good food, or why i love farmers markets

argh. it feels like january, not june. i don't think it got out of the 50s all week! annoying.

3 weeks from tonight, i will be in boston seeing pearl jam. yay! i hope it's warmer there. i am excited to eat a lobster roll for the first time in 6 years, drink coffee from dunkin donuts and, of course, see my favorite band!

this afternoon, i went to see good food, a documentary about washington state organic, family-run farms. it was really interesting, not the least because i got a kick out of seeing some of the farmers i buy food from every saturday at the farmer's market on the big screen. going to the farmer's market is actually one of my favorite parts of the week - i only miss a saturday if i am out of town - there is nothing like a carrot that has just been picked and bought with its tops still on it. in fact, i don't buy fruits and veggies, with the exception of oranges and maybe one or two other things once in awhile, at the grocery store anymore. thanks to the farmer's markets, i've also started eating things i never would have tried otherwise. all winter long (the university district market runs all year round! yay!), i had a few steamed brussels sprouts almost every night. for the past two weeks, i've been eating spinach, something that i haven't bought at the store since the outbreak of e-coli a few years ago. my new favorite vegetable, asparagus, i never ate until i started getting it during the few weeks it is fresh in the spring (there is nothing better than steamed, in-season asparagus).

after the film, the filmmakers and a few of the featured farmer's did a little q&a session, and the one thing that stood out to me is when one of the farmer's said that, once you take into account the sustainability of the soil, small-scale, organic farming actually allows them to grow more than conventional farming would.

if you're interested in this, i also recommend the book animal, vegetable, mineral by barbara kingsolver. a couple of years ago, she and her family decided to move to a her husband's family farm in virginia and spend a year (i'm not sure if they are still living this way; i suspect they may be) growing all their own food. it's a really, really fascinating book, and what got me interested in buying food at farmer's markets in the first place.

my weekend in a few pictures and words

every weekend should be a 3-day one, i think. i love that it's sunday night and i don't have to think about work tomorrow.

both yesterday and today i spent my time wandering around the seattle center during the folklife festival. the weather actually turned out really well - it was supposed to be cloudy and rainy but it was surprisingly warm (especially on saturday). i'm sure that i've said before that one of my favorite things about seattle is the summer festivals. i know, i know, they're crowded and often overpriced (folklife is free, however), but there is a part of me that loves walking around watching all the people, eating gross festival food (my absolute favorite are greek gyros. yum) and experiencing complete sensory overload.

of folklife in particular, something i really enjoy are the percussion workshops. the "seattle drum society" (or whatever, i don't really know if that's their name or i made it up) set up a tent with chairs and drums and shakers and they have people who lead community drum circles. i know it sounds really hippy, and it probably is; i had a roommate in college (in vermont, can you get more hippy?) who used to do stuff like this (and she was also a really good guitarist and singer, but i digress...) also, for the first time, i checked out something called "participatory choral singing," which was basically the same idea but with voices instead of drums. there is something really comforting about being surrounded by all that noise and all these people who are doing the same thing you are. and there's something really liberating about it too.

that's what i love about folklife (and other festivals): i see things i might never go out of my way to see otherwise. i saw african dancing, "folk punk attack!" (which was, honestly, quite oddly endearing), accordian players, an irish fiddling group, and the "raging grannies," among other things i wandered in and out of. the best musicians are not necessarily the ones on the stages, but the random groups that sit on the sidewalk and play. on saturday, i saw a string band ("the tallboys," if you're interested; i see them playing all the time at festivals or pike place market) that i could have watched for hours.

this afternoon, i went to see indiana jones . i've never seen any of the other movies, so i had no idea what to expect. it was entertaining; an enjoyable way to spend a few hours.

tomorrow, i plan to do nothing beyond taking a walk at green lake, getting my hair cut and watching bravo's marathon of top chef. (i love that show, but always seem to fall asleep halfway through the episodes when they're on the first time)

i'm waiting anxiously, kristine, to hear all about sasquatch. how was death cab? i'm sad i missed rem. boo hoo.

daydreaming our lives away

in case you haven't noticed, most of my post titles are random lines from songs that don't usually even have anything to do with what i am writing about, they just happen to be songs i love or am listening to at the moment.

generally speaking, i don't like summer, and i think i realized one reason why - i associate this time of year with endings. everytime i've moved, it has been during may or june. i graduated from high school in june, from college in may, i moved to tacoma in may, i moved to seattle in june... not that moving or graduating is necessarily a bad thing, but it does represent an ending in a way.

also, i really hate hot weather. i love the sun, but not all the time. and i don't like it when it's still light out at 9:00 on a weeknight. it makes me feel like i should be out doing things instead of falling asleep on the couch. wait, maybe i should...

today, however, was one of those spring/summer days i love. neither too hot nor too chilly. i went to the fremont sunday market, with a pit stop at pike place to get a piroshky and buy some sugar snap peas (yum). i walked around fremont for awhile, enjoying the view and going into little shops. everytime i'm in fremont, i always make sure to go to the antique market. i could spend hours wandering around there. and i think i did. well, one hour at least.

6 weeks until pearl jam in boston! i'm really excited for that. someone asked me what album i'd recommend as a first pearl jam record. i had to think about that for a second, because i don't really listen to the albums anymore - i mostly listen to live shows. and that question got me thinking, maybe i should listen to the albums more. anyway... i told her that she should get yield , because it is my favorite (that and no code, although the latter is a bit too experimental for me to recommend as a first album. it's one that i think you'll either love or hate, and if you hate it you might wonder why i love pearl jam so much)

speaking of endings and new beginnings, yield came out in 1998, the year i graduated from high school and started college. a lot of the songs on that album remind me of feeling homesick. there's a weird thing about music - songs that you listen to at a certain point of your life can become tied to the emotions you felt then. transatlanticism by death cab for cutie is another one; everytime i listen to that album, i remember where i was in my life when it was released. probably because i listened to it every night for a few months.

here's in hiding live from the gorge 06. this is my favorite song on yield, and one of the only ones that i hadn't heard live before this show. (i think the only song left that i adore and haven't seen after 20 something shows is indifference. play that in boston. got it, pearl jam??)



i was going to write more about why i love this song so much (the lyrics and stone's guitar, mostly), but my throat hurts and i'm suddenly really tired. so i'm going to make a cup of tea and watch desperate housewives. (don't laugh, it's the season finale!)

when things change so much, it's all state of mind

things i love about seattle, part one

cause sometimes i need to remind myself why i moved 3000 miles from my family.

greenlake
there's nothing better than walking around greenlake on the first warm, sunny day of the year (although i also love it on cloudy, grey days). even when it gets crowded, something about walking around, listening to music (for me, live pearl jam or, more often recently, the frames) without a care in the world is heaven. plus, there are so many awesome parks in seattle - discovery park is great too. the view there is unbeatable, i think. gasworks has an awesome view of downtown too.
all the movie theatres
the town that i am from has 1 cinema, with about 3 screens (i'm sure there are more screens now, but that was how many there were when i was a kid). there are so many great theatres here that have loads of character - the egyptian, the harvard exit, the guild 45th, the seven gables...
pike place market
i love just walking around the market with no agenda, no time constraints. definately a great way to spend a day.
music
of course, i can't lie, this is a big part of why i wanted to move here. growing up, i was always in awe of people who lived in big cities because i could imagine them going to concerts and plays and out to dinner... i remember when i first moved to washington (i lived in tacoma before i moved to seattle.. blech) being amazed the first time i went to a concert (patti smith and sleater kinney in 2001) and came home and slept in my own bed. that was the coolest thing to me. i didn't have to stay in a hotel, because i actually lived close enough that going to concerts could become a regular thing for me..