Farmers Market at Roadrunner Park

I'm staying with my daughter until I find a new home and she lives less than a half mile from one of Phoenix's farmers markets which is open every Saturday year round.  So yesterday I braved the cold and went a bit early because parking can be a problem due to the popularity of the market.  I arrived 15 minutes before opening and grabbed one of the last nearby parking places.  I bought fresh bread, lemons the size of oranges (5 for $1), garlic and red, yellow and purple heirloom tomatoes .  The vegetables from this particular vendor are grown on a farm on the south side of the city.

When I left Phoenix a little over five years ago, there were only a handful of vegetable vendors at this market, but the market has grown tremendously and now there are probably a dozen local farms represented, along with many other food and craft items.  I for one think that colorful vegetables make an incredibly beautiful subject matter for camera buffs.

This little lady was struggling with arranging these butterfly garden ornaments just the way she wanted.  I'm sure her fingers, although covered with gloves, were frozen from the inordinately cold weather we've had the past week.  It was a mere 42 degrees when I left for the market and I think the temp fell a few more degrees before the sun finally started warming us up.  I know some of you probably think 42 is subtropical for winter temperatures but for desert rats who don't even own a heavy coat, it's FREEZING!

I'm fascinated with this Romanesco broccoli, which is really cauliflower.  I suppose that means that broccoli and cauliflower are related.  When I went to the Internet to explore this rather unique vegetable, I learned that its striking form is a natural approximation of a fractal.  And what is a fractal I said.  Well, a fractal has a pattern which is a natural representation of the Fibonacci (huh?) or golden spiral, a logarithmic spiral where every quarter turn is farther from the origin by a factor of phi, the golden ratio.  Oh, now that you put it that way, I get it!  Wrong.  I don't have the foggiest idea what that is saying so I'll just chalk it up to being ignorant in certain subjects!  If you Google the word "fractal" and then go to images of fractals, you will see some of the most beautiful designs imaginable.  This veggie is almost too pretty to eat but I may try it one of these days soon.