every tuesday, exactly at noon, we're standing in line at the tamale tent for some of the yummiest mexican food our mouths have ever savored. tuesdays have become "tamale tuesdays" at our house. after we carefully consume our pepper-spicy tamales we refresh our steaming mouths with horchata that puts up a good fight against the hundred-degree weather that is common in these parts. once our bellies are full we make our rounds to our usual farmer booths, filling our bags beyond their limits—literally bursting at the seams.
tamale tuesdays, however, are not year-round. this market only lasts from april through september. yesterday was our last tamale tuesday—ever. though we are excited for our move to utah in december, we realized we’ll be sad to miss our summer tuesday ritual at the market.
living in a place for the past two and a half years that has only two seasons has made us “seasonally claustrophobic,” as cj puts it. there isn’t much of fall, and winter is nowhere to be found. we are 4-season people, and we’ve missed our falling leaves and quiet snow storms.
the farmers’ market filled this empty place in our lives just a bit. i could tell what season it was by what the farmers had on their tables: asparagus, cherries, spinach, strawberries, melons, peaches, apples, pears, heirloom tomatoes, and on and on. we looked forward to each food season, and tried to preserve bits of each season in our freezer for special treats when those fruits and vegetables were rare.
now that the tuesday market has come to an end i will start my saturday morning trips to a year-round market, which I am absolutely giddy about. because this market is different. yes, they have all the staples that the other market offers, but instead of tamales we fill our bellies with bolani and cream cheese danishes—this is how I know its fall, despite the intolerable 99 degrees we’ll be hitting today.
8 comments:
It is so hard to find tamales here north of the border...they are absolutely my favorite Mexican food...my mouth is watering just thinking about it!
Which market it is? Chaves park?
caitlin,
it's the fremont park market on tuesdays. i think the chaves park market goes until the end of october
Thanks for the comment so I could find your blog. Your photos are lovely and I'm insanely jealous of your year-round market!
How fun! I have to take the hubs there. We love all Mexican and fresh food.
Oh wow, I can't believe I've never been to that one. Is it daily?
Oh I hear you about the seasons! I couldn't imagine it. Although here in Ireland the contrast between seasons is less dramatic, it is still there, a more subtle sliding from one to the other that forgets itself every now and then and gives you a random summers day in late autumn or early spring, or a late autumn day in high summer! I love it though. Seasons and weather, all of it. I couldn't live without them. :-)
C x
caitlin,
this market is weekly, every tuesday, april-september
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