It’s gorgeous in Maryland right now. July slammed us with heat, humidity, and tons of rain (I feel like the lawn just keeps getting taller no matter how often it’s mowed). It seemed like summer was going to be nasty, but so far August has been quite gentle with us. I hope the mild weather continues.

Week 9 at the CSA: onions, green beans, cantaloupe, green peppers, nectarines, peaches, tomatoes, corn, eggs, and bread (Great Harvest challah).

The cantaloupe felt ripe, smelled sweet, and was terrifically juicy when I cut into it. However, the flavor was just bland. It was disappointing because I had the same problem with another CSA cantaloupe from an earlier week. I think the rainy season has plumped up the cantaloupes but left them a little lacking in the flavor aspect. Or maybe I’ve just been unlucky with cantaloupes. I love a good fresh cantaloupe, but if they keep going like this I’ll have to consider making them into agua frescas or something. If we hadn’t just bought a third of a cow (more on that later), I’d think about making cantaloupe popsicles.

In other news, I was excited to see this stack of cards when I dropped by Touché Touchet:

I’m all for buying local! Apparently this card gets you discounts at local vendors (10% off your Touché Touchet purchase, for starters). However, when I visited the website, I was disappointed that there were only two Howard County “Food and Dining” participants, namely Touché Touchet and Chen Hibachi. Come on, Howard County, you’re crammed with food and dining options; get with the program.

Also, the website is annoying and clunky to navigate; you can view participating vendors by category, but can’t search by location. It gets difficult to “buy local” when you can’t even define your locality. I think this little card I picked up is going to be pretty useless to me until a) more Howard County vendors participate, and b) the website gets a facelift.