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First things first, I’m back from my B.C. adventures, so prepare for a month of Canadian love, including lots of beer, hockey (whoa), Chinese food, wonderful hippie markets, and fingers crossed, a guest post from my travelling partner and real-life-Canadian-bestie. Not to jinx myself, but expect those posts in a week or so, as I’m off to Seattle this weekend for a scintillating event – The Great Seattle Vegan Chili Cook-Off! It’s a fundraiser for their eventual Vegan Iron Chef competition, which opens the door to something that makes me kinda pee my pants – NorthWest Vegan Iron Chef Regionals!!!!! The Portland folks will be reppin’ a table at the Cook-Off, so keep an eye out.

For now, I’m spending the day counting down the minutes until I can visit the Shemanski Park Farmers Market on my lunch hour – my first visit of the season. I like to pretend it’s there for me, being mere blocks away from my office and all. At some point, my coworkers became used to me returning with armfuls of colorful produce and squash sticking out of my purse.  I have a farmar habit, it’s cool. It’s seasonal. It’s purposeful.

The weekend before I left, I was all about the tart, fascinating stalk that is rhubarb, as well as thrillingly bizarre local citrus finds, and made the following syrup. It’s made an appearance in tonic so far, and is counting the minutes itself (it’s that talented) until it can impress at a cocktail hour.

Rhubarb & Rangpur Lime Syrup, Pre-Strained

Rhubarb & Rangpur Lime Syrup

Ingredients:

• 2 cups chopped rhubarb (no need to peel; think 2 medium sized stalks)
• 5-6 rangpur limes, halved (leave skins on)
• 1 lime, quartered (likewise)
• 3 cups water
• 1 cup organic sugar
• pinch salt

Strained & Bottled Rhubarb & Rangpur Lime Syrup