Freecycle!

My parents are avid bikers.  My mom has been searching garage sales for a bike trailer for my niece for a long time.  I recently saw one listed on freecycle.  Usually any kind of kids stuff goes really fast, so I was surprised when it was still available.  When I picked it up it was a little bit bigger and older than I expected.  From the mid to late 90's.  My mom was a little bit unsure about it because it is open on top which could lead to flying debris.

So then my dad suggested that it could be used for trips to the grocery store.  That did not make a lot of sense for my mom because she would have to ride down a busy street.  I realized that it would be perfect for me!  I live about a mile or so from a forest preserve with about an 8 mile bike trail loop.  At the opposite end of the loop is a small offshoot that leads straight to my local natural food store.  I always felt bad shopping here because this store is about twice as far of a drive as my closest conventional grocery store.  This solves my guilt problem because now I am getting exercise and not having to drive at all.

So last week I strapped my reusable bags into the trailer and headed to the store.  Not a bad view for a ride to the grocery store right? 

It is about a 5 mile ride to the store in each direction.  I made it!

I loaded my bags full of groceries back into the trailer and headed home. 

I am actually kind of looking forward to going to the grocery store this week.

- Laura

Book Review

I am glad that NerdyArtist asked what book I am reading about processed foods.  That gives me an excuse to tell you about it!  The book is called In Defense of Food:  An Eater's Manifesto.  It is by Michael Pollan.  He also wrote The Omnivore's dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals.  I have not read the omnivore's dilemma, but have heard good things about it.  In defense of food is a follow up book, but you do not need to read the omnivore's dilemma in order to follow in defense of food.

Here are my thoughts on the book.  I am only about half way through it (maybe I will have time to finish it over winter break?)  So far, I really like the way that it is written.  It seems very well researched, and is written in a way that the average person can understand.  The basic message is that many of our modern diseases came about at the same time that processed foods (especially white flour and sugar) came around.  While these new processed foods have made our lives much more convenient, and have given foods longer shelf lives they have also become so dominant in our diets that we do not eat enough "real food" and therefore are becoming malnourished.  I was interested in a study he talked about where children in families with low socio-economic status are being both overfed, and undernourished.  Processed foods are cheaper so that is what they are eating.  He focuses on the importance of eating real whole foods rather than what he calls food-like substances.  I like the book because it is not written by a scientist or politician or anyone with an agenda.  He is a journalist who is interested in how our diets have changed (and become significantly less healthy) over the past century or so.  Of course after the research he does believe that our diets need an overhaul, but really who wouldn't?  The good news is that he is not trying to sell you diet plans, or shakes, or any other accessories to go with the book.  At the end of the book there are some basic guidelines to follow in your own way to become more healthy.  Unfortunately, I have not gotten to those yet, so I guess that is all I can really say about it. 

I got the book from my local library, (just another way to save money and be green at the same time!) but if you would like to purchase it you can click on the link below and it will take you right to the book listed on Amazon.com. 

Blueberry Picking

My sister found a blueberry farm about an hour away from us.  She invited me to come with her and my niece to pick some blueberries.

It was a lot of fun!  Or at least it would have been if the heat index was not 105!

We arrived at the farm and there was a small building where you picked up a bucket and caught a hay ride type trailer out to the berry farms.  The buckets were lined with plastic bags so that you could just take the bag out of the bucket and take it right home when you are done.  Pretty clever!

Mary picked out a bucket. 

Posed for a quick picture.

And headed for the hay ride. 

I was not even sure what kind of plant blueberries grew on.  Turns out it is a tall bush.  I was surprised how many berries grew on each bush!

We spent a few hours picking berries.

Mary helped for a while.

But then was caught red handed eating berries out of the bucket!

After we picked the berries we returned to the same building to have our berries weighted, pay for them, and return our buckets.

I think we all felt like Mary by the end of the day.  Hot, sweaty, and tired! (Notice how wet her hair looks, that is all sweat.)  But we got about 5 lbs of berries which is enough for us to freeze some to eat later.  Blueberries are super expensive during the winter! 

We felt a lot better after we cleaned up in the bathroom.  Then we got ready to head home.

I guess that we wore her out!

 - Laura

Kirkwood Market

I went to a local market in Kirkwood which is a suburb of St. Louis.  The market is open every day of the week, which I was impressed by.  The one in my area is only one day each week for a few hours.

When I got to the market I discovered that more vendors show up on some days than on others.  There were only three vendors the day that I went. 

I was kind of disappointed though because one of the vendors sold fruits and vegetables that they obviously had not grown locally.  Mango and kiwi in Missouri?  Prepackaged raspberries and mushrooms with commercial brand names on them?

However, they did have lots of locally grown tomatoes.  This was my favorite part.  You just cannot beat home grown tomatoes!

 The peaches had just come into season, and that is what I ended up buying.  I ate one each morning for breakfast.  They were delicious!  I was disappointed that I could not buy anything else because I did not think that I could safely transport them all the way home to the Chicago area.

- Laura

Not quite a failure!

Reading Laura's failure post made me smile.

While we wait for the sun to come up so she can take some pictures, let me disclose the giraffe-mushroom-yard-thing I posted about on Monday.

It's a cucumber!  I planted an heirloom cucumber, and forgot to write down what kind it was.  They were yellow-green when I left town and brown when I came home.  I thought some kind of disease hit.  But really, they were incredible!

Also, just to pimp myself out/show that I can in fact finish projects, I finished an alphabet poster for my son yesterday.  He has become obsessed with letters and letter sounds, so I worked on making him a fun poster.

He loves it.  And because it's fun for him, I put it over here too.

-Meghan

What in the world?

I came home last night to find something weird in the garden.  A lot of them.

This is what it looks like up close.  Any guesses?
-Meghan

The Garden in the Garden State: Trenton Farmer's Market

Laura and I are both out of town this weekend.  So, a big thanks to Carrie from The Hungry Hippo for helping us out and enjoying her local market!

Seriously, if you don't subscribe to her blog, do it now.  Her take on brunch had me laughing out loud.  Dig through a bit and find some good stuff.

From Carrie:

These days people will snort or scoff when referring to New Jersey as the Garden State.  They think of the Turnpike stretching across twelve lanes, cutting through the industrial cities of Newark and Elizabeth.  But that isn’t all there is to New Jersey.  Where I grew up, in the central part of the state, are acres and acres of farmland.  It’s been diminished somewhat since my childhood by housing developments, but the farms still cling to the land.  Tucked up in hills, down in valleys, around dusty corners of old country roads, in among the waving corn stalks, farms still sell direct to the customer from their own stands.  But New Jersey farms have long gathered to sell at the Trenton Farmer’s Market.  At the edge of a city better known for poverty and crime than delectable produce, the Market has been running since the 1930s.  How’s this for Garden State?

 ______

I'm not going to lie.  This is much different than the only part of New Jersey I have seen.  That would be Newark Airport, cause it's cheaper.  

To see what Carrie does with some of all of this produce, head over to The Hungry Hippo !

-Meghan

Roots

Felt-O-Rama is on a one week hiatus...  Come back next week for a great felt project!  

I learned something interesting a few months ago from one of my co-workers.  She also has only a balcony (I like to refer to it as my half a yard) to garden on, but she has a great green thumb.

One day as we were discussing our gardens she told me that if you cut a piece of a plant off and put it in water it will soon start to grow new roots.

I thought this was pretty cool, and I wanted to try it.

A few weeks ago I was checking on my bean plants which are planted in a container on my balcony.  One of them seemed slumped over from a particularly windy night.  I tried to pull the plant back into an upright position.  The plant snapped right off near the bottom of the stalk.  I really did not think that I had pulled it that hard!

So I remembered what my co-worker had told me, and I decided to give it a try.  I put the bean plant in a glass of water.  After a few days the plant started to slump over a little bit.  I was getting worried that this was not going to work.  However, a few days after that the plant had little roots growing out from the bottom, and the rest of the plant had perked back up!

I left it about a week more so that the roots could grow a little bit longer...

And then I replanted it in the container that it had originally come from.

- Laura

Market at the Square

This week is another sunny week (and that kind of messed with my photos!)  Next week we will be featuring a California market, but for now, it's more midwest!

I love this farm.  The owners are very nice and Henry loves their spicy radishes.

Today was the first day for sweetcorn.  The big pickup trucks pull up and you get your corn off the truck bed.  Then people husk it right onto the ground.  I think this one came right from a field.

Prairie Fruits Farm is amazing.  They have goat's and ewe's cheese and oh man, they are good.  Some fresh chevre with a few early tomatoes on a ciabatta roll is the most amazing breakfast.  Plus you can go meet the goats at their farm.  I am in love.

-Meghan