Today was the last day of the Broadway Farmers Market until next June. Last year we had to schlep to the U District, but then this year they opened a new market blocks from our house, and some of our favorite farmers were there, along with some new faces like Alvarez Farms. Everything Alvarez sells is organic and inexpensive, and it’s probably the best of its genre you’ve ever had. They specialize in peppers, but they also have the best corn and eggplants. It’s new world produce. Earlier in the year they had remarkable purple tomatillos, good enough to eat raw, and today they had firm and flawless red onions.

I asked the Alvarez guy whether they do a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture, where you buy a share of the farm and receive a weekly box of produce), and they said, sure, just pick the basket up at our farm in Mabton, which according to Google Maps is 181 miles from our house. Luckily, Alvarez is going to be at Pike Place Market through December.

Mabton is in the high desert of eastern Washington. I once overheard the following banter between two of the guys behind the counter while they were unloading sacks of dried peppers:

> **Younger guy**: What do you do with these, anyway?

> **Older guy**: You grow up in the desert and you don’t know dried peppers? What’s wrong with you?

I got some red onions and went chasing after Iris. It was foggy this morning, and on the way down to the market she was speculating about whether she would be able to see the vegetables through the fog. Today the market coordinator had brought her chickens, and Iris patted the rooster. Then Iris said we should get some carrots, so I got some at Willie Green’s, along with some celery root.

Celery root is a vegetable I admire because it’s so standoffish. When people talk about cooking simply with fresh ingredients and doing as little to the food as possible, they’re not talking about celery root, because for god’s sake, the thing looks like a shrunken head.

We just got the 2005 bound edition of Cook’s Illustrated, and it has an article about root vegetables with the subtitle: *Could we turn “boring” turnips, celery root, and parsnips into exciting side dishes?*

One of the recipes is Glazed Celery Root with Onions, Grapes, and Pistachios. I guess the grapes and pistachios make it exciting. I didn’t have any grapes or pistachios on hand, the combination sounded gross anyway, so I left them out, but I threw in some carrots along with the celery roots and used those Alvarez red onions. In other words, I took their “exciting” side dish and made it boring again, and of course it was perfect.