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Bounty, bonanza
May. 10th, 2009 09:32 amOn Friday morning, I got the call from J that her parents' apricot tree was full of ripe apricots. That led to an abrupt change in my morning plans. I high-tailed it up to south Scottsdale and immediately collected up the available fruit. J's dad had devised this really great apricot-collecting system--he created 4'x8' frames that were on 2' tall legs, and then stretched bedsheets across them. Then he arranged the frames beneath the tree. With the help of a small rake, we gave the tree a shake or two, and all of the ripe apricots fell down into the apricot stretchers.
The poor apricots suffered a bit of a bruising on the ride back to school, but nothing *too* serious.
The real adventures then happened yesterday. I woke up bright and early to go and check out![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
faisdodo's garage sale, and came home with a pair of awesome bar stools, some bike shorts, knee-warmers, and my favorite Zadie Smith book (White Teeth), all for $19. I love garage sales, and I was happy to help J at least a little with clearing things out before she and R move to Japan (!).
After that, it was time for the farmer's market. For some reason or another, everyone at the farmer's market was determined to give me at least a little discount yesterday. The bread guy undercharged me by a dollar, the stand selling bunches of basil accidentally put the wrong price up ($2 instead of $2.50), and the big farm that sells the most produce (=line wrapped around the corner 30 minutes after the market opens) gave me at least a small discount, too (every 10 cents counts!). I know that much of my disposable income goes towards the purchase of quality cooking ingredients, so I'm going to have to cut back on those, too, as I continue to save up for Australia. So it was a bit of a relief to realize that the market salespeople look out for their regular shoppers every once and a while.
I avoided further temptation by skipping my usual jaunt up to Lux after visiting the market, and instead headed straight home, and then headed back out the door to the grocery store to stock up on staples and pick up some canning lids. When I got back, I turned the 6 cups of apricot pulp into jam, and canned it. There's something so satisfying about making jam and canning it. I love it. I am thinking it might be cool to do some sort of jam exchange with those who have access to different sorts of fruits, but I'm not sure if I have much surplus to offer, yet.
After that, I went over to the ceramics studio to check up on some pieces, and ended up throwing some new awesome pieces as well. There's something to be said for twice-a-week ceramics time. Then I returned home once again, and set about making some more of those tasty vegan ocean cakes for a birthday party in downtown Phoenix--it was P's girlfriend, C's, birthday. She lives with her mom in one of those old houses in downtown Phoenix that feels like a real place, with real character. Their pool was an old, funky, geometric shape, and the house was furnished in such a way that I really just wanted to spend a few hours poking around through all of the cupboards.
By the time I rode home, it was close to midnight, and I was tired. I think I put in at least 50 miles of riding yesterday, between the market (~20 miles), the grocery store (~7 miles), ceramics (~7 miles?), and the party (~20 miles). All signs of a busy, full, Saturday.
The poor apricots suffered a bit of a bruising on the ride back to school, but nothing *too* serious.
The real adventures then happened yesterday. I woke up bright and early to go and check out
faisdodo's garage sale, and came home with a pair of awesome bar stools, some bike shorts, knee-warmers, and my favorite Zadie Smith book (White Teeth), all for $19. I love garage sales, and I was happy to help J at least a little with clearing things out before she and R move to Japan (!).After that, it was time for the farmer's market. For some reason or another, everyone at the farmer's market was determined to give me at least a little discount yesterday. The bread guy undercharged me by a dollar, the stand selling bunches of basil accidentally put the wrong price up ($2 instead of $2.50), and the big farm that sells the most produce (=line wrapped around the corner 30 minutes after the market opens) gave me at least a small discount, too (every 10 cents counts!). I know that much of my disposable income goes towards the purchase of quality cooking ingredients, so I'm going to have to cut back on those, too, as I continue to save up for Australia. So it was a bit of a relief to realize that the market salespeople look out for their regular shoppers every once and a while.
I avoided further temptation by skipping my usual jaunt up to Lux after visiting the market, and instead headed straight home, and then headed back out the door to the grocery store to stock up on staples and pick up some canning lids. When I got back, I turned the 6 cups of apricot pulp into jam, and canned it. There's something so satisfying about making jam and canning it. I love it. I am thinking it might be cool to do some sort of jam exchange with those who have access to different sorts of fruits, but I'm not sure if I have much surplus to offer, yet.
After that, I went over to the ceramics studio to check up on some pieces, and ended up throwing some new awesome pieces as well. There's something to be said for twice-a-week ceramics time. Then I returned home once again, and set about making some more of those tasty vegan ocean cakes for a birthday party in downtown Phoenix--it was P's girlfriend, C's, birthday. She lives with her mom in one of those old houses in downtown Phoenix that feels like a real place, with real character. Their pool was an old, funky, geometric shape, and the house was furnished in such a way that I really just wanted to spend a few hours poking around through all of the cupboards.
By the time I rode home, it was close to midnight, and I was tired. I think I put in at least 50 miles of riding yesterday, between the market (~20 miles), the grocery store (~7 miles), ceramics (~7 miles?), and the party (~20 miles). All signs of a busy, full, Saturday.
