I love the simplicity of summer meals. The answer to that age-old question of “What’s for Dinner?” just presents itself.

Tuesday was a beautiful sunny day. I had been called for jury duty in a distant suburb I’d never been to before. I claimed the convertible for the day. With a juror number of 7, it was inevitable that I was empanelled. Fortunately, the case was short, and we were released while the sun was still shining. It was the perfect afternoon for a ride with the top down.

I arrived home early enough to be able to visit the Lexington Farmers Market while the offerings were still plentiful. A farmers market is one of my favorite places to shop for food. I love the freshness of the fruits, vegetables, breads, and meat. I especially like meeting and chatting with the farmers that produce the food I will eat.

I’m not hung up on organic or not. From talking with farmers at this and other markets, I know that while their farms may not be strictly organic, they still are stewards of the earth and consider the health of their land, themselves, and any employees when choosing how to farm it. I trust the food I buy at a farmers market to be sustainable, and, of course, you can’t get more local.

We had a warmer spring than usual for New England, but this is only the third week of the market season. The range of choices was limited to spring vegetables: lots of greens and spring root vegetables. Strawberry season started, too.

I bought a quart of strawberries, a bunch of radishes, a bunch of beets, red dandelion greens, mustard greens, and arugula. I also saved the beet greens for sautéing.

So how did I answer the dinner question? Well, in our own garden, the lettuce continues to thrive, and the peas (planted in early March) are ready. I had thawed a T-bone steak from Chestnut Farms. Howard grilled the steak, and I made a salad from our own lettuce and peas and sliced radishes from Stillman Farms. To round it out, we had leftover rice salad and chickpea salad that I had made over the weekend. That’s my kind of eating!!!