On the quest to getting our shit together after a long period of depression and ill health, we went to the Greensboro Farmers’ Curb Market late this morning. Many vendors were not there, and a few were sold out of what I wanted, but that’s the trade-off of sleeping late. I’m fine with that trade-off, because if I don’t feel the anxiety at night of having to get up by a certain time in the morning, I sleep so much better. One of those paradoxes, I guess.
Back when I was a huge advocate of the Greensboro Farmers’ Curb Market and wrote about it frequently, I posted lists of what I bought. Here’s what I bought this morning:
- Chorizo from Providence Farm
- Soap from Mimi’s Soaps
- Wheat bread from Piedmont International Bakery
- Bicolor corn, shelled butterbeans, yellow bell pepper, and a huge tomato from Smith Farms
- Yellow squash, okra, and broccoli from Crouse Farms
Most of the vendors take credit cards, and some will charge less for cash. I considered buying peaches to dry in the dehydrator because I love adding the dried slices to my cereal in winter, but I figured I had enough to keep me busy today if I was also to get some artwork done.
I also need to transfer the fig concoction that I cooked this week to small glass containers and find a place for them in the freezer. Unfortunately I seem to have given away most of my small canning jars but I found a few that will work. I don’t have a recipe, but I cooked a four quart pot full of whole figs and about a half cup of orange juice down, added probably a quarter to half cup of honey, then blended it with an immersion blender.
We went to a cookout picnic at Barber Park hosted by my co-workers on Thursday evening and then a get-together for the new graduate students at Oden Brewing yesterday afternoon, so my social energy meter is low and I won’t mind hanging out here at home in the air conditioning on a very hot weather. Several people mentioned how good Sandy looks – I think that he looks healthier too.
My focus these days, after my experience learning with Bryant Holsenbeck and reading her book, is to turn my attention back to my use of throw “away” plastic. And boy, it is tough not to buy it. Bread wrappers. Plastic bags for the chorizo, okra, beans, and corn. I don’t know how you can avoid it for meats, so that wrap still goes in the garbage. I’m washing out the plastic that wraps bread and the bags that hold fruits and veggies and grains and saving for use in the recycled sculptures that she taught us, but the quantity of saved plastic wrap has already outpaced my uses for it.
A few years ago I taped up used bubble wrap between the storm windows and my old double hung windows in my bedroom, and that’s been a huge help in insulating against the heat and cold. I can’t put it on the insides though, because my cats love to eat plastic. I have to hide it or keep it in the car.
The figs are close to done, since the Japanese beetles have now discovered them. I’ll get a few more, but I’m okay with giving the rest up to the bugs and birds. A catbird fusses at me every time I pick, so she must have a nest in either the fig tree or the blueberry bush, which is covered in vines, unfortunately for us, but great cover for her babies. I hope to have a small fall harvest of peppers and cucumbers. We keep a pitcher of filtered water with cucumber slices and fresh mint leaves in the refrigerator these days.
We got the latest Covid-19 boosters on Wednesday afternoon, and I am convinced that we are at the beginning of a new surge. No side effects, other than the usual sore arm for me.
Book that will be finished by the end of the weekend: “July’s People” by Nadine Gordimer.