There's skincare on the shelf and a market tote by the door, and I love them for the same reason: you can see exactly what you chose.
Summer is short and the market is at its best right now, so that's where my weekend mornings have been going. Everything's loud and ripe and stacked in crates, and you can talk to the person who grew it.
Here's what I'm tossin' in mine this month, plus two recipes worth making while it's all still in season.
Bring the roomy tote, the one that can hold peaches without turning them into jam by the time you get home.
🩷 Lychee
In the bag for: the color, the floral taste, being a pink jewel of a fruit
Lychee is only here for a hot second. Bumpy pink shell, white fruit inside, tastes like floral candy from heaven. You'll find them at the Asian produce stands, sometimes still on the branch. Buy them by the bunch, eat them cold on the porch, or blend them into something frosty. Recipe below.
🥛 Local Whole Milk
In the bag for: the cream line at the top of the jar
Creamy whole milk in a glass bottle, cold enough to fog it up on the drive home. Pour it over fruit, blend it into a shake, or drink it straight like a 1950s dairy queen. Bring the empty jar back next Saturday and they'll fill it again.
🍓 Strawberries
In the bag for: being the reddest thing in the basket
Sun-ripened, small, and bright enough to perfume the whole bag. Eat them the day you buy them, preferably standing at the counter before anybody else notices how many are gone.
🫐 Blueberries
In the bag for: eating by the sticky handful
Get the wild ones if the stand has them, smaller and darker and worth the extra couple of dollars. They go in everything, which is my polite way of saying most of them are gone before I get to the car.
🥬 Dandelion Greens
In the bag for: a little bitterness against all that fruit
Bitter greens are what keep a summer plate from tasting like dessert. Chop a handful into a salad with something sweet and something salty and the whole thing wakes up. Arugula does the same job if dandelion isn't at the market that week.
🥚 Pasture-Raised Eggs
In the bag for: yolks the color of a marigold
You can see the difference before you ever taste it. Deep orange, and they stand up tall in the pan instead of running flat. Buy the dozen from the fella with the hand-lettered sign, he can tell you what his hens have been eating.
🍑 Peaches
In the bag for: lipgloss-level juiciness
Buy them a touch firm and let them finish on the windowsill for a day or two. Then eat one standing over the sink with your elbows out. Non-negotiable.
🍯 Local Raw Honey
In the bag for: tasting like the place you live
Honey from twenty miles away tastes like whatever's blooming twenty miles away, and it changes through the season, so June's jar isn't August's jar. A spoon in tea, a drizzle over cut fruit, a little whisked into dressing.
🌿 Fresh Herbs (Mint, Basil, Parsley)
In the bag for: making everything taste like summer
Throw a handful in everything. Mint makes fruit feel colder, basil makes tomatoes taste like July, and parsley wakes up whatever was already in the bowl.
Bonus Darlin'-Approved Summer Recipes
1. Lychee Glow Milkshake
Pink, frosty, and gone in about four minutes.
Ingredients:
- 5 or 6 fresh lychees, peeled and pitted
- 1 cup whole milk
- 1 tsp raw honey
- 1 tiny pinch of sea salt
- Optional: a splash of rose water or a drop of vanilla extract
- Ice
Instructions: Blend the lychees, milk, honey and salt until it's creamy and smooth. Pour it over ice. Sip slowly while romanticizing your entire life. It tastes like a tropical milk cloud and it turns the prettiest pale pink.
Top it with whipped cream if you're feelin' fancy.
Can't find lychee? No worries, darlin'. Pomegranate arils, blueberries, or raspberries all work. Still sweet, still pink, and probably in your fridge already.
2. Strawberry-Peach Summer Salad with Dandelion Greens & Grilled Shrimp
Dinner that took eleven minutes and looks like it took an hour.
Ingredients:
- 2 ripe peaches, sliced
- 1 cup strawberries, halved
- 1 big handful dandelion greens or arugula
- Fresh mint leaves
- Feta or goat cheese, optional but dreamy
- Grilled wild-caught shrimp or sliced grilled chicken, cooked in a spoonful of tallow for extra yummy flavor
Dressing:
- Juice of ½ lemon
- 1 tsp raw honey
- 1 tbsp olive oil or avocado oil
- Sea salt to taste
Instructions: Toss the salad ingredients in a big bowl. Whisk the dressing, drizzle it over, and eat outside if you can. Bonus points for eating barefoot.
Why I like it: sweet fruit, bitter greens, salty cheese, and something hot off the grill on the same plate. Four things pulling against each other is the whole trick, and it's one bowl.
The Basket Comes Home
Summer can be wonderfully simple. Sun on your face, good food, and a farmer who knows your name.
The reason I love the market is the same reason our skincare shelf stays short. Visible ingredients. Good texture. Things chosen with a reason and used while you still love them. That instinct is exactly how we make skincare, too.
Our Face Balm ($38) has an ingredient list about as long as this shopping list, and if you're new to all of it, our simple, honest guide to tallow skincare is the place to start.
Fill your basket. Eat it outside. Go back next Saturday for whatever is ripe.
Tag us @getdarlin with your market hauls, because we wanna see what you're cookin' up.
Darlin' products are cosmetics. This content is for general information and is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any condition.