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In the last week or so, summer seems to have officially given up the ghost. In the Bay Area summer is supposed to start in September, for crying out loud, but with the foggy mornings and sunny afternoon, the last little while, feels like (Shhhhhh!) F-A-L-L. I’ve been fighting against it with every last farmers market visit — I will buy tomatoes, zucchini and green beans until the last! This week, I think, was the last for peaches, which are getting a teensy tiny bit mealy, but I’m holding onto the last fleeting moments of summer with a death grip.
Last year, I didn’t notice it nearly as much – it was our first summer back in the Bay Area. But this year,it wasn’t lost on me that asparagus goes away about the first week in June. Down in LA, I swear we had it almost all year, until the dead of winter, when there wasn’t much but greens, beets and citrus at the farmers market.
So while I loaded up on tomatoes and took the last of the yellow corn, and made sort of a last protest batch of minestone with zucchini, green beans and fresh tomatoes, I also — begrudgingly — started to make that transition — we had our first meal of penne with chard, red pepper flakes, ricotta and arugula this week. And today I made red beans a rice, usually a fall and winter staple with a batch of greens….