Winter Blahs?

Winter is not my favorite season.  Or my second favorite.  Or my third. Grays and browns dominate the winter landscape in Chicago, where I spent 3 very long winters.  It's ugly.  It's cold. It's gloomy and depressing.  And while I don't live there anymore, I find the bright colors of vegetables from the farmers' market just as cheery as I did when I bought them in Chicago in January. Oh no, wait-- there is no farmers' market there in January.  Because farmers can't grow vegetables in the Arctic Tundra.

I've gotten spoiled living here in California, what with its year-round growing season and truly amazing variety of produce.  But even I was surprised by the glowing jewels of color that made their way into my bag last weekend.  When people speak of winter produce, the image of row after row of Swiss chard pops into my head, with little room for anything else.  While there were plenty of greens in my bag, there were also greens that weren't green, balls and sticks of orange, and marbles of magenta. 

The radish practically glows pink

I wouldn't want to live anywhere else.