summer produce

My really busy time at work is winding down, I have my regular days off this week and life is returning to normal. Yesterday on my way home I stopped off at the great produce store near my office and picked up corn, green onions, champagne grapes, tomatoes, fingerling potatoes, yellow beans, basil, cauliflower, peaches, blueberries and kale. I then met friends at the Vancouver Farmer's Market at Main and Terminal and picked up radishes, some more of that tasty Dohm cheese and one of the best baguettes I've had in years from purebread. 

I'm a bread snob, but I'm allowed to be. I was the assistant head baker for years in an amazing artisan breads bakery in Crescent Beach (that's where Matt and I met, he worked retail and I baked). While working there, the owner, a dear friend and I went on a research trip to Europe for a few weeks. We worked at a bakery in Germany, toured Poilane in Paris, we tried all the best breads we could find, we kept a journal on what we discovered, asked bakers how long they steamed their baguettes, their starter percentages and their tricks. It was an amazing trip and ever since I have no patience for bad bread. Making bread is a wonderful combination of science, intuition and ingredients. One day I'd like to get back to bread baking, I loved the early mornings, the smell of the sourdough starter, the rhythmic sound of the mixer as it incorporated the flour. 

I'm going to enjoy summer this weekend, before it slips away. Bowls of blueberries and sliced peaches, sandy beaches and sunhats. How did it get to be the end of August already?