Farmer's Market

I never give up. Tenacious is my middle name. I apply this trait to several aspects of my life. If we are letterboxing, and Paul says the letterbox is missing, I keep re-reading the clue and backtracking and usually discover that we misread the clue and have gone the wrong way, and we usually find the box after all. If I lose something, I look and look and look and look until I find it. I could give numerous examples, but I won't. For several years now, I've told Abbie that our family motto is "NEVER GIVE UP." I didn't consult Paul on this; I just decided on my own. She knows our motto like our address and phone number. Anytime she is up against a difficult task, I remind her of our motto, and she will dig in and try again.
I've been wanting to go to the Farmer's Market for 2 weeks now. I went on Tuesday, but the sign said the Farmer's Market was Wednesday & Saturday. I went back on Friday only to discover that I had read the sign wrong - it said Wednesday & Saturday not Wednesday thru Saturday. By now, I was frustrated because the farmer's market is not close to my house. I almost talked myself into waiting until next Wednesday, but I got up this morning and decided to try again.
Eeeee! It was open! Paul stayed in the car reading while Abbie and I shopped. He was along for the ride because we went bowling afterwards. Apples, peaches, strawberries, tomatoes, cucumbers, cherries, and beans were available (I'm sure I'm forgetting others). We bought strawberries from one lady and peaches and cherries from a man. I bought some homemade baklava from another lady. By then I had run out of cash. I wanted to buy some homemade bread and goat cheese too. I'll just have to go back next week.
After bowling and our errands, we came home and Abbie and I made a double batch of strawberry freezer jam (you actually can't double the recipe so we just made one batch, washed all our utensils and started over again). My freezer will be full now. Abbie helped with all the steps except measuring the sugar and boiling the sure jell.
I'm pretty excited about trying my hand at canning and preserving food. When Abbie was around three years old, I noticed a change in her personality. She became much more moody - in an extreme way. I did some research and discovered the Feingold Diet. It intrigued me. I will not go into detail about what this is all about because I know I will get facts wrong, but on a basic level, Dr. Feingold says that preservatives and food colorings and other additives are not good for anyone - especially children who might be sensitive to these things. Paul is very sensitive to certain foods so I decided to try this diet. So I tried to cut out as much foods with food colorings as I could. IT-IS-NOT-EASY! Just about everything has red dye #40 in it. I started buying only brown sugar cinnamon pop tarts much to Paul's dismay. Although I disliked the extra trip, I started buying certain foods at the Natural Foods Store. One thing Abbie was addicted to at the time was fruit snacks - those little gummy/jelly snacks. I stopped buying them. I think my "experiment" worked. Maybe it was all in my head, but I am pretty sold on the idea that all the extra preservatives, additives and dyes in our food is hurting our health. So what I'm trying to say with this back story about Abbie when she was three is that I've been interested in food and how it is made and how it benefits or hurts our bodies for several years.
Fast forward to 7 1/2 year old Abbie, and I now have the time to try gardening and canning. Now, I also have a bigger opportunity to buy organic and buy locally grown produce. And then Annie suggests that I read Animal, Vegetable, Miracle and it all starts to tie in together.
Another coincidence is that one of Abbie's last assigned chapter books in school was Little House in the Big Woods. Although I'm a big reader and a big fan of the Little House tv series, I had never read this series by Laura Ingalls Wilder. We (Paul is now a big fan too) liked the first book so well that we have now bought the series. In the middle of the day, Paul will ask, "Lorrie, will you read to us for awhile?" We are currently on book 3, and these books are very farming oriented, cooking from scratch, making your own furniture, etc. Everything just seems to be pointing in a certain direction for me.
I'm following the signs; I'm following the signs.