Early Birds & People's Markets

“All happiness depends on a leisurely breakfast.” - John Gunther

Let's take a poll! What makes you more jealous?
1) The fact that I scored a picture-perfect heirloom Brandywine tomato?
2) Because it only cost me 50 cents?
3) Or, because said tomato is resting nicely on my very own 'souvenir of Wyoming' dinner plate? [Oh, yeah! Am I cool... or what?]

Crawled out of bed at an unheard of hour ~ 6 a.m. ~ on a Saturday!

I run a lazy household. So lazy, in fact that when I grabbed the scissors and bee-lined it to the gardens that early in the morning I knew I'd be heading out there alone.

Bad Dog is not that co-dependent. He glared at me with one sleepy eye, rolled over and went back to bed.

I scored that simply fabulous heirloom tomato at Mitchell's Market.

Meet Mitchell, prince of the heirloom tomatoes. [Mitchell's Mom is Queen.]

This early morning, scissor-happy, frenzy was on account of bloggers, Needles of Iron and sister, Just-A-Mere coming to town, to celebrate the birth of granddaughter, Bebe Bean. I was madly snipping a little bit of every pink flower blooming to make them one of my ultra-special (as in 'geez, that's kind of weird looking') Big Rock Garden bouquets.

It was looking pretty good, if I do say so myself, right up until I hopped in the car and raced down the mountain to meet my blogging friends for breakfast. You see, the top was off the Jeep Wrangler and now I know why it's a bad idea to transport fresh-cut flowers in a convertible.

Rose petals were flying everywhere!

This was such a fun morning because I've been 'virtual friends' with Iron for several years. That's the wonderful thing about blogging ~ you cross paths with so many great people you would never know, were it not for the blogosphere.

Through my blog, she met Wunx, a local friend of mine. Through Iron, we met her sister. And, so the 4 of us met for a yakety yak breakfast, lingering at Ruth's Diner for the better part of the morning.

Murry Market (not heirloom, why bother? :) Tomaters

Afterwards, Wunx introduced me to the famous Mitchell's Market fresh-picked veggie stand.

Then we headed to the Murry Farmer's Market to arm wrestle the natives for sweet corn and other homegrown goodies.

Attn: Salt Lake City Locals!
Find Mitchell's magnificent heirloom tomatoes a half block east of Foothill Blvd. on the corner of 1300 South and Laird Way. On Saturday mornings.

Or! Find them at the People's Market on Sundays: International Peace Garden, 1000 South, 900 West in Salt Lake City.