Ode to my little town.

Today I got the bug to go for a walk (which is a bug I often get), so I put on my rainy day best, traipsed over to the coffee shop, and then continued on the five (or so) more blocks to the park. The park, in fact, that J and I will be married at 8 months from yesterday. Eee! I couldn't help but notice all sorts of sights and sounds as I strolled and sipped, and once I got to the park felt compelled to write a little ditty about it. But before we get to my poem, I'd like to make a couple of observations about  the town in which I live.

I can't imagine a more friendly place in LA county - I mean seriously, one of the reasons I love walking is that I'm bound to run into someone. Whether it's someone I know or someone I'm to meet for the first time is no matter. And when you do meet someone here, the conversation goes a little something like this:

(two people, demographically very different, standing on the corner of M and L  Avenues, waiting for the crosswalk light to change)
Person 1: Hello.
Person 2: Good morning.
(slight pause)
Person 2: So, do you work here on M Ave?
Person 1: Nope! I live here.
Person 2: Me too! I live over in the L Apartments
Person 1: Nice. I'm over on V Ave, by the high school. It's a nice day for a walk (gesturing towards the sky)
Person 2: Yep. It's a nice day to spend money...(chuckles, lifting up the shopping bag in his right hand)
Person 1: (smiles)
Person 2: The wife's a little mad at me, so I went out and bought her some shoes.
(Both people chuckle)
Person 1: Well, enjoy your day!
Person 2: You as well!
They part ways.

My point is, we're all proud of where we live, and meeting a neighbor on the street is somewhat like meeting a classmate in college and discovering you live in the same dorm. I've never lived in a place where you tell strangers on the corner what street you live on as a part of general conversation. There's an understanding here that everyone in this town is a neighbor, and that neighbors are good people. And I just plain like that, which is why I plan to stick around.

And, no, our street names are not letters of the alphabet...but I have to maintain some anonymity since this blog is out there on the World Wide Web, which is full of nice people who would want to live in my town and mean people who would like to stalk me if they knew where I lived (I mean, I hope not, but a little playing it safe never hurt anyone). So to all you people in hyperspace, you're just going to have to wonder. Unless you know me personally :) 

Oh, and be expecting an update on my "urban homesteading" projects soon. A teaser: there's a lot to write about, and things are going well.

Ok, now to the word-art.

My Town, On a Mid-October Morning

grey skies

chirping birds (squawking parrots)

dancing cacti

friendly faces at the coffee shop

rain sprinkles down like glitter on an art project

pomegranates blushing, ruddy pink among green leaves

the neighborhood is damp

the air is easy to breathe

                           crisp

                           cool

                           refreshing

every sound takes on a softened tone, every color a new hue against the cushioned gray sky

the air is still, the world waits

(in glad anticipation, not bracing itself)

for the downpour

a role model.

Found this video on http://www.howtohomestead.org/

Someday I hope to be like this lovely woman: resourceful, strong, confident, and joyful.

Well, with one exception: no matter how much water it saves, I won't be washing my pet's dishes in the same water as my own. But then again, she's a microbiologist and appears pretty healthy.  Maybe doing so presents no harm to our health after all.



My favorite part (besides the rain barrels, ingenious ways to flush a toilet, and the sheer charm of the lady)?

The absolute joy that radiates from ear to ear when she cuts her homegrown artichoke for dinner, as if it's the first time she's ever done so.  It's obvious that she has learned to enjoy the every day pleasures life has to offer!

Now that's a character trait I'm after.

I think it may even be the secret to happiness.

<3 M

P.S. If the video doesn't load, try refreshing your screen. Or you can just go to the website referenced above.

radishes and carrots hit the dirt

There comes a time when you've researched a subject so much it hurts, and if you don't just go ahead and try doing the darn thing you've been reading about, you'd be a fool. Hence, I, for the first time, planted my very own veggies from seed. I'm not going to lie, I got a little anxious out there on my front step...questions soaring through my brain: did I use the right size pot? enough soil? the right kind? the right seeds? blah blah blah, around and around we go. Which is why it's easier to sit around in your air conditioned living room drinking iced tea and reading about all of those projects that cool people do.

But I did it. Wahoo! And (probably thanks to the heat wave we're having right now) I got as close to instant gratification as I could get - little radish seedlings sprouting left and right within the first day. I literally went outside every few hours today (now 3 days since planting) to check on them and am just stunned by how fast they are popping up.

baby radish, stretching it's little leaves

hope these varieties are yummy

my setup. carrots and radishes hanging on the fence

 guidebooks

Since it's pictured, I'll go ahead and just talk about it: the urban homestead by Kelly Coyne and Erik Knutzen is my latest favorite read. It is jam packed with ideas on how to become an "urban homesteader" - i.e. do things for yourself like grow your own food and then preserve it, recycle rainwater, compost, raise chickens (and other small livestock), and even how to make bread with just flour, water, and salt - old school styles. Check it out, and check out their blog, Homegrown Evolution. 

Back to the produce: I'll keep you posted! 

<3

M

Our County Fair Date.

J and I vowed not to miss the LA County Fair this year, so we scheduled our fair date so far in advance we could hardly sleep the night before from excitement. Yes, we are a couple of little kids when it comes to events like the fair.

And the fair did not disappoint! We were awed by the handicrafts: quilting, home brewing, baking, and oh, the art! Photography, sketches, incredible pictures made with pressed flowers. Plenty of inspiration to go and get creative.

J got all nostalgic in the vendor section (his family used to sell their hand-blown glass at the fair), remembering (and then eating!) his favorite tri-tip sandwiches - two of them - and delicious chocolate fudge.

Being the great husband-to-be that he is, J sat with me through an hour-long organic small-scale gardening class, no hints of boredom on his face. We even discussed building a worm-composting bin after the talk, while ogling kookaburra and wallaby in the Australian Outback area.


We contemplated going down the giant slide, shrugged it off due to the slight embarrassment we (I?) felt about acting child-like in public (even at the fair! shame on me!) and then decided having children is a must so we can have society's permission to engage in such naive fun.


And now comes the part of the fair I was most excited about...the animals!! Pigs, goats, sheep, cows, chickens, ducks, rabbits bees oh my!! There was a beautiful vegetable garden that the bees, whose working hive was on display within Plexiglas, were out pollinating.

We finished off our day with some beer tasting, shopping (yes, we got suckered in on a couple of products), and a romantic ride on the Ferris Wheel.  An excellent fair adventure.

  old woman holding a baby wallaby in it's "pouch"

goats are my favorite farm animal ever.

 after traipsing around, we relaxed with some award-winning beer

yes, that is a deep fried snickers bar and some chocolate covered bacon. yes, the bacon was surprisingly good. yes, this went against everything I've learned about good quality eating in the past year.  but whatever. you only live once. 

 ferris wheels are for lovers. 

Happy fair-going! 

<3

M

So-Long, Summer.

I just heard the first ice cream truck to pass through my neighborhood all summer, which is ironic because it is Sept. 7, Labor Day has passed, the kids are back in school, and today was overcast.

Yes friends, summer is waning away, making room for the next of seasons.

As an aside, this makes me very happy for a few reasons:
1. The more time passes, the sooner I will be getting married.
2. Cooler weather makes cooking much more fun
3. I got to wash my car today with the knowledge that it will stay clean as the tree I park my car under is done producing the mystery fruit that the parrots (yes, parrots) love to eat. The evidence of which ends up all over my car and thus I have resigned myself to letting my car look like *cuss it* all summer. But now it is clean...muwahaha.

But really, this blog entry is about how I made vegetable broth and put it in mason jars to be frozen.

Today, I made vegetable broth and put it in mason jars to be frozen. It was a wonderful thing to do since I get so tired of buying salt-water-with-a-hint-of-vegetable-essence whenever I need broth for cooking. And I get tired of throwing out veggies that are too old to do much with but not quite bad enough to throw out. Enter broth-making.

It was really quite easy...you don't even need to cut the veggies up, just pop them in the pot. Unless they are to big. Then you can cut them.

how pretty. 

Here's what I used: 

Leftover green beans, some squash, 3 carrots that had lost their crunch, 4 stalks celery, 1 red onion, 3 garlic cloves, some kale, a bay leaf, some fresh rosemary, and a sprinkling of whole peppercorns. The sources I used said you can even use vegetable peelings. One woman said she keeps a bag in her freezer for makeable-into-broth-items. I bet you can guess what she does when it gets full.

Then I filled the pot with water. Enough to just cover the veg. Then I let it simmer for about an hour and a half. Then I let it cool. Then I strained it over a big bowl and ladled it into jars, leaving room for expansion.

so much delish potential

I let the jars cool a little longer and popped them into the freezer. It made 2 1/2 jar's worth, which is about 7 1/2 cups. A lot cheaper than the store bought stuff, and it tasted pretty good!

Happy September, folks. 

Meg

P. S. 

As a tribute to summer, I will include this photo of what I'll call the Summer Fruit Cobbler I made many times this year. The recipe is in Simply In Season (under Fruit Platz), or you could just make some shortcake, cover it with assorted fruit, and sprinkle that with some brown sugar and cinnamon, and bake. That's the rough version. 

until next year, old friend.

What it's truly all about.

I've been trying to buy as many of my groceries at the farmer's market as possible lately and have found myself in a slight conundrum - which sellers to buy from. With some, it's easy. There's one guy who sells honey. Buy his honey. There's one guy who sells bread. Buy that bread.

But when I get to the fruit and vegetables, it's a toss up. I wander around the stands a few times, waiting for the perfect produce to jump out at me and scream "pick me! pick me!" as if one grower's crookneck squash could really be that different from his neighbor's. I've thought about buying from the grower who is the closest, or who is the most organic. But I haven't really felt like asking all of them detailed questions about their farming practices, or doing the math to find out which one uses the least amount of gas to get to Myrtle Ave. every Fri. night.

And then my coworker gave me the "well...duh" answer I needed. I was blabbing at the breakfast table about how I've been buying from the farmer's market and I get stuck wandering as I try to figure out who to buy from and she simply said just buy from the people who are the nicest. I mean, let's think about it. What is the most basic point of the farmer's market anyway - to foster community, to bring consumers a step closer to the land they live off of, and to eliminate the middle man between the farmer and the hungry farmer's market goer. Does it not make sense to buy from the people with whom you could forge a relationship? Alright, so maybe one guy's produce is a little bit more organic (whatever that means) than the next guy (or gal's). But who cares if the next gal is someone you look forward to seeing every Friday night? I mean really!

I got to thinking about the time I gushed about the farm-fresh chicken I brought home (and then had to figure out how to get it off the bone! spoiled by boneless-skinless all my life...eek) and I realized that I really look forward to seeing the chicken farmer and his wife (whose names I now wish I knew, and will ask the next time I need eggs. Or chicken). They are familiar faces, and they provide me with something I really need - food - with no gimmicks, no song and dance, just a smile and a nice to see you again.

And then there's Sam, the fruit guy with whom J bonded over plums. We can't go to the farmer's market without stopping by Sam's stand, sampling all of the plums we've already tried before and chatting it up with our pitted-fruit pal. And he always slips us a new variety, gratis, just for being loyal. Or maybe just because he likes us. Regardless - thanks, buddy.

J, thanks for remembering what is important - the people. As I got all caught up wondering how organic Sam's plums were, you were asking his name. I'm glad I'm marrying you.

Like my parents always said: Let's keep it simple.

vinegar and oil. and baking soda.

Right now I smell like a giant, coconut macaroon. Not joking.

I've been looking into organic/natural hygiene you see, and my research has yielded some surprising results. One of which is coconut oil, which is good for a lot of things, especially a scalp treatment. Since my scalp is always kinda itchy (TMI, perhaps), and since I can never seem to find a shampoo/conditioner that cleans my hair and leaves my scalp hydrated, I thought why not. If it turns out horribly, it's not like anyone is looking. It's just me and the dust bunnies at home right now.

The other interesting bit of info I've been soaking up is this whole notion of "no-'poo", as in no shampoo. There's this underground movement of people who are attempting to redefine normal on the personal hygiene front, not an easy task, and they clean their hair with baking soda and rinse it with vinegar. It's chemical-free, if you're concerned about cancer, reduces plastic waste, if you're concerned about the environment, and it's pretty darn cheap if you're concerned about saving $$.

So I gave that trend a try as well. Results? So far, surprising. After a long day at work, my hair is pretty icky, and I felt squeaky clean after using the "no-poo" method. I rinsed with diluted apple cider vinegar, which did leave me smelling a bit like homemade pickles, but no one gave me any funny looks at work today so assume only I could notice. And after work I let my hair down to reveal a beautiful, grease-free shine. Even my bangs were still feathery. Nice.

The "recipe" I tried:

1. Make a paste out of baking soda and water. Massage into dry scalp.
2. Let sit for 2-3 minutes. Rinse out.
3. Pour dilute vinegar (1 part vinegar to 4 parts water, approx) through hair. Rinse with cool water.

I'm going to let the coconut oil sit for 1 hour and then do the baking soda/vinegar routine. We'll see what happens!