Bonanza at the farmers' market

At our little South Austin Farmers' Market, besides the current cornucopia of summer squash and chiles, we found a fresh-killed chicken, Porter tomatoes, and some old-fashioned sort of cantaloupe that's oviform instead of spherical. It may be Hale's Best muskmelon. The tomatoes are larger than cherry tomatoes and almost pearlescent. The skins are not at all thick, very unusual. There's just nothing like cooking up a storm when it's 98 degrees outside and the house has no air-conditioning. From the library's escapist literature department, Drowned Rat (Ferrars) and Nothing to Fall Back On (Betsy Carter) were workmanlike and sufficiently entertaining to have been worth the reading.