Produce from the Farmers' Market and What I am Doing With It

This past week our town opened up its Farmers' Market for the season.  The city government has set up this market in our new Urban Farm Park, where there are shady spots for picnics, the Community Vegetable Garden (which I joined this year), a large chicken run and coop with lots of chickens, a rooster or two and a guinea, and areas for community activities.  The Farmers' Market was great -- it's on Thursday evenings from 5 to 7:30, which means it will be a little bit cooler on the hot days, and the time frame makes it great for the whole family to go, which we did.  They had lots of vendors selling local produce, fresh baked breads, local honey, local meats, etc., along with food trucks so you can eat an easy dinner there, live music, folks hooping, chickens clucking.  A wonderful atmosphere.  I think we'll be going every Thursday night -- maybe pack a picnic dinner this week.

Above is my haul from last Thursday:  a huge bunch of beets, an incredible purple cauliflower, yellow squash and zucchini, and some sweet potatoes - purchased from a grower near Senatobia, MS who grows in a greenhouse through the winter, hence the early summer veggies.

What I have made with this stuff:

1.  A roasted cauliflower and chard salad (I still have a lot of chard and winter greens in my garden, but trying to use it up fast as this hot weather will make it all bolt and go pretty bitter).  The beets had tops on them and if I didn't have my own fresher greens I could have used the beet tops.

2.  Roasted (see a trend here?) sweet potato, chicken, and chard salad with chick peas and an herbed balsamic vinegar dressing.  This was last night's dinner and I ate yummy leftovers for lunch.

3.  For tonight, the plan is grilled zucchini and summer squash planks with herbs and parmesan, fried eggs (from my chickens), and sweet potato biscuits with butter and Amaretto Pecan Creamed Honey from Wolf River Honey that my husband could not leave the Farmers Market without.

This sums up the day . . . .

Another "Noteshelf" app journal page created on my iPad today.

Too cold.

Sleet.

Watching birds at the feeder -- a pair of bluebirds have been showing up daily over the past week, along with a downy woodpecker, a cardinal couple, several chickadees (of course!), red breasted nuthatches, and juncos.

And I've had my 5 yr old grandson Aydan here all afternoon (and evening).  So the wooden trains are snaking out into the upstairs hall and the girls' old wooden dollhouse, flower fairies and and gnomes are getting a good workout.

Playing around with "Noteshelf" on the IPad

Above is a page I made with a new app I got for my IPad yesterday that I've been playing with, called "Noteshelf".    You can make pages for "books" using a variety of page backgrounds (this is on what looks like wide ruled notebook paper, although you can't see it well in this picture) with a variety of templates included in the app -- plain, graph paper, ruled paper, list paper, to do type lists, etc.  Then you can create text in a variety of fonts, place the text, move it around, shrink or expand it.  You can also use your finger or a stylus to doodle, write, and scribble in different colors -- either with a line or wash effect, use little graphics, and even take photos without leaving the app and size and stick them on the page, and apply text or doodles directly over the photos.  You can also send the pages you create to email, facebook, twitter, or photo stream (I put this in photo stream, so I could then use it in Blogger).

You can give the books you create names, and choose from different "covers" and they sit "displayed" on a shelf ready to click on to open and read, use, or edit.  What an easy way to do some journaling or document a project and make notes directly on photos or text.

I'm sure there are probably other programs and apps that do similar things, but this was really easy to work and worked seamlessly and cost under $5.00.  Can't beat that!

Sharing with Sunny Simple Sunday

Andrea Carlson - Christmas Card

I hope this links up properly.  Andrea is an old friend, who lives in Pennsylvania now.  She homeschooled some of her 4 children for a time, and knit with us in the park for years on end while the children played, She is a wonderful artist and musician and is going to embark on a European tour this coming year.  She wrote and recorded this Christmas song, so I hope you'll give her a listen and check out her website www.AndreaCarlsonMusic.com .  Enjoy!

Chickens Playing Soccer

Somehow my pictures of the chickens never come out very good.  Chickens are far better appreciated in person than they are through pictures -- mine at least are constantly on the move, making pictures difficult -- especially when they are involved in a rousing game of "soccer" with a cherry tomato.

The chicken on the right -- I think it's Pomegranite -- rushed off with the tomato, with the others in hot pursuit.

Everyone else is running towards her, in hopes of snatching it away.

She's heading off the other direction, Chickahominy hoping to cut her off, and Esther blocking the retreat.

Chicken Noodle, here (a Rhode Island Red), spotted me watching and much prefers to come over for some stroking and talking to -- she's very friendly and social.

And so ended another round of Chicken Soccer.

A pendant from Violette

Violette is the author of this book, which I have had for a couple of years.  She lives in British Columbia in a purple house with chartreuse trim and a big dragonfly sculpture stuck on the house, along with many other magical decorations and colors in her yard and her home.  The book had pictures of her magic cottage and art car in the back, so I had to track down her blog and have enjoyed reading it and watching her You Tube videos and tutorials ever since.

I recently won a giveaway on her blog and had this envelope show up in my mail!

Inside were a set of Thank You note cards and a pendant of her design, with her characteristic juicy colorfulness.

She allowed me to choose, so I chose this cupcake girl pendant -- she has lots of stuff in/on her head -- much like me.

And words to live by on the back.  The blog world is really magical, where you can connect with creative people whose works and lives you admire and actually enter into their world a bit and have them enter yours.  Thank you, Violette.  And I really really REALLY love your purple house with the dragonfly!

There's been a Coup!

A chicken Coup!  Yep, there's a new queen of the roost -- a shake-up in the pecking order.

My friend and CSA provider found a source of chickens out in her neck of the woods and she brought me 3 laying hens to the Germantown farmers' market this morning where I pick up my CSA share.  They are a black Austrolorp, a Buff Orpington, and a Rhode Island Red (which I have named Chickamauga, Chickahominy, and Chicken Noodle).  We put them in the coop and they immediately took over the prime real estate -- exercising dominion over the food, water and nesting boxes.

My 3 old girls are hanging out downstairs and defending their turf -- they get the cool dirt and dust bath area.

This afternoon Gwynno and Pomegranate made their way upstairs to the nesting area and huddled together and laid 2 eggs, while Chickamauga camped out on the other side of the nesting area and gave me the first egg from the new bunch.  After the egg laying they all glowered at one another and G and P decamped back downstairs.  There's no fussing as long as everyone keeps their distance.

My poor coop is so decrepit -- bits and pieces falling off, doors rotting.  It has served well for 14 years for our rabbit and for the past 6 years, the chickens.  I've ordered a new coop from Amazon and it should arrive sometime next week, when I can take some time to paint and assemble it.

linking to Sunny Simple Sunday; Tuesday Garden Party

Favorite Garden Places #2

food trucks at Seaside

Can a beach be a favorite garden place?  It can be, when you are along the stretch of 30-A that runs from Grayton Beach to Rosemary Beach, separating the dunes and beach itself from the cottages of the various little communities along the that stretch of the Florida panhandle.  This area is as far from the barrenness and cheesy commercialism of the high-rises and condos (not that they can't be fun) that typify the Destin and Fort Walton areas as can be, despite being only about 20 minutes down the road.

Depending on how much money we have saved for the trip, and which cottages are available for one of the weeks that we like to go (either the 2d or 3d week of May, or the 4th if we can clear out before Memorial Day -- both to avoid crowds and to take advantage before the higher summer rates kick in), and what the rates are -- we stay either in Seaside itself or Seagrove, which is adjacent.  Seaside is a "new urbanist" community with lots of amenities, very nice beach access pavilions (The Truman Show was filmed here), but is pretty expensive.  Seagrove is older, less dependable in the quality of stay, has public beach access (no bathroom, or rinsing off facilities like the Seaside accesses), but is less expensive.  We are in Seagrove this year, only one street off from Seaside.

These are some shots of the "public" areas of Seaside -- the commercial areas, rather than the residential parts.  Every part of Seaside provides eye candy, particularly for a gardener.  Above are two shots of the "village" side showing the food trucks, which line the sidewalk and face the highway and the beach side.

entrance to Perspicacity

On the beach side of the highway there is an outdoor Caribbean style market (called Perspicacity), lots of shady seating areas, and some restaurants with eating areas that overlook the beach, as well as a beach access open to the public whether or not you are staying at Seaside.

Little pots and plantings are tucked in everywhere, even on the beach side.  This is a little area between one of the restaurants and the sidewalk along the highway-- kale and petunias.  Often the pots feature an edible paired with a flower.  And you know what you see can take the heat and the sun!

Another shot of a wall of one of the restaurants on the beach side.  Again, a mix of flowers, edibles and herbs.

This is a shot behind the food trucks on "village" side, from by the stage to the amphitheater, looking across the large green to the only tall buildings, which constitute "downtown".  Every week in the summer the Seaside Repertory Theater performs plays here, which are free to watch.  People spread blankets and picnic or get ice cream from one of the several ice cream shops that are there.  Various shops and offices are in those buildings.

This is what the view looks like from that same amphitheater just to the right of the "downtown" buildings -- you can see some of the bigger cottages, along with the 2 story building, which houses a locally owned book store and record/music store, along with a community radio station.

The sidewalk and a restaurant near the bookstore.  Note the narrow planting box, filled to the brim with rosemary, kale, and other edibles.

I see some chard, and maybe fennel or dill.

Some lettuce.  Totally inspirational!  And in such a narrow, exposed (southern exposure!) area.  Of course an irrigation system and paid staff probably helps.

Entrance to Ruskin Place

When you step behind the downtown buildings and the bookstore, away from the greenspace and amphitheater and the hubbub of the restaurants and the highway, you step into "the shady side of Seaside", Ruskin Place -- a strip of shady park bordered between townhouse style buildings that have shops and galleries at sidewalk level, with apartments above.  Lots of eye candy here.

Little planters tucked in every doorway and corner.

That little shop is called "A Paris Apartment".

I think it's at least 10 degrees cooler in Ruskin Place than any other spot in Seaside.

Every little bit of space crammed with plants.

Closeups of some of the entrance plantings.

And here is the far end of Ruskin Place, where we enter the residential area.  Like any old fashioned town, the houses closest to the "downtown" are grander, and as you move out from the main street they become more modest, modeled on the small beach bungalos and tin-roofed cabins found in the rural south.  But that's a tour for another post.

Sharing with Tuesday Garden Party

Elmwood Cemetery

Our homeschool group had a tour of Elmwood Cemetery in downtown Memphis.  This cemetery dates from around 1850, and is still in use.  Many of Memphis' most prominent families, black and white, are buried here, and Memphis history is woven through out it.  It was built as a typical Victorian cemetery, as a park like setting, where families would come to picnic at the family plots, clean the markers, and plant flowers and such.  You enter this city of the dead by crossing over a bridge, shown above.  On the other side is the cemetery office inside a Victorian cottage with a bell tower.  The bell rings whenever a funeral procession enters, which it did while we were there.

Near the cottage is the obelisk marking the grave of E.H. Crump (Boss Crump), who ran a political machine here during the first half of the 20th century.  His political machine filled the gap left by the deaths and departures of much of the Memphis economic and academic elite following the decimation of the three successive yellow fever epidemics in the latter part of the 19th century.

My 14 yr old and one of her friends decided to dress in black and carry black umbrellas throughout the tour.

There are several "ethnic neighborhoods" within the cemetery.  Below is the section that the Irish Travelers favor.  Memphis has a fairly significant Traveler (Rom, or "gypsy") community.  Notice the caravans and tents depicted on this marker.

Here is the Chinese section.  A significant number of old Chinese families in Memphis are descended from a group that was emigrating from China to California in the 19th century, but somehow ended up stranded in New Orleans and made their way up the Mississippi, settling in Clarksdale, Mississippi and Memphis ultimately.
 

The Chinese families come visit the graves and leave paper notes and messages on the markers.

Another rather crowded section of Elmwood is the area where the Confederate war dead of Memphis are buried.  The Union war dead (which also included native Memphians) used to also be buried at Elmwood, but they were all moved to the National Cemetery (for Veterans) when it opened in Memphis.  Unfortunately, the people moving the bodies and markers put notes on the caskets noting who was in which, but a storm came and blew them away and smeared what was left, so nobody could tell who belonged with which marker.

more Civil War markers

There is a marker for the people lost in the explosion and sinking of the Sultana steamboat a few miles north of Memphis, where 1500 lives were lost -- more than the Titanic.  This was a ship carrying Union prisoners of war upriver back to their homes at the end of the Civil War.  The boiler exploded.  This huge disaster only made the back pages of the nation's newspapers because Lincoln had been shot that same day.

The marker for "No Man's Land" marks the mass grave where thousands of yellow fever victims from the big epidemic of 1878 were buried with no individual graves or markers, as there were too many to deal with and too few healthy citizens left in the city.  Although it is a mass grave, the people did their best to note the names and identity of each body brought over the bridge for burial in the mass grave, and those records are available.

a wider view of No Man's Land

Another area of Elmwood without individual graves, but now holding a commemorative marker, is the area where slaves were buried.  Unfortunately, there are few if any records of the individuals buried there.  I didn't get a picture of that area, as there was a funeral in process in that vicinity.

Now, this guy is Wade Bolton.  He was a slave trader, business speculator, millionaire, duelist, and all around no good son of a gun.  He carried on a 13 year feud with his former business partner, engaging in duels and ambushes, along with members of their respective families.  In the final altercation, Bolton was shot in the shoulder and although the wound was not fatal, he decided he would get revenge on the ex-partner by not getting it treated and letting it kill him, so he let an infection set in and died.  He left directions for his body to be buried at his favorite plantation on Pleasant Ridge in the northeast part of the county (what is now known as the Bolton community), but his wife had him buried in Elmwood (she and husband #2 are buried at Pleasant Ridge).  He gave each of his children a bequest, but made it conditional on them carrying on the feud and getting vengeance on his "killer".  He had also left instructions that he was to be depicted in utmost dignity by a statue on his memorial.  His niece (who in the meantime married a son of the ex-partner who had shot Bolton), took charge of that.  She made sure the statue showed him with is vest mis-buttoned, a shoe untied, rumpled clothes, and one hand behind his back with his fingers crossed.

Elmwood Cemetery is a fantastic place to go just to walk and look around and take photos.  They also have self guided audio tours, and guided group tours, as well as special events where people dress up to depict the various people buried there.