The more keen-eyed observers out there will perhaps have noticed that some of my recent entries have, well, disappeared, and that this entire site has only been sporadically accessible over the past week. This is not due to censorship on my part, but rather to some pretty drastic server problems on the part of my formerly reliable web host. I’ll repost the first part of the Bologna article as soon as some other technical issues have been sorted out. The journal entries, though, are gone for good. That’s not a tragic loss, but it will teach me to back-up my site a heck of a lot more frequently.

Anyway, on to happier subjects - like food! Yesterday, Jeremy and I finally did something we’ve been meaning to do for months now: we went to the farmer’s market in the nearby town of Lewes. It only takes place once a month, so if you miss it, you’re out of luck for another four weeks. Unfortunately, it also takes place between 9 a.m. and 1 p.m., so if we want to go, we actually have to drag ourselves out of bed and onto the train at a decent hour on a Saturday morning.

This Saturday we managed to do it, and I’m happy we did. It’s not a very big market, but it’s got a nice selection of stalls, most of which sell organic produce from the local area - and most of which also give you free samples of their stuff to entice you to buy something (this tactic works extremely well, I’ve found).

Since we hadn’t had breakfast, our first stop was the stall selling various types of yummy grilled meats. I had a pork and apple sausage which was charred to perfection, and Jeremy indulged in a lamb burger wrapped in a tortilla with a tasty, herby salad. We washed it all down with some organic apple juice that tasted like super-concentrated apples in liquid form (just like apple juice should), and then we hit the other stalls.

In the picture below, you can see some of the loot that we managed to collect. We got some asparagus, naturally, since it’s asparagus season. We were lucky to get it: everyone at the market wanted it, and when the women at the lone stall selling it brought out their bright green bundles of the stuff, the local populace descended upon it like locusts (do locusts like asparagus?).

We also got some broad beans (aka fava beans), which are my new vegetable obsession, and some tiny zucchini (which actually came not from the market, but from the garden of one of Jeremy’s workmates). The first time I had broad beans was just about two weeks ago, after the Lord of the Rings concert in London. When Jeremy and I got back to Brighton that evening, we treated ourselves to dinner at Sevendials, where I ordered a side dish of broad beans with shallots and pancetta to go with my crispy, juicy roast guinea fowl. They were fabulous, and ever since then I’ve been on a real broad bean kick.

In the non-vegetable department, we picked up some fresh organic eggs from happy chickens; some "lemon cheese" (also known, somewhat more appetizingly, as lemon curd), some honey garlic mustard and some lime pickle, all from local producers; some stoneground wholemeal flour from a nearby mill; and some absolutely lovely black cherry wine from an organic vineyard near Hastings. We also bought two fat, fresh trout (not pictured because they were in the fridge), and I purchased a giant, chewy, triple-chocolate cookie (not pictured because I devoured it immediately). Not too bad for a morning’s shopping expedition.

Our goodies having been keeping us extremely well-fed over the past 24 hours. Last night Jeremy poached the trout in some white wine, I blanched the asparagus and dressed them with a bit of olive oil and lemon juice, and we served it all up with a very rich, very garlicky aioli made with the eggs from the market. The stoneground flour has yielded a remarkably tasty loaf of bread which nicely complemented our bacon and eggs this morning, and which also tastes delicious when toasted and slathered with butter and lemon cheese. And tonight’s meal will definitely feature those fresh broad beans, possibly sauteed with pancetta and shallots, and possibly followed by tipple of the black cherry wine for dessert.

I love springtime! I love food!