at one booth. I was surprised to see them. I expected them to be long gone by now. Shows you how much I know about fruit, and I grew up on an orchard. Guy drove in from the Hood River valley this morning. It must be 100 miles one way. Hard to see how it could be worthwhile. Told me this is the last of the peaches. It was 19 degrees this morning at his orchard. Woman working the till was carrying on a continuous conversation in Spanish using a bluetooth earpiece. She would interrupt her conversation to talk to customers (in English) while dealing with their purchases, but as soon as the transaction was complete, she was back to her conversation.

Found some cucumbers, purple cauliflower, and a variety of berries at some other booths. I also picked up a bunch of flowers. There were several booths selling cut flowers, big bunches of dahlias, I think. Talked to an Asian woman about them. She tells me she grows them outside on four acres of land.

Stopped at the grocery store to pick up a couple other things, including a coffee cake. I hadn't had breakfast yet. Coffee cake comes in a big aluminum tray, checker puts it in the bag practically on end, and it doesn't move. Now that is food engineering, or luck.