Friday morning feria (farmers market...)

Every friday morning in the town center, they have a farmers market where you can get fresh veggies, fruits, meats, baking, clothes and trinkets, among other stuff. Our haul for the day is at the bottom. We got fresh green beans, cilantro (Megan want's to make a salsa), tomatoes, cucumber, watermelon, a funky type of mandarin orange, mangos, red peppers, some hearty organic bread from Melanie, the local German baker, and some SMOKIN hot, huge jalapenos. You will also see some seedless grapes there, but they were relatively expensive (as it turned out) and imported from California. We also bought some "chicharrones" at one of the meat stands as well. These are little pieces of crisply-grilled pork, and while I've never been much of a pork guy, these were quite good. The little town of Atenas is in the middle of not only coffee country but also farm/ranch/agricultural country, so it's known for its good pork and chicken. We actually ordered a pork dish the other night (in error really) but were very pleasantly surprised with how lean and tasty the pork was - would definitely consider more pork dishes to try in the future.

The thingies in the tinfoil are called "papusas" (think they originate from El Salvador) and they are basically a fresh, hand made tortilla with "frijoles y queso" inside (beans and cheese) then are fried on the open grill and served with a type of pickled coleslaw. They are cheap and tasty. Yum yum!!!

As you can see, Megan is trying hard to look like a local with her lululemon bag (if that's even the way you spell it....)

As for the price of things, you can see the price for a kilo of papayas (I think that's what they are) is 500 colones, which is less than a buck.

Neither of us have ever been much for mangos, but they are in season here, and are excellent. They are growing on both of us. Something about all the fruit stands seem to scream out "blender drinks!" all the time. Too bad we don't have a blender yet, or a house to put it in for that matter.

Another weird thing is that for all of the cool local stuff that grows right here in people's yards, like crab apples do in Calgary, the one thing the whole family seems to like the most so far are the tomatoes. They are huge, tasty and cheap! The other thing is watermelon. They are so big and fresh that every time you start to cut into one, they actually burst open - kinda like the sound when you open a fresh bag of coffee. It's pretty cool and happens every single time.

I guess I had a pre-conceived notion that I would start to eat all of these exotic things that you couldn't easily get in Calgary, but instead I'm diggin the tomatoes and watermelon. Oh well, at least we're filling up on fruits and veggies everyday and lovin' every minute of it.

I have tried a few local things like "Mamo Chinos" (an ugly, hairy red fruit with kind of a soft lyche (sp?) nut inside) , "Jocotes" (a little green fruit sold in bags at the side of the road that seems like a combination fruit/vegetable with the texture of an avocado,) and "Guyabas (sp?)", and while they were all interesting (and different), I can't say any of these are my new favorite. But I will say that Melanie's organic carrot/zuchinni/oatmeal bread is definitely our favorite new bread. And luckily enough, there is also a couple from the States at the feria that have fresh baking like we're used to back home, so we've so far enjoyed their homemade cinnamon buns and carrot cake. We're trying to discipline ourselves and only buy one new thing from them each week, but it's REALLY tough!

W