Happy Things

The first day of March is finally here! For Atlanta that is ALMOST officially springtime - and springtime in Atlanta makes me very happy. Here spring is synonymous  with daffodils, dogwoods, azaleas, cabbages (okay that might just be me and my garden), the Inman Park Festival and reopening of Farmer's Markets.

This morning we're heading to the grand opening of a new Atlanta farmer's market. This one is the Freedom Farmer's Market and now through the week before Christmas it will be set up every Saturday at the Carter Center. While there a few things that set this market apart from the others around town the one that excites me is accessibility by bike. This location is easy to ride to on both the Freedom Park Bike Trail and the Beltline. I love that!

While I'm on the topic of loving things and springtime and bikes - I have to share this project I found on Kickstarter: Type Rider II: The Tandem Poetry Tour by Maya Stein. Everything about it inspires me. I wish it was me and my idea! The Kickstarter campaign only lasts for 3 more days; as of now they only need another $1500 to reach their goal. If you love the project as much as I do I hope you'll donate a few dollars to help make it a reality. I sponsored JULY 17 Indianola→Altoona (which I'm pretty excited about).

Okay, time to clean up and hop on my bike! Gotta get to that Farmer's Market! Happy almost-springtime!

Mother's Day at the Grant Park Farmer's Market

Sunday morning at the Grant Park Farmers Market

Sunday Morning at the Grant Park FarmersMarket

Our cupboards were bare this morning so we packed up our bikes and headed to the park to find breakfast. At the Grant Park Farmers market we found and shared a flaky, delicious sausage turnover from Little Tart Bakeshop and a tasty chocolate croissant from H&F breads. After an hour we biked home, jumped in the car and drove to YDFM for our weekly groceries.  

We impressed ourselves by spending only $57. The only things not on the reciept* (below) that we should count towards the food costs are a $1.75 container of dried black beans and a dozen eggs; both of which we already had at home.  $11 of the $57 is coffee. $5 is raw almonds (Oliver's favorite snack). Check back throughout the week to see how we make it work.

$60 5 day, real food meal plan for two adults:
Breakfast - oatmeal (weekdays), bacon and eggs (weekend)
Lunch - black beans
Dinner - London Broil (on salad, on a sandwich and on it's own) with YDFM and homegrown vegetables

*click to enlarge

Grant Park Farmers Market - now open for 2012

 

The Grant Park Farmers Market opened today! We didn't buy any vegetables because most of the offerings were items we had growing home. Instead we shared a honey fig jam gelato from Honeysuckle (southern inspired gelato). The rest of the day has been spent in the garden adding new plants and moving around old ones. Will share a garden update on Monday. 

This week's YDFM haul

This week's groceries from YDFM (from left to right):
- 1.5lbs of tomatillos
- 3lb bag of onions
- 3 lemons
- 8 bananas
- 2 sweet potatoes
- 3 avocados
- 2 heads of broccoli
- whole bean coffee from Costa Rica
- half and half
- Silk soy milk
- goat cheese
- cottage cheese
- 1 shallot
- bone-in pork shoulder
- Greek yogurt
- golden raisins
- one bag of raw, shelled almonds
- bag of limes
- 5 jalapenos
- 6 clementines
Total: $65.00


Will pick up a bag of baby spinach from Trader Joes. Already have plenty of oats on hand. Check back to see what we make with all this food!

Peachtree Road Farmers Market

This morning we headed eight miles north of our house to check out the Peachtree Road Farmer's Market. I'd been curious to see if it was any better or different then our neighborhood farmer's market.   Overall I'd say the two are comparable; we even recognized a handful of vendors. In the future we'll stick with the Grant Park Farmer's Market  simply because it's within walking distance of our house. But for anyone living on the north side of Midtown or in Buckhead the Peachtree Road Farmers Market is a great option. Check it out!

I'll be taking several days off from blogging to make some art for the Etsy shop. Aiming to have the store open by the start of October. Until then, bon appetit!