Book 3 - Chapter 53 : Reminiscing in the Farmer’s Market
= Sarah POV =
I waited for a moment when Ms. Jun and the fishmonger paused in their discussions. Once I saw her contemplate her order for several seconds, I grabbed Ms. Jun and hustled her to the side to run the numbers by her.
"No, but this batch is really good, and there are so many dishes that we can experiment with this much quality," Ms. Jun explained with stars in her eyes.
"Yes but you are here for a week's worth, not a month's worth. And I hear you may even change the menu mid-week, which will cause a lot of leftovers and draw everyone's mood down dramatically across the board. Cut back or we are leaving without anything" I said firmly, crossing my arms.
Ms. Jun sucked in her breath. She looked like she was going to snap back, but then she sighed and nodded solemnly " Ah, of course, you would turn into a miniature Heather after working closely in her department. Alight, I can't argue with reason. But that means when I need to get fresh cuts, you'll have to come along with me again" Ms. Jun declared, crossing her arms.
"Oh? I'm sure Mr Nakajima would be sad to hear that, seeing as he already does that with you," I smirked, flipping my hair as I went to get the trolleys.
"Wow… Ms Heather is really good to your guys over in accounting huh? Teaching you all how to bully me into doing what you say," Ms. Jun said, sounding pissed off, but she still went over to the fishmonger and conveyed the amended quantities.
An hour later, we left with 19 salmon, 12 tilapia, a case of eel, and a case of soft-shell crabs. Ms. Jun has been keen on prawns; however, the budget was already half-spent, and we still needed to pick up fresh vegetables and fruits for this week's menu.
We drove back to the cafe and unloaded the fish and crabs to the kitchen staff. Then, we drove back out to the same market, parked further down the pier, closer to where the farmer's market was set up, in order to make a beeline to Ms. Jun's favorite fruits and vegetable sellers.
"I have a few sellers that I regularly buy from, so here is a half of my list, if you can help me pick these up, I'll pick up the rest and we can be done before lunch" Ms. Jun explained, tearing her list in half and handing me one piece.
"Ah, I've never been here before", I replied, nervously looking from the list to the long stretch of different booths and produce.
"No worries, each booth has a number that I've written next to the name of the booth owner", Ms. Jun explained, pointing to the number on the page next to a person's name "So just go to the booth and ask for this person, and say that Ms. Jun sent you, and they'll load up the goods into the cart. I order the same exact amount every time I come, so they will know what to do." Ms. Jun smiled and gave me a thumbs-up. "Okay?"
"Ok, sounds easy enough" I smiled, finally starting to understand what was on the list.
"Alright, I'll meet you back at the car in about an hour" Ms. Jun said and disappeared off with her trolley.
The first place on the list was a small florist, where a lady called Jasmine gave me two boxes of flowers, one containing marigolds and the other violets. The next place was a fruit shop, where I received nine boxes of Muscat Grapes and three boxes of blueberries. By the time I was done, my trolley was piled high with boxes and carts of butter lettuce, cauliflower, tangerines, and strawberries.
I turned to head back and stopped, a feeling of nostalgia washing over me. When I was little, growing up on my parent's farm, we used to come to farmer's markets like this all the time; only it was I on the other side of the experience as we would set up a booth and sell our produce. We'd wake up at 2 am in the morning to pack the harvest that we gathered the day before, and at 5 am, we were at the booth bright and early, selling our wares.
Mother was always so proud to hear positive feedback about our food from repeat buyers, and we always ate something yummy after a day of selling fruits and vegetables.
I never imagined that I would want to return to the humble life of living in the countryside, knee-deep in manure, working with plants to cultivate strong and healthy yields each year. However after living here in the city, failed relationship after failed relationship, with no real direction career-wise or education wise…maybe returning back to that simple life, of sweet orange juice and freshly backed jam cakes wasn't a bad idea.
I took out my phone and took pictures of the busy farmer's market. Then I turned towards the pier and took a picture of the seagulls flying around in the air. It was a lovely day to be out and a lovely day to remind myself of home.