Whoah. The farmers' market just totally blew my mind.
I was enjoying walking around, sniffing all the flowers and looking at the pretty vegetables. The air smelled like hot apple cider. Then I see something that looks like this:
I ran to it. What the heck is that? This my friends, is a brussel sprout stalk. It looked kind of like a tree trunk with bulbs on it. I asked the farmer, "Is this how Brussel sprouts grow?" He looked at me like I was the craziest person ever. But yes. This is how they grow.
Totally blew my mind.
This weekend included another trip to the farmer’s market. I mentioned before that the farmer’s market is my favorite lunch time errand. I would like to add to that. I also like it a whole lot more when it’s a lunch time errand. When I go on Saturday’s, it feels more like a chore, rather than a nice break from the day. And there are so many people there. I still got some good stuff.
I stocked up on sweet potatoes and radishes. They’re pretty huh?
Now I must admit, I’d never in my life purchased either of these. Sweet potatoes were easy. Anything you can do with a regular potato, you can do with a sweet potato. But the radish was different. I wasn’t even exactly sure what a radish tasted like. But they were so darn pretty and at only $1 a bunch, I couldn’t help trying them. I think Josh described it best. They’re kind of like biting into a garden. Some people say they might taste “healthy.” Either way, I bought them and now I’m trying to find interesting ways to use them. Adding them to my salad was easy, but I also added them to my grilled cheese sandwich for a little extra crunch and I must say. It wasn’t bad. But then again, anything covered in cheese is good in my book.
So, how about it? Does anyone have any interesting radish uses?
I don’t usually talk about food here. Obviously, food and fitness go together as part of a healthy lifestyle, but there are a lot of blogs out there that talk about food and fitness. Like A LOT. I didn’t want to be white noise. And honestly, I always felt like I don’t really know that much about food and nutrition. If you want to know the truth, I didn’t really WANT to know. I thought if I learned more about food in this country, how it’s produced, what’s in it, etc, that I might not want it any more. But recently my curiosity got the best of me. Well, I guess it was really the Kindle daily deal that got my attention. They recently had Food Inc on sale for just $1.99. Food Inc is a book based on the documentary that talks about the food industry in America and what we as consumers can do about it. There was nothing too disturbing, but some of it definitely made me feel less than comfortable about the foods I’ve been putting into my body. So I’ve been making some changes.
- Eat less meat. I started doing this during the summer, just because lots of meat was leaving me feeling heavy and slow. Not something you want as a runner. I’ve been having lots of fun exploring new kinds of protein.
- Go to the farmer’s market more for locally grown, in season produce. This has become my favorite lunchtime errand. Compare the farmer’s market to the grocery store and they’re totally opposite experiences. The farmer’s market is such a happy place. The air is getting crisp and wandering around looking at everything is actually fun. There are beautiful fresh flowers and food everywhere. I don’t know what the hell I would do with a radish, all I know is they’re so freaking pretty I want one. I want lots of them. And everyone looks so happy. Compare that to the grocery store where you have long lines, rude cashiers and screaming kids, and it’s night and day. I’m not exactly sure what I’m going to do when winter rolls around, and there’s nothing to harvest, but right now, I’m really loving this change.
I’m not going to call myself an expert on the food industry and I’m definitely not going to preach to anyone about why exactly I’m making these changes. You can always find out for yourself. But I know for me, I feel a lot better about how I’m spending my money and what I’m consuming. I still don’t think I know a whole lot about nutrition itself. Maybe Kindle will help me out with another awesome and informative daily deal.
