Way too much fun at the flea market

It was flea market junkie heaven at Pomegranate last Saturday. The quality and quantity of vendors and their finds were amazing, and we had a great turnout (gobs of people all day long, coming and going, traffic jams and cars parked all up and down our little side street). It's taken some years to get this event to the place it is now. At first we had to run around and pass out flyers and beg people to be a part of it, and now we've got vendors practically fighting for spaces and new ones signing up during markets for the next date. Pretty soon we'll have to start putting tents out by the canal and moving people out there...

Loved the mix of vintage, antique, repurposed, hand crafted, and original pieces. A big thank you to all our vendors and artistes who really notched it up this time. Oh yes, and can't forget our Lavender Festival, which was side by side to the flea market. Robert made the most wonderful lavender lemonade (recipe below -- unfortunately we ran out of it at about 1pm), and we served lovely Provence tea cakes with just a touch of lavender (from Le Cakery)... and sold a lot of gorgeous lavender plants. I'm especially enamored of the Tuscan variety, big and showy, in a large 3-gallon pot. There are still a few left... Okay, so right now, put this date on your calender for our next flea market (and last of the season!): Saturday, August 23, from 10-4 (you can get there a bit early, as did some of the serious, I mean serious, buyers).

Lavender lemonade: make a simple syrup using culinary lavender (we have it at Pomegranate). The culinary part is important, because a) it's organic and you don't want lavender sprayed with some gunk in your food, and b) only certain varieties taste good; some have a sort of camphor aftertaste. Make simple syrup with 1 cup sugar and 1 cup water. Add about 2 TBL culinary lavender buds and simmer for about 15 minutes. Stir, strain and refrigerate. Make fresh lemonade (sometimes we use a combination of frozen and fresh squeezed lemons), and add a bit of your simple syrup to taste (not too much or it will be overpowering).