union square farmer's market

for my birthday (back on may 11) mom bought me the book "animal, vegetable, miracle" by barbara kingsolver. it's a book about eating primarily local food for one year. the author and her family, living on a small farm in kentucky, raise a lot of their own food- both plant and animal- and try to buy everything else they need from neighbors, local businesses, and small, environmentally-friendly companies. they do make a couple of exceptions in their food choices, like coffee and spices, but in general, they make a real effort to eat foods that are in season and that aren't shipped across the country or around the world to arrive on their dinner plates. did you know that the average food item travels 1500 miles before it gets to your home?

i am excited about the idea of this endeavor, and although matt and i are not yet ready (or willing) to take on the challenge of eating exclusively locally, i am trying harder to find and eat foods that are in season, like those 16 pounds of strawberries we picked last weekend and made into a gallon and a half of jam. or like that fresh asparagus i purchased at whole foods- the last of the season, locally grown!- that i let rot in the bottom of the fridge (matt has forbidden the use of the vegetable crispers to store perishable items like vegetables because we always forget what's in there and the whole drawer just turns into a rot-fest. now, we let our vegetables rot out in plain sight on the bottom shelf). this weekend, we decided to go to a local farmer's market, a trip made even more appealing by the fact that chris mancini was starring in a one-man show at the market.

nina and jake came along as well- we're trying to find a new fruit for nina to obsess over since bananas aren't local. she has now sampled avocado, red pepper, zucchini, strawberries, and rhubarb, and while she seems to have enjoyed them all and begged for more, her true love remains the banana.