Saturday, November 6, 2010

Buying from friends; enjoying a puppet show

I'm starting to notice that when I'm bored, I like to do one of two things: eat or shop.  And because today was a slow day at the farmers market, I was usually either eating oat groats or prowling the aisles looking for something tastier.

Also on slow days the vendors try to support each other a little more.  I bought raw apple cider from my friend Anita, whose apples are in the process of transitioning to organic.  Here in CT, you can't buy unpasteurized apple cider unless you buy it directly from the farmer.  It tastes so much better than supermarket cider.  It's especially a treat for Jake, whose family had an old-fashioned cider press and ran the cider booth at the Danbury Fair when he was a kid. 

The vendors next to me--a mother and daughter--were at the market for the first time.  They had some peppers they just barely saved from the frost, which they were selling three for a dollar.   I bought three to make kale chips.  And don't laugh, but I bought another sweet potato.  Before I started this blog I hadn't eaten a sweet potato in over six months, and suddenly I'm craving them four or five times a week.  I've bought sweet potatoes from four different local farmers in the past two weeks.  I also bought three tomatoes which I'm using tonight in a navy bean/kale soup.


(I didn't buy all this.  I just wanted to show you their display.)

I also bought navy beans and cashew pieces from the bulk bins.  As I'm writing this, my bean soup is cooking and my cashews are soaking.  Before I go to bed I'm going to make another batch of kale chips using  this recipe.  For yesterday's batches I coated my kale with a mixture of olive oil, cider vinegar, garlic, minced hot pepper, salt and nutritional yeast.  I love the cheesey flavor of nutritional yeast.

After the market I made soap, ate my sweet potato and an astounding number of kale chips, then drove downtown for an enchanting puppet show.  Jake and two friends were the puppeteers, and they were performing a piece based on a children's book written by another friend.  I adore puppet shows for their inventiveness, and for the way they bring you back to your childhood ability to accept a sock or a string or a piece of cardboard as a toy.  Here is a video of some shadow puppetry snippets in case you're unfamiliar with the form. This isn't from the play I saw tonight, but it gives you an idea of what's possible.

I drove both to the co-op (I always drive when I vend) and downtown.  I usually walk downtown and back during the daylight hours, but not at night, especially lately.  We've had some violent crime between downtown and home these past few months, including the fatal stabbing last week of a local artist as he walked home from work.  Even the guys in town are nervous about walking by themselves.

Today's Consumption Totals:
Food: $9
Cider: $3
Puppet Show: free
Surprise gift: a cup of coffee
Miles Driven: 2

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