Farmers' Markets, Happiness, Summer Salads and Apple Peach Mojitos

This is the story of how I woke up this morning, went out to buy milk, and accidentally stumbled on a farmers' market, where I bought ALL THE THINGS. And then I turned them into apple juice and peach mojitos, and an elaborate salad, and enjoyed pure bliss on a sunny evening.

Clockwise: I got a giant loaf of sourdough from De Gustibus, a mango and lime cupcake and an apple and blackberry loaf slice from Barefoot Kitchen, the world's largest avocado, a dozen doughnut peaches, a black sesame seed macaron and an orange, chocolate and ginger macaron from SaraO Macarons, and half a clochette of goats cheese from the Oxford Cheese Company. Aka happiness.



To make the peach mojito, you'll need:

• Peaches (I used three of the doughnut peaches)
• 1 lime
• Some fresh mint leaves
• Sparkling or soda water
• Apple juice
• Dark rum
• A couple of teaspoons of demerara sugar
• Ice 

I mashed the peaches with a fork, squeezed in the lime, shredded in the mint, sprinkled in the sugar and muddled it all together, then threw in the ice cubes before topping up the jug with equal parts sparkling water and apple juice, and stirring. I used four shots of rum - you could vary this drastically. It was still delicious with no rum, and will get you summer day drunk excellently fast if you put in lots of rum. Adjust the levels of lime, mint, sugar etc to taste. I got four glassfuls from this jug, but I drank them all myself.

I had it with this miraculous avocado, goats cheese, chorizo, peach and rocket salad, alongside a healthy (read: monstrous) hunk of sourdough. 

Peach or chorizo would probably have been sufficient, but I don't regret it. I enjoyed the combination, and I never promised you restraint.

I was ALL ABOUT this black sesame macaron. Beautiful. The nice lady from SaraO let me try a lot of samples.

Barefoot Kitchen makes undoubtedly the best brownies I've ever had. This mango cupcake was also good,  but I won't be choosing it over their salted caramel squishy rectangles of brownie perfection anytime soon. 

I am happy to report that the North Parade Farmers' Market, Oxford, where all of these goodies fell like delicious rainbows from the sky into brown paper bags in my hands before I even knew what was happening, is now going to be on every two weeks! This was the first mid-month market, which was why it was an unexpected delight on my morning milk run. The next one will be on Saturday July 26th.