Sumptuous Sunny Saturday

This day is so gorgeous and sunny, it's intoxicating! After the rough winter with feet of snow, we are all experiencing spring fever because it's in the mid 70's and sunny!

So, Ann, Cyndi and I decided to go to the very first Farmers' Market of the season in the center of Amherst.

Here's a cheese taste test.  Notice the partial description on the right: " ... a bloomy white rind ..."

Don't the scallions look good enough to eat right from the table?

Never a big fan of cider, I was intrigued by the hard cider (left), Pommeau, and syrups.

So I bought a Pommeau after a taste test.  Yes, it is 18% alcohol and it was ridiculously expensive, but it will be very yummy over ice cream or pears!

Who knew? I didn't know there is rainbow chard.

Aren't the parsley flats cute? I didn't buy any because I'm done giving the Bunny Buffet.

Pansies (and lettuce) like our still cool nights. And then their sweet faces greet you when you get home from work.

It's too early for the tulips in my yard.

There's a fungus among us.

 Then we walked more south onto the grass of the Town Common where they were preparing for the Extrvanga.  It's the yearly marijuana festival that the Town Police Chief says may be the last one this year because there are just too many people to fit downtown.

This shot is from the furthest south, looking north.  You can see the brick of Town Hall on the top right.  We were there around 10:30 a.m. so some of the vendors were just setting up.

The Happy Hempster (left) featured a "traditional grilled cheese sandwich" among their fare.

There are a zillion glass pipes (for smoking dope) behind the glass frames. (The dog was very friendly.)

Hula hoops are in again.

After seeing all that we could see on the Common, we went to the University of Mass. Hadley farm.  [We did note the many food trucks on the Common, including two fried dough places opposite each other.  I guess if you got stoned enough and had fried dough on the left, you might forget and buy fried dough on the right too!]

As we drove up, the three female babies were gamboling and running around.  By the time we walked from the car, they were only standing around this one spot, so the pictures are not great.  It turns out, that is where they are fed and about a half hour later (as we were coming out of the barn), two young girls pulled up in a golf cart sized truck with grain and hay.  I had never seen horses do the "Yay, it's dinner time!! dance before and it was quite a sight to see them literally kicking up their heels in excited anticipation.

This is before they were fed, so there must have been some leftover spillage from the previous meal.  When they were fed, the girls hooked three plastic buckets with grain on the middle board of the fence and put some hay in a round pan in further in the paddock.

Cute Kids

We watched one goat inside push the whole metal hay rack around his pen. (He shared a pen with the first 2 kids and Momma Goat.

This son of a gun on the right had been standing on the cement circle behind him.  As soon as he saw me stop to snap the picture, he hopped off and ran to me (looking for food, I suppose).  

And, no, that was not the end of our excellent adventure: we drove to Northampton and had excellent seafood for lunch at the Fishook.  All of that wonderfulness and I was home by 1 p.m. -- just in time for a nap!  I've got Monday off for Patriots' Day, so I will have to think of somethig to do ...