Monday, May 25, 2009

One Local Summer



For the past few years now, I have become an advocate for the "Eat Local" movement. Even before I was aware that there was an actual "movement" I tried to cook from organic, local ingredients. I feel so much better about what I eat when I know where my food comes from...the asparagus we ate tonight was picked yesterday (not weeks ago and trucked hundreds of miles to our supermarket). Jake and I are fortunate enough to live in an area where we can drive less than 8 miles and be at a market that sells a wide variety of local goods or go out to the actual farm and meet the people who grow what we eat (which is the case when we go out to Hendricks).
This year, I've decided to take part of the "Eat Local Challenge" mainly because I would like to show an actual commitment to eating within my region and partly because I would like to invite others to join me. While I don't want to sound too "preachy" I would like to encourage everyone to check out the website for some good information and tips about eating locally (www.eatlocalchallenge.com). Local Harvest (www.localharvest.org) is another good resource for finding farms and farmers markets in your area. Lastly, if you are interested in the subject I would HIGHLY recommend Barbara Kingsolver's book "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle".

Sunday, May 03, 2009

Maryland Sheep & Wool


Last weekend Jake and I trekked down to the Maryland Sheep and Wool (MDS&W) festival. This is always such a fun outing for me...and despite his allergies, even Jake has a good time. This year I vowed not to come home with a lot of yarn - I'm really trying to knit down my stash. I was good...only bought two balls of yarn, one ball of Malibrigo
- b/c I couldn't resist the color or the price, and a ball of sock yarn by March Hare dyed in "ruby slipper" colorway (no Wizard of Oz fan could pass that up).
Despite being a little grey, the weather held off and didn't rain (we went Saturday - I heard the Sunday festival goers weren't so lucky).
While we were there, I met Heather of Craftlit - a podcast that I love listening to while I knit, drive, work, etc. We also met Amy of Knitty and Jennie the Potter - whose mugs I L-O-V-E!
We almost came home with an angora bunny - it was so adorable and only 6 weeks old! I REALLY wanted it...and almost resorted to begging. Jake, squashed my dreams of spinning angora fiber from my very own rabbit. His reasons:
#1 - I don't spin. I don't have time to knit as much as I would like, let alone start learning how to spin.
#2 - where would we keep a rabbit?
#3 - I'm not home enough to take care of the dog that we have, and he would be the one, cleaning out rabbit cages while I was traveling.
So, sadly, we didn't leave MDS&W with a bunny. But it really was CUTE!

(Ignore the bad picture of me - the humidity from the rain we had the past few days made my hair incredibly flat)

Charmed


A couple of weeks ago, we hosted a wine party at our house. We made up a bunch of little wine charms for the occasion. Here's a closer shot of a couple of them. They were VERY easy. Couple of beeds and a charm on earring hoops.



Wine Charms made by Jake & Rae