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| This is, by far, the largest carrot we’ve ever seen. We couldn’t stop laughing over the size of this! |
“Sightings from the Veranda in Costa Rica”
As mentioned in yesterday’s post, we were out the door by 7:00 am to get to the Atenas Farmers Market which is highly regarded by locals, expats, and tourists who have the opportunity to spend time in this cozy community.
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| Check out the size of these radishes! |
Although the market wasn’t huge like Rusty’s Market in Cairns Australia, the largest we’ve ever seen, it was diverse in a way that piqued our curiosity as well as sending us on a shopping spree to partake and savor many of the fine products offered by local farmers and vendors.
There’s something magical about visiting farmers’ markets throughout the world. It gives us an inside view of the foods the locals consider most likely to provide them with sales but also indicates those products they use in their day-to-day lives.
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| These, too, are some of the enormous carrots we’ve seen. The others in the bin are typical full-sized carrots. |
Indeed, some of the non-food items, mostly local crafts and handmade goods, are expensive and often rightfully so, based on the quality workmanship and attention to detail we often see exhibited.
The produce, both fruits, and vegetables are reasonably priced. We purchased a wide array of food items from quail eggs (a first for us), to homemade Italian sausage.
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| CRC 1000 is equivalent to US $1.75. Prices are very reasonable at the Atenas Farmers Market and the organic products are excellent. We’ll be returning every Friday morning from here on. |
Lately, as mentioned, with Tom finding he can eat fruit without gaining weight or suffering ill effects (lucky Tom), we purchased apples, bananas, and watermelon.
We hadn’t purchased a watermelon since living in the US. Once he finishes the cut pineapple that’s in the fridge, I’ll cut and seed the watermelon for him. Much to our delight, this villa has numerous large Tupperware-type containers that will work perfectly.
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| Many local farmers bottle their own products such as this spicy sauce and bottles of honey (to the right). |
Unlike the US, none of the watermelon grown is seedless. Whenever I’ve cut watermelon with seeds, I’ve permanently removed every source, which I’ll do again. The hard part will be to avoid snacking on it while preparing it for Tom. Indeed, my mouth will be watering over the watermelon although I won’t take as much as a taste.
There are 18 grams of sugar is one typical sized slice of watermelon, equivalent to 4.5 teaspoons of sugar, with 21 grams of carbohydrates. When consumed, the body doesn’t perceive the fructose in the fruit any differently than it would if one downed the sugar it contains in teaspoons. Research is now coming to the forefront to substantiate these facts about the dangers of sugar in any form, fruit and starches included—enough about that.
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| The last time we saw dragon fruit was in Australia. |
As we walked through the rows in the farmers market before we put anything into our grocery cart, we had a hard time deciding where we’d purchase such items as tomatoes, lettuce and purple onions. Each stand looked lush and ripe with its variety of succulent produce.
It was easy to determine that the produce was organic when we discovered bugs and worms as we handled the products when making our selections. Also, the uneven shapes and sizes further exemplified that few, if any chemicals were used in growing these products. They reminded me other organic produce we’ve purchased from farmers in countries throughout the world.
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| These red beets are enormous. I love beets but they contain too much sugar for my way of eating. |
Back “home” a few hours later, with Isabel still here engaged in her usual cleaning frenzy, we monopolized the kitchen while we washed, prepared and bagged the clean produce.
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| We always eyeball the baked goods but never purchase any. These buns looked delicious. |
She usually cleans the kitchen last so we had plenty of time to get everything under control and put away. I chopped tomatoes, lettuce, and purple onion for last night’s taco salad dinner.
Within an hour we were done in the kitchen allowing time to finish posting yesterday’s story and photos and uploading it close to our usual time. I’d prepared part of it prior to leaving the house making the completion easy and less time-consuming.
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| These red hairy-looking fruits are rambutan. Atop the rambutan is an adorably decorated squash. |
This morning at 10:00 am we’re meeting the car rental guy at Supermercado Coopeatenas, to drop off car #1. Afterward, we’ll arrange a taxi to return us to the villa where we’ll be stranded over the weekend. On Monday, we’ll take a cab to San Jose to pick up car #2 which we’ll keep for our remaining time in Costa Rica.
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| Tom checked out the cafe in the Farmers Market. He’s always on the lookout for donuts. |
So far, after last night’s wild thunderstorm, the sun is shining and the day is lovely. May you have a sunny and bright day!
Photo from one year ago today, August 26, 2016:
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| Chalong Bay in Phuket. For more Thailand photos as we wound down our time in the country, please click here. |