various

 From the farmer's market: butternut squash, mysterious green squash (tastes a bit like zucchini), renkon (lotus root), purple sweet potatoes (yellow on inside.)

 green squash

first time ("hajimete")

 roasted renkon: good for snacking on with beer
They taste a bit like potato.  Popular in Japanese dishes like oden, tempura, pickled veggies.

brunch sautee with mushrooms, carrots, collard greens, onions, stray soba noodles

Farmer's market veggies!  From top: carrots, spinach, sesame seeds covered in umeboshi flavor (pickled plum), myoga (a type of ginger/scallion vegetable), eggplant.  Colleen Patrick-Goudreau in her podcasts says to try to chop and prepare your veggies soon after you get them home, so they don't rot and you're more likely to eat them.  She says don't worry about how they'll lose nutrients - it's just so much better to eat them than waste them.  So I've been chopping, steaming, roasting... makes it so convenient to put together a quick meal.

I ordered a 4-pack of these buckwheat groats.  Years ago, I remember loving their flavor, but not the gas.  Beano, which has always worked well for me, contains gelatin (from cow tendons and ligaments) and fish ingredients.  So I ordered Bean-zyme, a cruelty-free product.  It works even better.  The buckwheat groats are good with sweet or fruity syrup, or even cooked with brown rice for a savory mixture.

New books.  I really like the Vegan's Daily Companion.  It has nice bright pictures, stories of rescued animals, literature excerpts, recipes, and tips on talking about veganism.  Living Vegan for Dummies is a good reference book.  I'm reading many books at the same time these days (all very slowly.)