Kombucha and the Clefts

9/8/16 ink, colored pencils

This summer was so full of travel and other activities that I hardly had time to visit any farmers markets. Now I’m trying to make up for lost time. Although the produce is dwindling, I’ve still been getting great corn and tomatoes lately, and amazingly, last Thursday at the Lake City Farmers Market, I got a surprise – delicious, sweet strawberries! I thought I’d seen the last of them in July.

After cruising past all the booths, I noticed a seated audience listening attentively to a woman who was giving a demo on an unusual subject: how to make kombucha. I’m not a fan of the fermented tea beverage that is apparently full of beneficial “symbiotic colonies of bacteria and yeast” (known as SCOBY), but it was interesting to hear about how it’s made. Great care has to be taken to ensure that the tea is not contaminated while being made, only glass containers must be used, the temperature has to remain within a narrow range, only teas with cultures already in them are appropriate, etc. Given that boiling water is the extent to which I’ll go to make a beverage, the process sounded very high-maintenance to me. Nonetheless, I enjoyed sketching Ellie Cohen, the kombucha expert.

The next day Greg and I dropped by Phinney Farmers Market to pick up some corn for dinner. We were on our way home from errands, so I wasn’t planning to sketch. But on our way out, we heard some blues vocals, and we couldn’t resist stopping for a few minutes. I pulled out my quick and trusty brush pen to capture The Clefts, whose toe-tapping music was just right for a warm Friday afternoon.

Most of the neighborhood farmers markets will remain open through September, so I hope I can get to a few more this year. I had a good summer, but I also feel like I missed the best of it here at home while I was away.

P.S. About this post’s title . . . doesn’t that sound like it should be a rockabilly band?

9/9/16 brush pen, ink, colored pencils