Babs, who has been Away, came through Kalkaska on her way back. She writes: This is harvest time and there is no place like the Cherry Street Market in Kalkaska for produce. I had to stop there today on the way home from Ohio. Thus the picture is a few days late this week.
Cherries and apples may be the glamor crops, but potatoes and onions are fundamental to life in Michigan. We figured out we could grow those even when practically everything else failed on the sandy cut-over timberlands turned over to farming. Besides, no matter what anyone tells you, potatoes are the staff of life. They taste good. Anyone can cook them. Anyone. I am living proof. I would give you a good potato recipe, but why? You don’t need one. You know how to cook potatoes. It’s one of their charms. Now eggplant, that’s another post entirely.
Torch Lake Views 
La Mirada Bob
September 6, 2011
And Bonnie loves it all, especially the eggplant!
Gerry
September 7, 2011
I love eggplant too but I am not good at cooking it. Your grandson, now, he does a fine job of it. Tuck that nugget away for the next time he visits.
Heather
September 6, 2011
Possibly my favorite market in the area. It’s at least on my list of favorites 🙂 Also, I need to get some potatoes for corn (and potato!) chowder, chicken & noodles with mashed potatoes, etc.
Gerry
September 7, 2011
Chowder. I love chowder. All kinds. I believe that’s what I should make for supper.
Molly
September 6, 2011
Every September a primordial switch gets turned on inside me and I start buying root vegetables. Lots and lots of root vegetables. Love the photo, and couldn’t agree with you more about potatoes.
Gerry
September 7, 2011
Yes! I remember a lovely weekend at the Benmiller Inn in Goderich, Ontario. That is a kitchen that knows what to do with root vegetables. It was a revelation, and warmed my northern soul all the way through.
Carsten
September 7, 2011
I’d stop there.
The red potatoes look good. They are not common here.
The Danish word for potatoes is “kartofler” probably from German. But where my father came from in Jutland, they used to call them “potater”.
Gerry
September 7, 2011
The red potatoes are good. I am especially fond of them when they are new. It’s interesting about “potater.” One of the regional variations here is “tater.” Must be descendants of Leif Ericsson, eh?
Carsten
September 7, 2011
You are right Gerry. Now I remember that in Sweden they also use “potater”. Strange that the part if Denmark between Jutland and Sweden use “kartofler”. Can happen that it is from the time when the king used experts from Germany to rule the country. German and French was spoken in government circles.
Gerry
September 7, 2011
Nothing like language to reveal history. And make it, too.
Gerry
September 7, 2011
I’m back. I was examining the maps. It occurs to me that in Scandinavia, as in North America, a great deal of communication and trade was based on water routes. Obvious, I know, but I’d never thought about it before. I believe I’m going to have to study Danish history a bit–it will be a little vacation from my grumpy Civil War veterans.
Carsten
September 9, 2011
Danish history might be a study worth. But take care. It’s toooo long. if you start from the beginning you have to go through some 12000 years. Or you could start from the era of the wikings when the kingdom was born – that’ll be some 1200 years.
Gerry
September 9, 2011
That’s a lot of history. Maybe I’ll start with the vikings and work my way back. You’ve reminded me, though – sometime I have to do a post about the Paleo-Indian settlement on Skegemog Point. Taking the long view can be very restful. Isn’t it astonishing how a comment on potatoes can meander off into the underbrush like this?
Carsten
September 9, 2011
You never know where thoughts starts or end. And when two individuals with uncontrollable minds crosses ideas…
It is a good idea leaving the ‘modern’ history and concentrating on the period from the hunters and collectors up to the start of the kingdom of the Danes. And there will be limited written sources. Easy to overcome.
I’m interested in getting a short resumé when you have finished your study.
Gerry
September 9, 2011
Now I have to learn to read rune stones. It may be the only way I can get back to whatever it was I was thinking about before I wandered off down a rabbit trail.
P.j. grath
September 7, 2011
Gerry, I love it! Reminds me of the produce stand on West Main Street in Kalamazoo where I first discovered Wolf River apples years ago. Beautiful piles of potatoes, the staff of life.
Gerry
September 7, 2011
Piles of potatoes, a lovely thought. I see you were up very early this morning. I’ll bet you’re getting hungry for lunch right about now. Hmm.
Fee
September 7, 2011
I spent many an afternoon digging up spuds in the garden, to be cooked in all manner of ways, depending on the mood and the season. We love our potatoes so much, we even incorporate them into scones (yes, really; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potato_scone).
Eggplant I had to google, only to discover it’s an aubergine by another name, which still won’t make me like it.
Gerry
September 7, 2011
And there we have a potato recipe! I’ve made something like that with leftover mashed potatoes, and I’ve made potato pancakes with grated potatoes. A wonderful vegetable.
I just had a conversation with Norton Bretz, who is learning UK English. The eggplant/aubergine translation was on his word list, along with lorries and trucks and courgettes and zucchinis and on and on. He was surprised at how many of them I knew. I explained about hanging out with you and Mrs. Uhdd. (I didn’t tell him about reeking lums.)
uphilldowndale
September 7, 2011
Spuds. Mmmmmmmmm. Mashed will be my favourite, but then can you beat a roast potato, or chips (fries to you guys) do you have purple potatoes? I saw some in Hawaii, no one would believe me back home.
It is windy wet and miserable over here at the moment, I’m hankering after soup, sprout and potato, accompanied by a bacon butty
Gerry
September 7, 2011
We do have purple potatoes, and red ones and blue ones and gold ones too. We are fools for potatoes. We had soup’n’bacon butty weather a few days ago, but today is Just Perfect. I hope it wafts its way across the Atlantic and finds you at home.