Corn and Tomato Festival

Yesterday I attended the Verrill Farm Corn and Tomato Festival in Concord, MA.

The corn was boiled in wire baskets over a wood fire. I rolled the warm corn across a thick slab of butter and ate it while standing in the hot sun. It felt like one of the first real summer things I've done so far--and it's August!

The tomatoes were amazing. There were over 30 varieties. My favorite was Southern Nights which it seems are not named for the Glen Campbell song, but for the black nights of Southern Russia, where they come from. They were deep maroon with black marks and tasted musky. If I had a yard I'd try to grow some.

There was some great music from the Gypsy Wranglers while we sat on bales of hay and sampled corn chowder, salsa, gazpacho, and bruschetta.

It was a mere 20 mins from my place, but standing in a field where no buildings were visible and my friends' kids were waiting in line for pony rides made me feel I was many miles away. It was excellent. I was brought back to urban reality a few hours later while I wrangled my way into the Apple store in Cambridge to try to buy an Airport card on Massachusetts' first tax-free day. It was busier than Christmas and my search was fruitless; they no longer sell regular Airport cards, just Airport Extreme cards. My G3 iBook may have to suffer with a dying wireless card for a while--I bought a 50 foot Ethernet cable from Radio Shack so I can still sit on the couch with the internet.