April 18, 2009

The Next Morning Café.

DSC00002

Settle in. Drink some coffee and chat under this picture of last night while we head out at dawn to encounter Madison — on the first Farmers' Market Saturday of the year.

75 comments:

hdhouse said...

ahhh Cincinnati visits Madison! Everyone enjoy your day. Nothing is better than the first market of the spring.

Michael Haz said...

Love the photo. That's how a bar should look - tall glasses of various beers, bar snacks, ice water, happy people, clean windows with plenty of natural light but still a bit dark in the bar, attentive barman. And no laptops.

Issob Morocco said...

I bet it doesn't beat Ann Arbor's Farmer Market with a follow breakfast at the Fleetwood diner.

Anonymous said...

and no lonelywoman45 like I mentioned in one of the lastcafe kinda makes you think of Susan alittle. Ann didn't have any follow up comment there.
hereI gotta jog, no time for coffee or beer or Susan to sing.

birds, yes, birds.

the morning is beautiful. nothing like keepin my buns warm and in shape (and not the flat shape of a bar stool.)

AllenS said...

I'm going to an auction. There's a New Holland 7' haybine that I'm interested in buying.

MadisonMan said...

I don't like the early farmer's markets -- nothing to buy but pastry, cheese and last year's sunchokes and parsnips. And all the bedding plants too.

I prefer a market with more color than just different shades of green, but I hope you enjoy it. I'll be working out in the garden myself. It's time to move things around before the cold damp of tomorrow.

Is that picture that place on Monroe Street where Atlas pasta used to be, and Breadsmith before that?

Ron said...

I'll pass on the Fleetwood for more Latkes & bacon at Zingerman's (walking distance from the Farmers Market) or I'll go to Angelo's for superb Hollandaise sauce with an excellent breakfast... Should I photo blog this?

I propose a Deep Fried French Toast to our betrothed couple for a "blogging present."

Bissage said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Issob Morocco said...

Ron, that is so bourgeois!


You need to be down with the working man, not the Subaru driving, NY Times reading crowd at Zingerman's.

Perhaps we could compromise with a Krazy Jim's Blimpy Trip.

Cheers! ;-)

Anonymous said...

phase two:

six foot plus guy with gorgeous legs in shorts pases you jogging. You swear you hear him say

"I dig her pony tail,"

go home get your wild oats. toast them.
There's no time for slow cooking. I got a feeling there's no time like now. It's gonna be pressure cooking and pressing the steam release carefully.

rhhardin said...

Farm animals in the backyard this morning.

TMink said...

I am waiting patiently, well, I am waiting for my best friend Chris. We are traveling to Lynchberg to visit the home of that famous cajun whiskey maker Jacques Daniel and his Protestant friend George Dickel.

I have two La Gloria Charlemagnes, one in natural, one in maduro, two El Rey Del Mundo Flor de Llanezas, and two little nothing special cigars in case we run out.

I have promised to do nothing of any consequence for the rest of the day. It is 8:30 local, and I feel a tingle up my leg just thinking about the Cuban cigars heading my way as our peerless leader normalizes relations with Cuba.

Have a wonderful day yall.

Trey

rhhardin said...

The often only-marginally SFW Theo Spark posts on Obama pirate incident that's surely net rumor at its finest, but aligns with the impression I got from that press conference that the military was looking chiefly for the right spin on the local commander deciding to settle the matter himself.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

I'm going to a wedding today. It's a dry wedding.. so it will be good for me.

Ron said...

Ron, that is so bourgeois!


You need to be down with the working man, not the Subaru driving, NY Times reading crowd at Zingerman's.

Perhaps we could compromise with a Krazy Jim's Blimpy Trip.
Issob, I couldn't be more Working Man (or more precisely, lack-of-working man) if I tried. And that whole anti-Zingermans thing is just reverse snobbery to moi! I'll stick to the Latkes thanks!

Crazy Jim's is cool...but an Atomic Gutbomb it is! Fried Zucchini and a Quint, anyone?

Big Mike said...

@rh, you herd chickens with a dog???

Big Mike said...

@Michael H, don't it make you want to play some Toby Keith?

Bissage said...

Today I will be trying to complete as many chores as possible before the arrival of houseguests.

Among them will be my brother-in-law. He is 45 years old. He has a top-tier M.D. and MBA and he works as a consultant to the pharmaceutical industry making huge bucks.

Here is what will happen. At some point after dinner, he will do something to make sure that everyone in the room is paying attention to him. Then he will let loose with a wall-shaking blast of ass gas and then he will say, “There were nooooooooooooooooooooo survivors,” which is a line I think he may have stolen from a Jim Carrey movie.

He has done this consistently for more than ten years.

I am not making this up.

Bissage said...

One of my chores, this morning, is tidying up my 8:12 comment, or so it would appear, judging from the way things seem to have actually turned out.

. . . ahem.

Moose said...

I'd rather have breakfast at either Goebel's Snappy Service or Manikas'. Those were breakfast restaurants.

Zingerman's is WAY over priced and the Fleetwood is nothing like it used to be...

Trooper York said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Trooper York said...

Damn I am going to spend all day putting women into bras. Isn't spring the busy time for hornyculturalists? Shouldn't you be bringing in the sheaves or something?

Ann Althouse said...

We bought popcorn on the cob (to microwave in a bag), chicken ("free range, organic, expensive"), blue potatoes, smoked trout, whole wheat scones, and blackberry jam.

rhhardin said...

Old dogs, children and blackberry jam.

Ron said...

Yep. Zingermans is overpriced. Heard it a million times, and I'll hear it a million more. And I'll still keep going back! Better great latkes than the usual mediocre breakfast fare.

Trooper York said...

RH you freak me out man.

Those children aren't named Hansel and Gretel are they?

Daryl said...

I have an idea for a new business venture. I'm going to make shirts.

The front will have a picture of a tea party protester, and it will say "teabagger"

The back will have a picture of Anderson Cooper, and it will say "ball-sucking whore"

LonewackoDotCom said...

Regarding Anderson Cooper, here's a video I uploaded in 11/07 after one of their debates showing how badly a job he did with a question to McCain: link.

Up until the election, I urged people to go to appearances by McCain and BHO and ask them the questions that hacks like Cooper won't ask, with the responses uploaded to Youtube.

If people had really pressed either of them on a difficult question on video, it would have been seen by hundreds of thousands or millions of people and had an effect on the election. It would also have undercut "reporters" like Cooper as people compared what they ask to what private citizens asked.

Did your leaders get behind that plan? No, they didn't, instead preferring to push ineffective or misleading stories.

Now, those same low-wattage leaders are pushing the tea parties. Like their earlier efforts, those "parties" might end up even helping Obama by marginalizing his opposition and showing how weak it is. Read through the posts at that link for much more on the "parties".

David said...

This morning I had breakfast at Mike's Deli in Beaufort, S.C. with Billy Keyserling, the mayor of Beaufort, and Mitch Houston, a Methodist minister. Billy is Jewish and was involved in a project to get Ethiopian Jews to Israel. Mitch and Billy went to Israel recently as part of the project and stopped in Paris on the way back.

Mostly I listened to their stories about the trip. (Many were reruns from previous breakfasts, but I didn't care.) The best new story was Billy crashing an Orthodox matchmaking session at the King David hotel in Jerusalem. (Billy is not married, and kind of cute in a chubby readheaded way, but it did not go well for him.)

These are two of the funniest men I know. It was a great morning.

Mike, the proprietor, was out of the hospital after a episode of chest pains earlier this week. We were glad for that. Mike is a statistic in that he has no health insurance. He nevertheless is treated at the local community hospital, as are all persons in need, regardless of health care status. (The attention is sometimes a little slapdash, but at least it's something.)

It is a beautiful day--sunny, cool, about 70 degrees. I boiled some shrimp for dinner. Now I am going to take my dog for a walk and then hit some golf balls.

Billy is a good mayor. He is struggling though because tax receipts are down and unemployment is up. Health care, government, construction and hospitality services are our biggest employers. Construction is almost completely stopped and the hospitality business is struggling.

Billy is paid $12,000 a year as mayor. He works very hard at it.

Tonight my wife is appearing in a tap dance extravaganza at the local college auditorium. It's a combination of a professional touring group and a local bunch of amateurs. She just tried on her outfit for me and did a few steps. She's 60 years old and can still swap clothes with her 26 year old daughter, who is a model in New York. She's a good dancer and looks great but she's very anxious about the performance. She says this will be her last year doing it. She has said that before.

Just a few hours in a sleepy, conservative southern town. For those of you who think of southern towns as places where Conservative Christians impose their moral view on the masses and whites look for ways to harass and subjugate blacks, you should come and visit for a while. Your stereotypes could not be more inaccurate.

Big Mike said...

@David, when all the people you are trying to reach go to the 2nd paragraph all they could read was

la-la-la-la-la-la-la-...

David said...

Big Mike:

You are amazing. You know who all the people I am trying to reach are. And you have talked to them!

Keep up the good work.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

It turns out the wedding is not this week.

Good thing I'm not the one getting married.

traditionalguy said...

That is a street fair, I suppose, since no farmers have even planted yet in the north country. An imaginary Farmers Market is so Disneyworld. Oh, maybe the Farmers sell Seeds among one another. It's really a farmer's seminar on seeds, with the added attraction of a chance to meet and greet the Farmer's Daughter crop blooming this spring. Be sure to check the Farm Girls driver's liscenses. You don't want to end up on the Registry for sowing your wild seed in an underage field.

Chip Ahoy said...

It snowed here yesterday, those big honk'n flakes that you can catch on your tongue. Built up quite nicely covering everything. Melting now. Tomorrow -- 70˚F.

I yearn for the halçyon days of farmers' markets. But ya know what? Most of the stuff in our farmers' markets is trucked in from California and that defeats the purpose of buying locally, dunnit?

Which is all just another way of introducing my percept on being a White House spokesperson.

But I've been naughty today. Lord, look at me and tell me if I can be forgiven. Please erase my earlier sweary anim sins with this lully anim of the mysterious underground elephant generator.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

Watched Frozen River last night.

I liked it.. my only complaint was how the camera seemed to almost constantly focused on the actors. Other than that it was a good story.

Big Mike said...

@David, I don't know them all by name, but the type is well known.

I can even recognize your town, though I've never been in South Carolina. I came from a small town myself. There might be difference as to whether the Civil War statue in front of the town hall (or is it the library?) has a figure with a blanket roll and slouch hat or a figure with a backpack and forage cap, but otherwise we're more alike than different. Or does your town have instead an elaborate memorial to those who fought in World War II, with stars next to the names of the men who didn't come back? If your town is like the one I grew up in the small library and the town hall and the trucks of the volunteer fire company are all housed in the same building.

The people living in cities, or college towns, can't even imagine and you waste your time trying to tell them. But my best to your mayor friend and good on your wife.

hdhouse said...

Issob Morocco said...
I bet it doesn't beat Ann Arbor's Farmer Market with a follow breakfast at the Fleetwood diner."

Issob....contrare. The Brown Jug on S. U....in the 1930s it had honey-dipped doughnuts from 6-10a and my father worked there...

Trooper York said...

I hear that Madison Man goes to the Fleetwood to mack the waitresses.

Ron said...

hd, I'll the Brown Jug was fine...in the '30's! Now? Not so much...

blogging cockroach said...

as a cockroach ordinarily i d have something to say
about the food or the hygiene in cafes or maybe
just the quality of crumbs that fall from althouse s plate
but you know what with the 20 million commenters
and all the increased traffic here the main thing
i m noticing is how much better a class of
commenters is showing up these days
oh you still get your trolls and nutty politico types
with crude insults and fights breaking out
but now we ve got insults of real literary merit
worthy of the english dept e g david and big mike
above great writing guys keep it up

Jason (the commenter) said...

In Saint Petersburg our farmers market starts in October and ends in May.

Just today we had a farmers market, a weekly art fair, an annual art fair, and a Festival of States parade (with fair).

dbp said...

Unlike in Colorado, we are done with snow for the season in the Boston area. I spent a good part of the day mending all problems with the snowblower. Now it is stashed in the back of the shed, ready for next Fall.

Also, roasted coffee--but that happens most weekends.

hdhouse said...

ron...you're right but the office is still where it was according to my dad and i did go there last spring on a visit and it wasn't much but i think the theme here is the next morning cafe and the night before like years before is always a lot nicer.

Ron said...

Very true, hd...I still have fond memories of Drake's even though they too, had their problems...

Big Mike said...

Well thank you, cockroach. I formally apologize for stepping on your 2nd cousin twice removed last night. :-(

Michael Haz said...

Just back from an easy 250 mile motorcycle ride. Starting to practice for the ride to Alaska and back this summer.

Rode from home to Monroe, Wisconsin, the only place in the U.S., so the story goes, where limburger cheese is made.

Stopped at Baumgartner's for lunch and had a limburger, raw onion, lettuce and tomato on rye bread sandwich, with an ice cold beer. Deee-licious!

Hit some rain on the way home, but not enough to interrupt the ride and the joy of being on two wheels.

Penny said...

Curious if Monroe smells like limburger cheese, Michael? If so, only a rare few would want to spend much time there. Did you know that Hershey, Pa. smells like chocolate?

chickelit said...

Rode from home to Monroe, Wisconsin, the only place in the U.S., so the story goes, where limburger cheese is made.My accidental birthplace too.

Did you meet up with Stan Bran?

chickelit said...

Penny,
IIRC, Monroe smelled like hops.

chickelit said...

Of course, not as strongly so as Milwaukee used smell like hops--in the day.

Penny said...

Smelling like hops is a far cry better than smelling like limburger cheese. For those who never smelled limburger, sulphur will put you in the ballpark.

Paddy O said...

One year ago today I kissed my now wife for the first time.

I bought her a card and some roses. We then spent the afternoon at her nephews birthday party. He turned 5! Pizza and drinks were had.

Then to the grocery store. We bought ingredients for lasagna and creme brule for a gathering of friends we're having over tomorrow. The rest of the day will be spent lounging, eating pizza later, watching french movies (she spent 5 years in France), and along the way, most likely, more kisses.

Michael Haz said...

Monroe doesn't smell like limburger cheese, at least it didn't today, nor hops.

I didn't meet Stan Bran.

Limburger gets more smelly as it ages. The sandwich I had was made with fresh limburger. It didn't have a very pungent aroma - you could smell it but it wasn't offensive. The flavor is sort of like a really good brie with some bleu cheese added. Quite good, actually, especially with a thick slice of raw onion.

My wife bought a chunk or limberger to bring home. It was tightly wrapped in multiple layers of foil and plastic wrap, and when unwrapped at home - eesh - the windows had to be opened.

She also bought some apple wood smoked gouda, wonderful, and a piece of expensive 10 year old cheddar that was worth every penny.

I guess we're cheeseheads, although we did also stop at the Mt Horeb Mustard Museum.

Althouse, you should take Meade on a nice ride to Baumgartner's in Monroe for a yummy limburger sandwich. It's nowhere near as bad as egg salad.

chickelit said...

I'm surprised they even make Limburger in Monroe--it's not a traditional Swiss cheese. I would expect emmentaler, appenzeller, or gruyère.

I'll bet you can still find a good "café Lutz" in Monroe, or perhaps in New Glarus.

Dale said...

David,

Thanks for the Beaufort update. From there myself but haven't been back in almost 40 years. But family says it really hasn't changed much.

Big Mike,

Why the cramping, bro? Are you the kind that thinks they're being helpful by such hard-hearted drivel? Lighten up, my man. And BTW, I left that small town for a big town and count myself among the millions in this country who like to read and hear occasionally about the small town feel.

Kinda like reading about specific farmers markets in Madison (pop. 200,000 - but not all in one area).

Michael Haz said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
JAL said...

My daughter and her boyfriend arrived at 2 AM. I finally went to bed.

The ag lady called at 8:15 AM to tell me Wayne would lime my pastures at 11, would that be alright?

The horses were moved, the temp fences taken down. The pastures were limed. The daughter went and schooled her horse after many months of not riding.

While we made spaghetti for late lunch the boyfriend sat and talked with my husband and asked his permission to marry our youngest daughter. (He said yes.)

The someday son-in-law drove more than 13 hours (more like 16 with the diversion to pick up daughter) to talk with my husband face to face.

Quaint, huh.

But very genuine.

And I found a Sicilian burro with a sense of humor for free (yeah!)

A beautiful and happy day in the neighbor hood all around.

Penny said...

There are two quaint little towns near where I live who have their farmer's market Saturdays. I wasn't that impressed with the market side of things because we have so many off the page good farms to go to for the produce, baked goods and the like. The thing that impressed me was how it appeared to be the newest place for families to catch up with each other and show off their kids and their dogs too. Farmers markets are rather how churches used to be for their communities.

hdhouse said...

Penny,

That was a very gentle and nice comment. Thanks for sharing it.

knox said...

Most of the stuff in our farmers' markets is trucked in from California and that defeats the purpose of buying locally, dunnit?That's how the "farmer's market" in Knoxville used to be--pretty much the same as my Kroger's produce section. Although they did start up a new one that was supposedly better. Tipp City has a real one, starting in a month or so. Can't wait for fresh tomatoes and corn as summer comes.

Dale said...

Wife held a garage sale in our driveway today.

Though we know a lot of people in our neighborhood - young families, professionals, college staff - we are all too busy to visit often. So, the driveway and lawn became a place to reconnect. Put the old coffee urn out, ground 3 lb. of Starbucks Breakfast Blend, set up about a dozen folding chairs.

People stop by. About 100 or so. Most talk a while and catch up. Magical.

Everyone says we should plan something for everyone - a block party, a sports event at the neighborhood park. It's a great idea, but doggone it - everyone just seems too busy.

I like the casual happenstance feel of today better anyway. Got to go help the recently widowed Mrs. Dorrance set-up the bed frame she bought today from my wife that her granddaughter will use when she stays this summer on college break. Hmmmm - her granddaughter is the same age as my son.

Big Mike said...

@Dale and @David: apparently my comment came off snarky. It wasn't meant to be, at least not at David nor at Beaufort.

I know way too many people who've always lived in cities or who inhabit academia and whose first thought when you say "South Carolina" is wall to wall KKK and nasty, small-minded, gap-toothed, sister-marrying yahoos. If you made any of these people spend a year in Beaufort they'd leave after 365 days assuming that the residents had done a marvelous (no, make that mah - velous) job trying to fool them, but they will leave town with their smug ignorance carefully preserved and prejudices intact. That's who I was mocking.

I desperately wanted to leave the town I grew up in, but as I got older I appreciated that words like "honor," "integrity," and "honesty" mean something in a small town because everybody knows who has them -- and who does not.

The Dude said...

HD forgot how to write in English again. Just like that. Reverted to baby typing.

What's the matter do you need to be reminded that typing like a douche is not in any way hip?

How hip will you be in prison? Will the IRS show any mercy at all? Does Opus have insurance for your misdeeds?

Paddy O said...

"Most of the stuff in our farmers' markets is trucked in from California and that defeats the purpose of buying locally, dunnit?"

Not for those of us in California.

knox said...

Not for those of us in California.Yeah, rub it in, whydoncha.

blogging cockroach said...

speaking of beer
which is what this thread should be about
not boring farmers markets that are usually
kept far too shi shi and swept clean
unlike a real farm
for the benefit of customers who drive
cars of northern european make and have
large six figure incomes unlike little me
who would like a little something to spill
now and then well here s a report tommy found
tommy is the boy whose computer i use
and he s already thinking about colleges
and which have the best beer which is
better than thinking about those that have
the best meth labs nearby
anyway here s the report cut n pasted by tommy

MADISON, Wis. -- Playboy Magazine no longer considers the University of Wisconsin-Madison the nation's top party school, although the college still cracks the magazine's top 10.
UW-Madison ranks sixth on Playboy's 2009 list. Playboy lauded the school in part for its "rabid football and basketball fans."
Another comment listed Madison's cold weather as a negative but added, "Positive: It has the coldest beer on any campus."
The magazine doesn't put out its rankings every year. Its last list was in 2006, when UW-Madison hit the top spot.
Playboy said the rankings are based on bikinis, sex, campus life, sports and brains. It did note that Madison is a good place to get an education.
The University of Miami was ranked No. 1, followed by the University of Texas at Austin and San Diego State University.

Peter V. Bella said...

zedzded,
Please use the proper case when referring to house. It is hd. HD is short for Hossier Daddy and he would be very offended being compared house.

BTW, I hope you are not a Southerner. house has an irrational hatred towrds them. He refers to them as "crackers".

traditionalguy said...

We Crackers salute hdhouse for his history of gutsy comments... although we don't understand his frame of reference sometimes. The best farmer's market I have encountered in a main, shut down, city street is held in California, of course, at the city of Santa Barbara during harvest time around mid-August to mid-September. Everybody there seemed to be into organic farming and quite eager to sell their crops.

TMink said...

Beaufort? SC?

I swam the sea to Shackleford Island and chased the horses while the flies chased me.

My friends sent a fraternity brother to pick me up in an inflatable raft. He was from the Bronx, black, and unable to swim. Soon the dock was filled with people watching the laughing black college student row himself in circles while I cursed loudly from the far beach.

Trey

TMink said...

Make that Beaufort NC.

The locations were changed to confuse the guilty.

Trey

chickelit said...

HD is short for Hossier Daddy and he would be very offended being compared house.HD will always be hydrogen deuteride to me Peter. Think Hindenburg but with one extra little neutron kicking around.

hdhouse said...

Peter V. Bella andzedzded,

This was an excellent thread until your stuff. don't you see how out of place you are? how out of your depth? How inappropriate and disrespectful to all others?

How utterly sad.

rhhardin said...

Headlines we did not want to investigate:

Madonna Hospitalized After Horse Accident.

Michael Haz said...

Madonna Hospitalized After Horse Accident.Was she practicing yoga with Sarah Jessica Parker?

rhhardin said...

In a surprise evolutionary move, Doberman uses opposable thumb in tug of war.