Beauty and bounty at the Greenmarket

It's an absolutely gorgeous day in New York City. Forecast called for rain, but while it is somewhat humid outside, there isn't a cloud in the sky, it's 70 degrees and there's a light breeze blowing.

I just bought couple of new toys for my podcasts (an iRiver iFP 799T 1 GB Flash MP3 Player/Recorder, with a Sony stereo lapel mic attached) and went on a "soundseeing" tour of the Union Square Greenmarket this morning.

(Haven't had a chance to check the recording yet... if it worked out, excerpts will be featured in an upcoming Greenwich Village Idiot.)

Bought: pencil-thin new asparagus, two big bunches of ramps, a pound of fiddlehead ferns, a couple half-pound slabs of beautiful artisanal cheese (a veiny, stinky-in-a-good-way blue and a mellow farmstead Dutch), a bag of homemade pretzels and a couple of apple turnovers from the hippie chicks running the organic baked-goods stand.

Oh, and a slab of pork fatback for seasoning vegetables. (You can take the boy out of the South, but you can't take the South out of the boy. Not yet, anyway.) This, I will slice up into small pieces and freeze (it freezes beautifully); a little chunk will impart a delightful flavor to a huge pot of, say, green beans.

Okay, so I'm a little off the reservation on the diet with the apple turnover (which I just devoured with a cup of coffee) but otherwise I'm an obedient and compliant patient.

Tonight's dinner: whole-wheat pasta tossed with ramps sauteed in olive oil, with a side of steamed fiddleheads. Disgustingly healthy.

The Greenmarket is a great place to practice your foreign-language skills. Lots of French people shopping at the cheese stalls, and a clutch of enthusiastic Russians by the mushroom table.