It's hard to beat snapping beans

Oh, how I love little moments of serendipity. Today, my husband asked me if I could stop by the shoe repair place to pick up his shoes. Okay, I said I'd swing by in the afternoon, since it was highly likely I'd get out early. Well, get out early I did, walked across the street to the credit union and deposited my pay. Then I headed in towards town where the shoe repair place is (unfortunately, nowhere near a Metro station. Grrr.) and as I head down, I spot a sign that makes me smile: Local Produce Here. (Hmm, I says to myself, that's a left turn now, but will be a right turn when I leave the shoe place...)

And indeed it was. There were fresh potatoes, smaller than golf balls, some of them. Tomatoes with that rich beefsteak smell, little zucchini, fat sweet corn, some strong white onions, and green beans. And then, oh, yes, there they were, little, oh, little, but so sweet that you could smell them even over by the onions: peaches! Yellow peaches, and white peaches too. So I bought some of everything. I hope there will be radishes soon.

The wonderful thing about this kind of dinner is that it really doesn't take all that long. The ears of corn were shucked on the way home, because I felt like a little kid that just couldn't wait. The couple handfulls of beans snap up in a couple minutes, and just a quick touch of heat will bring out their green and soften them just a little. The tomatoes will slice up in their crimson glory, and the potatoes should even go quickly, since I selected for the really tiny ones. And for dessert: a peach.

(The onions and zucchini will wait for tomorrow, since there's plenty here already.) And yet, for all the simplicity of preparation, the handling of this wonderfully fresh and basic food is an opportunity to contemplate the richness of creation, the joy of the food, the colors, the textures, the flavors.

And here's the really wonderful part: tomorrow morning, she says they'll have blueberries.