Pearl Farmer's Market

I haven't been to a Farmer's Market since I was living in Colorado back in the late '90s (that really shouldn't feel so long ago, but it does), and this past weekend I finally went back to this wonderful world. I always loved the fresh produce, great homemade products, amazing organic meat options (sorry Tasha), and my favorite: Kettle Korn. A few months ago the old Pearl Brewery added a new complex with a Farmer's Market out back, and I've been dying to go. Last week I finally did, and it was wonderful.



Mom (the best friend I could ask for) and I met down past Alamo Heights and got to explore the new complex. Along with a lot of (I'm assuming) upscale office buildings, there is a neat kitchen store and one of San Antonio's cutest bookstores, The Twig Book Shop, where we ran into an old friend, which was pretty neat.


The Farmer's Market is out back behind Full Goods and it looks out onto a gorgeous portion of the Riverwalk.

The first booth we stopped at had some wonderful greens, and I unfortunately didn't get the farm's name or I would plug them. I bought some spinach off of the them, and it was some of the best I've ever had! Very robust and flavorful. I was looking for baby spinach and bought the regular by accident, but I wasn't disappointed at all.


My favorite booth that day was for Sol y Luna Baking Company from here in San Antonio. The smell coming from this bread was intoxicating. As I've recently gotten into making bread myself, it was relieving to smell these wonderful smells without putting in all of the work. To top it off, the people were incredibly nice and inquisitive about my photography and my blog. The bread Mom and I got there was delicious. I think we got the rosemary ciabatta, and we had it that night with some marinated feta cheese that we got at another booth at the market. It was delicate, but tasty. If you get a chance: eat this bread!



Another intriguing booth was a tilapia and herb farm that utilized aquaponic farming (which I will let you google). The couple that runs the farm and the booth were very sweet and were patient with me as I asked all my questions. They even had a binder full of the pictures of their operation. Next time I go I will be getting some of this fish. It is fresh caught and filleted the day before coming to the market. I bet it is amazing. Too bad I have to wait.






The last booth I was able to stop at was for Sally's Salsa, and, you guessed it, they sell salsa, along with many other products. I was looking to get a jar to add to a mexican lasagna I was planning on making, and while in my opinion the lasagna was a complete dud, the salsa turned out to be really good. Maybe if I just ate it with chips, and left out the 'me cooking' bit, it would've been a better dinner.

Ship in a Bottle

Have you ever done something that you weren't sure you could actually do? I just did, and it was pretty cool. I had one of those great days yesterday where you go home feeling great and accomplished, and I decided to go for a run. Since my first post I've only gone running once and it was more of a leisurely walk. Stuart and I have a route that we take through the neighborhood that is probably about 2 miles long, we start heading slightly downhill (either way we go), and the return trip is a gradual uphill that really works our glutes. We've walked it a few times, but today I wanted to run it. I found my sansa player (blew off the dust) and headed out the door. I walked the first 2o feet or so, then started running, and running, and running. I didn't stop until I got to the halfway mark at the end of the neighborhood. I haven't gone that far since doing figure-8's with my highschool volleyball team! The endorphins kicked in by the end of the run and I switched back and forth between power walking and running all the way home.

Now I know I'm not usually the cheesey one, but on the last downhill run the coolest thing happened. I was listening to Dave Matthews on my mp3 player (which by the way is not the most motivating workout music) when these lyrics were being sung:

"Some might tell you there's no hope in hand,
just because they feel hopeless.
But you don't have to be a thing like that;
you be a ship in a bottle set sail."

If you haven't heard the song: do it. It was oddly inspiring. Here I was running for the first time in almost a decade, heading towards the sun setting over the pond (no kidding), listening to a gorgeous song with a beautiful message. Be the ship in a bottle that sets sail. Don't stay on the mantle, bound forever. Break free of your expectations, make life what you want to make it, hope always no matter what, and live life without being bound by expectations. The moment felt like a super-sappy end to a t.v. movie, but it also felt really cool. Once my muscles forgive me, I think I might head out again...

Narcissism or the Next Stage of Human Evolution?

Woo Hoo! Third posting, and I'm actually looking forward to it. So far this blog thing isn't a bust. I started thinking about what I wanted to write, and I kept coming up with the same idea: something that mattered to me. This whole blog idea is about stuff that I want to write about. I'm sending my thoughts and ideas out into the world, hoping that people will read them, hoping more that people will respond, and then hoping that they like it (and me). Why would people read this? At first glance it is seems like one of the most narcissistic means of communication out there. Hey everyone! Look at me!

Lately, I've also been reading some other people's blog (The Voracious Vegan, Fatherhoody, and my newest favorite The Fabulous Life & Times of Miss L.A.) and I've been loving them. One focuses on activism and veganism, another on the joys and pitfalls of becoming a new father, and a third on the life a 20 something blogger. Why am I so enthralled with these? Yes, they're written by my friends, but can't I just call them on the phone a chat? Why do I need to read the nuances of their lives from a far? And why are they putting it out there in the first place. This whole blog scene is starting to really confound me.

Next, I started spending way too much time thinking about this and came up with some interesting conclusions:

What many of you might not know is that I hold an undergraduate degree in biology with a minor in anthropology. I focused primarily on genetics, human evolution, and primate social behavior. What we have here is a technologically advanced tick-picking fest! We are simply scratching each other's unreachable areas, while setting up social connections. Sound a little far fetched? Here's where this is all coming from:

The great apes and their monkey cousins have this particular habit of sitting around picking critters of each other, eating the pickings, and 'connecting'. What the casual observer doesn't see is that there is a very structured hierarchy of who can groom whom and when. Chimps of a certain social level can only groom chimps in other specific social areas without it becoming taboo. There are actually recorded instances of baboons hiding behind rocks to groom others that they should not be grooming so that they don't hurt the social standing among the other baboons. They now the system and it works. The going theory on language acquisition in primates (aka humans) is that language stuck around after its evolution because we were able to 'groom' people that we weren't around. ??? What does this mean ??? Chimps can only interact with the chimp right in front of them, whereas Sally and Judy can interact with any other person they choose simply by talking about them. Judy can talk to Bob, then pass that conversation onto Sally, without Sally ever actually talking to Bob. Clear as mud? Humans could now interact with larger and larger social groups, and keep those connections alive, without interacting with each and every individual. Step one towards the growth of tribes, villages, cities, and civilizations.

Why get into all of this? What does that have to do with my quest to post a blog? These postings aren't narcissistic at all. We humans are hard-wired to talk and to connect and to listen and to gossip. We want to talk and we want to be heard. Just think of the runaway successes that Facebook and MySpace have become. People could talk to one another without even being online at the same time. Remember those antiquated chat rooms, where you had to fumble through a typed conversation? No need for that anymore! Comment on what you had for breakfast and people will be commenting on it for the rest of the day! Blogs are just the next step in this ever evolving world of personal communication. People all over the world are grooming each other's egos and maintaining their social surroundings just like our early primate ancestors. What's next? The hive mind? Go Borg! No need to converse or type, just think it and all will hear.

All of this to say: what should I write about in my blog? Anything I want. If it matters to me, it matters to someone else. It will be read by someone, somewhere, and they will interpret it anyway they want. That's all that matters. We interact.

The Start That Stuck

Less than 40 days until my life is irreversibly altered forever. Noah was on the stinky, stuffy ark longer! Less than 40 days until an almost 3 year goal is met. Blood, sweat, and tears have been poured into an unbelievable feat, and in just over one month we will have achieved the unachievable (at least in the eyes of most of North America). 39 all too short days until a paradigm has been effectively shifted. What is all this fuss about about, you ask? At the end of February 2010, my husband and I will be DEBT FREE! That's right. No car payments, no more student loans, no credit cards (they've all been cut to pieces in a rather effective plasectomy), no consumer debt whatsoever. Visa eat your heart out!

This all began as one of my many beginnings and my husband Stuart and I had no idea this would be such a life altering process. Back in March of 2007, we were gifted tickets to a 5 hour talk on personal finance. Bleagh! Who would want to sit through that? Stuart's Aunt and Uncle asked us to join them, and since they had already bought the tickets, we decided not to turn them down. Instead of the drudgery we expected, we saw the most motivating, entertaining, and informative live event that either of us had ever attended: Dave Ramsey's Total Money Makeover Live. We watched and learned a new way of living.

After the event, Stuart and I went home and took a look at our finances for the first time. We were 23 years old, less than 6 months from getting married, working hourly retail jobs, and we were $73,000 in debt! We were appalled. We had never run the numbers, and we couldn't believe it. $10,000 on a credit card (because who doesn't have a credit card), $5,000 & $9,000 on two cars (because who doesn't have a car payment), $40,000+ in student loans (because who pays cash for school anymore), an over $4,000 in loans to family. And the sad thing was that this was the normal way our generation lives.

Item	Total Payoff
Haley's Private Loan	4366.00
Haley's Car	5000.00
Stuart's Car	9410.00
Credit Card	10000.00
Stuart's Student Loans	22365.57
Haley's Student Loans	17984.95
Debt to Mom	4200.00
TOTAL	73326.52

We said, "NO MORE!!!"

Within a week, we had cut up and canceled our credit card. The next week we pared down our budget as much as we could: no cable, no eating out, no movies, no unlimited phone plans. Within a month we sold our cars, and walked off the sales lot with two beaters with no payments. We said goodbye to almost $750 a month in car payments! We were on our way.

Over the next 3 years we focused all our energy on paying off debt. We worked extra jobs, we sold every expensive thing we owned, we had garage sales, we almost never went out for fun (it was a very boring 3 years). But it was worth every bit of it. We learned how to communicate with each other, how to live on a budget, how to plan ahead, and how to live with our families telling us we were crazy (even though they were still full of love and support)!

Looking back I don't think either one of us truly believed we could do it (at least I didn't), but we tried it and it stuck. Now we even volunteer our time at our church to bring this message of freedom to other families struggling with the need and desire to be free of debt. The mere thought of debt freedom brings tears to my eyes every time I try and wrap my head around it. I choke up knowing that my children will never know what it's like to have debt or to be a slave to payments. We will be debt free and we will be weird!

I dedicate this post to Stuart's Aunt & Uncle who unknowingly changed our family tree. Without their invite we would still be normal. Thank you also to my parents and Stuart's parents for being patient with us (most of the time) as we worked the process. Finally, thank you to Fr. Ram and the people of St. George Church for giving us the opportunity to pass along our story and all that we have learned on this journey. It is truly amazing to try something new and have it be such a blessing. Here to finally finishing a new beginning!

New Beginnings...Yet Again

I'm a starter. I like new beginnings. They are fresh, invigorating, motivating, exciting, and appealing. Does that mean I'm a finisher? Not really :) When it comes to work and a few major life goals I follow through, but the intrigue in something is more in the beginning.

Join me on a journey of "fits and starts" as I take on new projects, new processes, and new programs. (Ha! I love alliteration too!) Some of these new undertakings will stick, and some of these new undertakings will fall to the way side, but all of them will teach me, and hopefully you, something new.

My current new projects: bread making, weekly meal planning, and running. For those of you who know me, you're probably laughing out loud at the thought of me running at all, but that's the fun of this. Trying something new. I'm learning the ins and outs of making homemade yeast bread and so far I'm loving it. There's nothing like the smell of fresh baked bread wafting through the house (except the smell of fresh cooked bacon!), but so far the pit falls have been more often than the successes. The coolest attempt so far was homemade bagels. Yes, bagels. I learned that, when bread making, you can make the equivalent of edible bricks, but you can also make some amazing food. Next up...hoagie rolls!

The hoagie rolls are actually for dinner next week, according to my weekly meal plan. Have you ever heard of emealz.com? I found out about them through the Dave Ramsey show, and they have weekly meal plans available complete with shopping lists so that you don't have to make them yourself. Stuart, my husband, and I have been using them for a while, but now I've started making my own. Once I figure out how to post documents to the blog I'll post some of them. They take a while to do, but it's so much fun to get creative with food!

Lastly, I'm attempting to start running regularly. That's a laugh. I have never been a runner. I hate running. It's boring. It's slow. It's painful. You name it. But for some reason, I feel oddly compelled to get out on the road and run. Any suggestions? I'll take them.

What does all of this amount to? Nothing much, but it's fun and fullfilling. Why are we so afraid to try new things? Are we afraid that we might fail? Are we afraid that we might look stupid? The worst that can happen is you waste a little time or money on something that you never do again, but you can't waste your time learning something else. Will this new blog be yet another thing that I try and don't follow through on? Or will this be one of the things I begin that stays with me? We'll just have to find out together.