Street Market Finds

This last Saturday, Sean and I went to a street market held at one of the local shopping centers. It was a mix of antique fair, flea market and craft fair all rolled into one. We came away with some pretty cool pieces.

An antique mirror for the front entry. I love that the silver backing on the mirror is wearing away in a few places, so it has that great antique mirror feel while still giving a useful reflection.

A cool washboard. I've never seen one with both copper and aluminum before. The dealer also said it was a rare find. I've been wanting some interesting things for the laundry room, so this was a great score.

Hundred year old sheet music. What am I going to do with it? I don't know yet. But I couldn't resist $4 sheet music dated from the 1910s. (One of them has pencil markings from 1913!)

Old flight map of Panama. Very cool. This will probably get framed in the guest room, along with an antique map of France that I found on one of our trips to Golden.

It was a fun morning, and I'm looking forward to finding the perfect places in the house for each of these very cool finds!

Exploring Georgetown

Last weekend we took a day trip up into the mountains to the Victorian mining town of Georgetown. Every year Georgetown hosts a Victorian Christmas Fair, and we had a fun day exploring the small historic town. Here are some pictures from our day:

 In front of the historic Hamil House

 Hamil House

After the fair, we drove up Guanella Pass into Arapahoe National Forest

Apricots Again

This past weekend we were back out in the orchards with Village Harvest. I wrote about the apricot harvest we did with them last year here. This year Sean and I went to a different apricot orchard than the one we went to last year; this one was actually inside an old cemetery! It was beautiful, and the trees were really bountiful. I didn't catch the exact amount of apricots that we sent to the local food bank, but I think we were well over 1000!

And, as usual, Sean and I came home with about 30 pounds of apricots ourselves. Unlike most harvests, where we come home with imperfect fruit that is either bird-pecked, over ripe or under ripe, this time we came home with a lot of absolutely perfect fruit. The trees had dropped a lot over the last week, and due to various levels of liability, "ground fruit" cannot be donated. But as long as you give it a good washing, there is absolutely nothing wrong with it.

I didn't take as many pictures of what we did with our apricots this year, because a picture of apricot jam is a picture of apricot jam. But here's a list of what we made this year:

• apricot turnovers
• apricot jam (12 half-pint jars)
• apricots in spiced syrup (6 pint-and-a-half jars & 4 pint jars)
• dried apricots

these were some of our apricot creations last year

We still have a mixing bowl of apricots in the fridge too, waiting for me to come up with a use for them. I could run them through the dehydrator after the current batch of dried apricots is finished, I could make more jam, I could freeze them, add them to smoothies...

What are your favorite ways to use apricots? Share them in the comments!

Traveling with Real Food and Minimal Waste

Last weekend, Sean and I spent a few days at a cabin in the Santa Cruz mountains. It was a wonderful romantic getaway for our anniversary, with day trips out to Monterey for the aquarium and Santa Cruz for the Boardwalk, as well as time spent "in camp" hiking the state park and wading in the river.

 the river near our cabin



One of our goals for this getaway was to continue our efforts of eating a real food diet, as well as drastically reducing our waste. I recently borrowed Zero Waste Home from a friend, and we've been more inspired than ever to eliminate our waste. We certainly weren't perfect at achieving either zero waste or only real food, but here is what we did and what we learned for next time:


Friday dinner: BBQ at the cabin. Chicken sausages (some packaging), grilled veggie packets (aluminum foil was recycled, need to buy a grill basket to avoid the use of foil in the future), and sourdough flatbreads. I portioned out the dry ingredients for the flatbreads ahead of time, so all we had to do was mix the amount of sourdough starter in with the dry, a little water and olive oil, and then let them rise and grill!

 balls of flatbread about to rise

While spending time outside the cabin grilling, we got to know our "camping neighbors." It was interesting to me hearing the men compare their dinners. The conversation was something like this,
"What are you grilling?"
"Ribs, you?"
"Tri-tip. What about you Sean?"
"Oh, we've got chicken sausages, veggie packets and some homemade sourdough flatbreads."
That's my gourmet grill chef!

Breakfasts: honeydew melon, hard boiled eggs, homemade sourdough toast with homemade kumquat marmalade (melon rinds and egg shells would be compostable if the facility had green waste bins, but sadly they did not)

Lunches: we packed our lunch each day using leftover sausages from the first dinner either sliced onto some sourdough bread or rolled into leftover flatbread. Carrots, oranges and homemade granola bars were brought from home and packed into reusable bags

For dinner on Saturday and Sunday we ate out. We were careful about portion size so that we didn't need to bring any leftovers home with us.

This was our first trip while being actively conscious about eating a real food diet, so it took a bit more upfront planning than we were used to. There were a number of things we brought from home that previously would have just been purchased at the market near the cabin, like eggs and bread. By bringing from home, we could control the ingredients (no additives in the bread) and feel confident in the source (we buy our eggs direct from a farmer at the farmers market). It also reduces waste since there was no double wrapped bread packaging or disposable egg carton (ours get returned to the farmer each week).

We did buy milk there, and unfortunately the only options in the correct portion were non-recyclable containers. I'm hoping we start seeing more recyclable or reusable options in milk packaging across all sizes.

We're already working on ideas for our next trip to help us eat clean and reduce our waste at the same time, even when away from home.

If you have any tips for eating real food while traveling, or reducing waste on the road, please share in the comments! I'd love to hear more ideas.

***

Linked up to:

One Project at a Time

Apricot Madness

*this post is not sponsored or endorsed in any way; what you read here are purely my own thoughts and excitement about this organization and it's mission*


On Saturday, Sean and I spent the morning picking apricots with Village Harvest. Village Harvest is a local organization that picks unwanted produce and donates it to local food banks. An amazing group of volunteers come together multiple times a week to pick produce in urban orchards and backyards in the Bay Area, and we are delighted to be new members of this great group of people.

Sean picking apricots

Statistics show that 1 in 10 people in the community receive food assistance. The fruit and vegetables picked by Village Harvest are able to provide balanced nutrition amid the typical shelf-stable donations of the traditional food bank.

We also prevent tons of fruit from going to waste. The orchard we picked on Saturday, for instance, was planted by the owner roughly 60 years ago. While it used to be a business for him, the land now is just used to feed his family. He has a small vegetable garden, and it sounds like he uses some of the apricots, but there are far too many for his uses now. Not wanting to waste the fruit his trees grow, he contacted Village Harvest. Instead of roughly one ton of apricots rotting, they can instead feed those in need.

Although most of us don't fantasize about the life of a farm worker, spending a morning or two each month picking fruit is very rewarding. The hours in nature, getting in touch with where our food comes from...it's all something I appreciate. It's also a great time for Sean and me to spend some time doing good together. And we meet such interesting people at the harvests, who always make it fun!

One of the added bonuses of harvesting with Village Harvest is getting to bring home some of the fruit! There are always fruits that are damaged or over-ripe, making them unusable for the food banks. Instead of letting that fruit go to waste, volunteers are able to take it home.

After our first harvest picking oranges, we brought home a bag full of oranges with damaged peels. Since the oranges wouldn't last, we made a large batch of marmalade. This turned into a Mother's Day gift, as well as our own stash for the year. We learned from that first harvest: always find out what we're picking and have some recipes on hand for when we get home with damaged fruit.

This weekend, the apricots were so ripe that there were a lot of squishy "volunteer fruit". Sean and I came home with a large bag of apricots, all of which needed to be used right away! This turned into:

-apricot turnovers
-apricot jam (from the Blue Ball Canning Book)
-apricot orange conserve (from the Blue Ball Canning Book)

snack in the middle of canning: plain yogurt with pot scrapings of the apricot orange conserve. yum!

jam and turnovers

 

rows and rows of delicious cans

 jam on the left, conserves on the right

And we still have a colander full of apricots!

 conserves with their labels, look out for these to become part of holiday gifts!

While I was on a roll with my canning, I also made some kumquat marmalade with some kumquats my in-laws gave us (from their neighbor).

kumquat marmalade cooling on a towel

 

All this canning and we're out of sugar! Good thing it hasn't been too hot lately, otherwise slaving over the hot stove making all these preserves would not be fun. As it is, I think that's enough canning for the rest of the month.

Now, what to do with the rest of the apricots? What are your favorite things to do with bunches of apricots?

***

Linked up to: 

One Project at a Time 

Frugal Days, Sustainable Ways 
Craft Schooling Sunday

A Friend-filled Weekend

Although I had big plans of cleaning and organizing the office this past weekend, that got put on hold to reconnect with some old friends.

Friday night I had dinner with two ladies who I was in Girl Scouts with for most of my life. One, I first met in second grade when wee both joined Girl Scouts; the other joined our troop in fourth grade, and she and I did our Gold Award project together. (For those that don't know, the Gold Award is the highest award in Girl Scouts, and is the equivalent of being an Eagle Scout in Boy Scouts.) We had a great dinner at Horatio's in San Leandro, then played a new board game called Pandemic. It was a fun evening!

On Saturday Sean and I got to know the local farmers market, went to the library and did homework; our usual schedule for Saturdays.

Sunday afternoon we went down to San Jose to see an old friend of Sean's from Boy Scouts. The friend is getting married next month, and it was really nice to spend some quality time with the couple before the stress of the big day sets in!

To cap off our weekend of friends, a close friend from Cal Poly was in town visiting, so we took her to one of our favorite haunts for dinner and some catching up.

I have a lot of work coming up for school and my plays, but I will try to be back soon with some good DIY, garden updates, and room reveals!