I don’t usually think about preparing salads for lunch in the winter, but the rain has finally stopped and the sun is trying to poke through the clouds and after a trip to the Farmer’s Market this morning a salad sounds pretty darn good.  Our Ventura Downtown Farmer’s Market has been closed the last two weeks for the holidays and we were antsy to wander the vegetable stalls and see what the farmers had been able to harvest in spite of the rain.  Neighbors Bonnie & Nancy went with us, it felt good to see our favorite vendors and hear their “Happy New Year!” greetings.  January is usually the sparsest produce month and we’ve had to laugh at ourselves more than once when we leave a January market and say “well, that wasn’t the greatest market this week” and then remember 90% of the country would be delighted to have our produce this time of year!

Except for the leftover turkey and salad dressing, everything on the plate (Romaine and leaf lettuces, roasted beets, asparagus, Haas avocado, tomato and eggs) is straight from this morning’s Farmer’s Market:

I love where I live – even when we’re having the wettest winter in sixty years!!