Accept No Substitution - Thursday 5/7/2009

'Cause you know that imitators are popping up all I over the place.... Huh? Stopped by the Newhall Farmer's Market to pick up some tomatoes. One day I will get some corn on the cob here, but I was on my way to the gym to a spinning class and didn't need any more food.

The class went better than I expected, since I hadn't been for about 5 weeks, since before the most recent bout of bronchitis. I coughed afterward, but not during and really worked hard hard hard for an hour. Whoo!


Liiiiiiight. Pleeeease.

Self-Watering Planters II + Herb Gardening - Sunday 4/26/2009

Went to the College of the Canyons Farmer's Market in the morning, but forgot my camera. Sigh. Bought some fresh free range eggs from a farm located in Acton! (Maybe they'll let me stop by and pick up from them directly without having to drive 20 miles to the market.) Also went a little nuts with fresh herbs and veggies.

Ready to load with dirt. The pipe is so you can add water to the reservoir after it's filled with dirt.


Layered in the potting mix, adding water as I went along.



Added the weed-proof plastic, which also helps reduce evaporation, which is a big problem out here in the heat of summer. (I'm talking 110+ degrees now and again.)

Getting the plants planted through the plastic was one of the more tricky parts of this project. The hardest part was cutting the tubs down and cutting out the lids, just because the material is not terribly stable and it kept binding up the jigsaw.


Four kinds of tomatoes! And that's an artichoke in the pot in the middle. Not sure how much the artichoke will like being in a pot, but I'm gonna give it a shot.






The rosemary got way out of hand while I wasn't paying attention! Also moved the savory (in the foreground) to another part of the yard, since I don't really use it much. The organo? There's no getting rid of it, even if we wanted to. Thank goodness Hydra uses it in his spaghetti sauce!


After.

I know, it's not all that pretty and it needs more shaping, but after an hour with the hedge trimmers and hand clippers, this is where I needed to stop. Now there's room for more herbs!




I think I may have harvested almost enough rosemary to season the fingerling potatoes I bought at the farmer's market this morning!


Fresh sage, parsley and thyme. The first bunches of these I planted 8 years ago are either gone or too woody to be of much use.

Hey, I should write a song about my herb garden....


Hydra pointed out the way this ornament was catching the evening light as I finished up my day's work. Much to his credit, bum knee and all, he trimmed all the grass in the yard, which is a job I most sincerely do not enjoy.


End of day treat: watercress soup. Which is actually not all that great as it turns out--a bit of a bitterish aftertaste, but it's what's for lunch this week. I used some of that chicken stock from Friday. When else am I going to get enough watercress for soup with leftovers for salads for $1.50?

Also had an amazing salad with leaf lettuce, sugar snap peas, tomatoes, celery, Persian cucumbers, basil, dill (it's sooo good in a salad!), a little bleu cheese, tarragon vinegar and olive oil. Crunch!

Newhall Farmer's Market - Thursday 4/2/2009

The last time I stopped by toward the end of last summer, this was a bedraggled little market being held in a parking lot. Now they close off Market Street (aha!) and there were already several vendors this early in the year.



I can't remember what these gorgeous little tomatoes were called--not tomato, not plumb--but they are delicious. They must be lovely in the field.


I've been reading Animal Vegetable Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver, which is an account of her family's efforts to eat only locally grown foods for a full year. This should be easier for me here in California. She keeps bemoaning the produce she can't have because it's shipped in from here!

I can tell, though, that I've pushed beet season to it's limits. The beets were smaller than those I've had in the past couple of months, and the greens were not as tender.


Dodger poses with some "unsprayed" (no pesticides, but they probably aren't certified organic) tomatoes. Specialty fruit for only $1.oo a pound!


What I did on my mini spring break: made a steamed beet green salad with roasted beets, cauliflower and carrots, fresh tomatoes, crumbled bleu cheese and pine nuts.

Mmm mmm mm-mm-mm!


And for dessert: Trader Joe's French Village Creamline Yogurt and fresh Oxnard-grown strawberries.

Life's good in the SoCal.

Across Town - Monday 2/23/3009

The other building at the corner of Hollywood & Highland. It has gargoyles.

I have to make a special trip to get good shots of those. Maybe with the right lens, from the balcony of the shopping mall across the street. These photos were all taken with my Samsung cell phone camera.

The Academy Awards show was done about a half a block from here last night.


Barrels of olives at Monsieur Marcel, Farmer's Market at 3rd & Fairfax.


Samples of the teas I bought at the tea shop in the Farmer's Market, on Braveheart's windowsill. I'm leaving them for The Doc to try. A Keemun, a Yunnan and a Lapsong Suchong.


Hanging out in the kitchen while Braveheart takes The Doc to the airport under sad circumstances. After years of staying here after our bi-weekly writer's group meetings, I am very comfortable.

As you can see.

Later That Same Day - Monday 6/30/2008

I had the great pleasure of meeting RuthG, who I knew virtually through the goal-setting community website 43Things at the old Farmer's Market at 3rd and Fairfax. She was terrific to talk with, and helped to confirm my suspicions that you can really tell a lot about people by the way they conduct themselves online, especially on a site like 43Things.

Early Evening at the Farmer's Market - Wednesday 11/28/2007

My writing group is meeting in a different part of town now, which means the city has kind of opened up to me again! Instead of busying myself in my work neighborhood, I can do many things with the hours between 3:30 and 7:00 pm.

Tonight's choice: The Farmer's Market at Third & Fairfax. The one that's been here since 1934. I love these unusual shopping carts.


I noticed some fancy new plastic chairs and tables. These are not those. These are the old style ones. There's something lovable about them.



I like this mural. I haven't ever eaten here, but perhaps I will.

There are only two or three produce vendors left at the Farmer's Market. Now it's mostly eateries. But I bought the fixings for a simple salad (red lettuce, mushrooms, cherry tomatoes, and avocado) to share with the writing group, and I stopped by Mr. Marcel for a baguette.




On my way out, through The Grove, I enjoyed the Christmas lights. That's a spouting fountain on the right of the shot.