At the market

While the year-round market on the Boulevard des Arceaux in Montpellier is the best I've ever frequented, the Larimer County Farmers' Market is a pretty good, if short, substitute. Here are some sights you don't see at a market in the Languedoc:

French people who've tasted sweet corn love it, but it's just not grown in the south of France like it is in the USA's Midwest. This man here had corn, only corn. At Arceaux it was common to see a vendor of oysters only or exclusively honey, but vegetable sellers almost always had some range. An exception was aspargus: in season, you could bring nothing but boxes of asparagus to market and rake in the euros.

One of the sounds of the Fort Collins market in September is the roar of propane jets:

The smell of freshly roasted green Anaheims, Poblanos, and Big Jims pervades the market atmosphere. I grab a couple bags every Saturday, peel them immediately, and toss them in the deep freeze for winter stews.

We like our melons big in the USA. Like the chiles, these are typical of Southeastern Colorado.

Colorado watermelon tops French pasteque, but I prefer the smaller orange Lunel melons to the bloated Rocky Ford cantaloupes. These ripen later around here, which meant we left France at the end of melon season and arrived in Colorado at the beginning of melon season. It's been the same situation for peaches:

Peaches from Colorado's Western Slope are unrivaled.