While I’m waiting for my brisket to braise, I thought I’d share some of the gazillion pictures I’ve been taking of glorious spring in the Willamette Valley. Since I was in full-on tourist mode from my trip to other places I’ve lived, I only felt slightly strange snapping photos at my own local farmer’s market, which is a wonder in this small town and one of the reasons I love living in Eugene.  Each Saturday, from April to October, we get a full-fledged food, plant, arts & crafts market with ethnic cuisine booths and live music when our (recycled, post-consumer) bags are full.

Last week, it was tender yellow wild mushrooms and walnuts and lettuce. We found some delicious baby greens at Saturday market this week — kale sproutlings and a gorgeous head of something I thought was chicory, but it turned out to be young mustard greens!

The raw colors of grey-green and purple are so pretty, and the little yellow buds that all major brassica share are so yummy and peppery. I also couldn’t resist a big bag of tiny arugula leaves, my favorite salad green.

Of course, my impulse buys mean that I have not only the kale, mustard greens, and arugula, but also chard, spinach, romaine lettuce and cabbage waiting for me to actually cook with the stuff. Let’s see what I can do this week. In the meantime, rally on! Here’s how we do it in Eugene: standing waving placards on the Saturday Market political street corner, amid throngs of hackeysackers, drummers, spoken word open mike concoctions, homeless kids and tourists, all united under a giant marijuana leaf flag. Ah yes, Eugene in Spring.