Abundancia

photo inspired by John Sandel

There's always something to photograph at the Saturday Farmers' Market at Victory Park. Yesterday everyone was exclaiming over the purple peppers (near the top of the photo) at the Jaime Farms booth.

We shopped all around the market: peppers, zucchini, eggplant, broccoli, arugula, freshly baked bread, peaches, granola and fresh swordfish. You can also buy oils, plants, beef jerky, cheese, olives, and a lot of other things I'm forgetting. The only way to get fresher produce is to grow it yourself (or to have a generous neighbor who gardens).

We ate our peaches for lunch and had the fish and broccoli last night. We're going to make a ratatouille this week; I was inspired by the Altadena Hiker. I probably won't take pictures of mine. I'm not the Julia Child disciple she is.

There's a new Farmers' Market in town called the South Lake Avenue Summer Farmers' Market. It happens every Wednesday from 3:30-7:30 pm until September 29th in Shopper's Lane at Del Mar Blvd. And don't forget the Tuesday market at Villa Parke and the Thursday market at Robinson Park (also 'til September; check out the Pasadena Farmers' Markets here).

Pasadena has so many Farmers' Markets we could buy fresh produce almost every day if we needed to. But we don't. I didn't have to buy tomatoes for the ratatouille yesterday because we have a generous neighbor who gardens.

Street View: Julia Child

I hadn't known until the popularity of Julie and Julia that Julia Child was born in Pasadena. Commenter Markowsky mentioned her childhood home on another post. He quotes this link describing House and Garden's Book of Houses: "Of interest is the house Reginald Johnson designed in Pasadena for John McWilliams Jr. McWilliams was a Pasadena pioneer and the father of Julia Child. This was her family's first home, located at 625 Magnolia Avenue, Pasadena."

Markowsky looked up the address on Google. He said, "it appears to be an apartment complex at the intersection of California and Magnolia." I love Google, but knowing that Street View is one area where Google isn't perfect, I had to see for myself. There is indeed an apartment building on the corner, but 625 is a large and lovely house, and it's pleasant to imagine Julia McWilliams growing up there.

And Google does come through with an interesting excerpt from Appetite for Life, the Biography of Julia Child, by Noel Riley Fitch. (Thanks to Lori Lynn of San Pedro Daily Photo for pointing me in that direction.) I also found the commenter who sent me searching. He turns out to be Michael Markowsky, an innovative and talented Canadian artist who has lived in Pasadena and exhibited at Pasadena's Armory Center for the Arts.

And this tidbit: the post referred to exists no longer, but look at the comments. I wonder who winky_the_tinkler is?

Really. Such interesting people pass through Pasadena. I imagine the people who currently live in the house sick and tired of being so interesting.