Wednesdays are for Farmers Markets

It's Wednesday, that time of the week when I walk to the farmers market to load up on fruit and vegetables! This usually takes about 2 hours and is completely exhausting! The one I go to is the closest one, and I can walk to it, but it is always busy with people, their bikes and their dogs.

I love buying organic produce, which is easy to find in this city, but have noticed an increase in prices over the years at the market. It used to be that you could get an amazing deal on produce there, but after that 100 Mile Diet book and eating organic being in the news so often, I'm sure that the price of produce has gone up.

What do I usually pick up?
-garlic
-tomatoes
-red peppers
(lots of the above 3)
-eggplant
-lettuce
-sometimes corn (last few weeks), potatoes, broccoli/broccolini, cherries, strawberries (up until a month ago), basil, fennel . . .

What about you? Where do you get your produce and do you try to eat in season? 

There are usually lilies and peonys at my farmers market. . .

these roses look amazing, though!

The Down-Low on Dutch Ovens (Or Cocottes)

One of the very first times I cooked anything on my own, it was up in the Rockies over a campfire. Potatoes, carrots, sage, onions, salt, and garlic tossed in a Dutch Oven with a stick of butter, half on top, half underneath. After leaving it on the coals while my buddy and I went for a hike (don't worry, there were adults at camp watching the fire), I opened the lid on that baby and thought I was a culinary prodigy.

Ever since, having a Dutch Oven in the kitchen has seemed like a secret weapon. At least I thought it was secret, unknown in contemporary North America to nearly all but grannies, campers, and foodies—and then a few years ago, it seemed like they started popping up all over the place. 

I blame it on the truly delicious, though super-hyped, "no-knead" bread recipe featured in the New York Times. Of course, I'm not sure that that's the causation. Perhaps it was TV Chefs, the renaissance of French cooking in America, or the increasing availability of Staub and Le Creuset—but for whatever reason all of the sudden I see the Dutch Oven on wedding registries, in store windows, and in recipe books. 

But, friends also ask me what on Earth to do with one, and how to pick one.

So I thought I'd take a go at sharing a few thoughts. . .

Going Dutch on an Upcoming Review

The thrifty person in me can most easily justify purchasing new items for the kitchen. Greg and I cook all the time (okay, mostly him), and spend a great deal of time looking online and in shops for cookware. My experience with CSNstores was so great last time that we were inspired to write a 3-part series on Pressure Cookers! CSNstores' Cookware.com site has so many amazing brands of products for the kitchen in a variety of price ranges. We spent a long time yesterday looking at their selection, including a Dutch oven among other things. In fact, Greg had such a good time looking at the selection that he'll be writing a post on Dutch ovens later today, so look out for it!

What is the item that we settled on? Well, its for the kitchen . . .but the specific item is a surprise! You can bet that Greg will be cooking up a storm with it and writing a post or two (or three)!

Shoes I Own - Favourite Things Project

the code for this button is in the right sidebar

Favourite Shoes I own

Forrest Gump: Momma always says there's an awful lot you could tell about a person by their shoes. Where they're going. Where they've been. I've worn lots of shoes. I bet if I think about it real hard I could remember my first pair of shoes.

So, what do your shoes say about you?

These are my current hiking boots. I haven't been able to wear them very often - it doesn't get cold enough here in the winter to wear them then (like I used to wear my hiking boots during winter in Calgary), and I can't afford to go on trails very often. I lugged these all the way to New Zealand when I lived there for a year, and didn't make much use of them. . .it was often too hot to wear them, and we didn't do a whole lot of hiking. 

Shoes by John Fluevog, a Vancouver-based shoe designer.

I talked about these shoes in this post. These are the shoes I wear most often - mostly the dark ones, which go travelling with me. These ones say that I am vegan  - these are totally non-animal based. They also might say that I like casual shoes (I don't wear or even own heels), that are comfortable. 

Now, it's your turn - what are your favourite shoes that you own and what do (you think) they say about you? Please don't forget to comment after you link up your posts so that I can come check out your blog!! 

New to the project? 

What is the project about?

• It is a 52 week visual project starting July 2010 
• It is inspired by the idea of acknowledging and appreciating the smaller, often unnoticed things in life, the things that are important to us in some way.

This is the main project page.

Next week: people in my life

Post-Birthday

I turned 30 a week ago today and haven't yet reported on how my birthday went!

Due to circumstances beyond my control, I am no longer taking a french course this summer, and therefore had my birthday off from school. I normally would have my Hindi Film (Bollywood) class the next day, a Thursday, but because of the Canada Day holiday, I got it off...and had a nice, 6 day weekend!

One of my gifts was a 'treasure chest' filled, in part, with a gift card for the Sony store to use towards some e-books for my Sony e-book reader, and a card listing the activities we will be enjoying during our mini-break in September! I will talk about budget and planning for that trip on one or some of my Travel Thursday posts. Basically, we will be using up some expiring-soon and other travel points to stay in hotels for free and taking an over-night cruise from Vancouver to Seattle (only 29$ or so!), for a trip to Seattle and down to Portland for a few days. I am so excited, as I had been wanting to go down to Portland for a long time, and I love Seattle.

Since the weather for the entire (mostly) month of June was wretched (muggy and grey), I didn't do much for my birthday outside, like I had wanted to.This picture is from last year, when we went to Victoria, on Vancouver Island (the provincial capital of B.C.) for 2 days.

And I had a picture of the Tardis cake that Greg made me but he made me take it down.

It was a (vegan) Tardis cake made with buttercream frosting, lemon cake and chocolate cake layers. It was delicious! If you don't know, I am a huge Doctor Who (new series, starting in 2005 onwards) fan! No pictures of my birthday party, because I didn't have one. G and I spent the time together and I was served delicious food all weekend!

Being Vegan: Fluevog Shoes

Before I discovered John Fluevog's selection of vegan footwear, I bought non-leather shoes from various places, including mooshoes.com, vegetarian shoes, where I got some vegan docs.

and many other online stores. This all goes back to what I was saying in this post about the increased availability of vegan/veg. products, including (yay) shoes!

My first pair of John Fluevog shoes were bought in Seattle in 2009. The shoes I bought were on sale and the only pair left were in my size! They are the brown and tan ones on the upper left. The brown part is wood-grain like. They are very comfortable and go travelling with me most of the time. Next, I bought the black ones which are vegan suede and a bit more narrow in the toe. They have little holes in the toe, like cowboy boots sort of.  The green and white shoes are the same as the brown/tan ones but (obviously) in a different colour. They are my newest pair and I have only worn them a few times. I'm kind of saving them for this spring/summer. The Veggie Vogs at the bottom are hemp with a cool orange inside. I like the bit of heel on them but they are a bit loose on my feet. Still, they were only $30! The other pairs were each $69 on sale from over $179! They are really well-made and so comfortable.

They're composed primarily of ultrasuede and microfiber; the soles are made of crepe rubber that hasn't been treated with nasty chemicals. The dyes are all vegetable-based and chrome-free. They're even biodegradable. Via NW Source.

Now, looks like I have my share of casual shoes down. . . guess I need to pick these up:

Bellevues Ida Clark in black and striped canvas. I really need heeled shoes, but will have to wait for a sale. These are $279.

In 1882 Ida Clark, then 30 years old and single, decided it was time to leave Deadwood South Dakota. After many years in the business, "golden haired and ravishing" Ida caught the morning train and disappeared forever, leaving behind a legend of firehouse balls, suspicious murders, and a missing trunk full of money and stolen jewelry. Using soft dusty pastel leathers, or striped canvas with microfiber lining (vegan), on a 2.5" Fellowship-hi heel and tunite Bellevue sole, this ankle bootie is already legendary. - via fluevog.com 

Being an Environmentalist: The Changing Times/My Vegan Journey

This Summer marks my 9th year of being vegan, and this year marks my 9th year of being an environmentalist. This all coincides with the year that I moved in with my best friend (G) and out of my mom's house. It wasn't that I didn't care about the environment before moving out, but that I couldn't/didn't buy my own stuff for cleaning, house hold goods etc.

Once I moved out, G introduced me to the variety of things that we could do to be more eco-friendly from

• the products we bought: things like reusable bags, napkins and handkerchiefs
• to the way we bought clothing or any other items: trying to buy from the most eco-friendly, non-sweat shop products we could find, preferably from reputable companies who had decent social values or environmental policies.
• to the food we ate: organic and local as much as possible

Me at Peter Lougheed Provincial Park in Alberta - on one of many hikes/camping trips

Even before I decided to go full-on vegan (G said it was the best birthday present he got - I announced it to him in August on a trip to see his parents in Interior B.C.), I learned to make environmental choices in my daily life. I walked a lot more and further from my non-suburb home we rented, went to parks and experienced nature more, and had access to so many more places where I could make eco-friendly purchases. . . not to mention, G cooked a lot so we had an easier time making better choices with our food. It was a bit difficult at this time trying to find all the products and food we needed, as there were really only 2 stores in the city where we could buy what we needed - soy milk, least of all, was not readily available at this time. We bought flour and other staples in bulk and G cooked and baked a lot! 

The changes: I lived with G in Calgary, in our little yellow house, until 2003, when we went to India for about 6 months. It was very easy to keep being vegan, and we tried to be as eco-friendly as possible, taking trains everywhere and staying in small local hotels. When we moved to Vancouver in 2004 to go back to University, I could all ready see the changes in the availability of vegan and eco-friendly items at stores. 

Vancouver is a much more vegan and eco-friendly place (Calgary only just last year started a recycling program for picking up things at homes!) to live - we could go to many different stores, eat out at a variety of vegetarian only places and we didn't feel as much like freaks for not eating meat! We are able to get so many great things at the farmer's markets in the city and from the many locally-owned 'green grocers', and if I really needed to, I could go to regular grocery stores to pick up many eco-friendly/vegan things as well. These products are becoming more and more popular, with many regular grocery stores having entire aisles for such goods, and every kind of soy milk, soy ice cream and other dairy alternatives readily available! Prices on these types of goods has also changed with them being more available, too.

While it may have been difficult at the beginning to find vegan/eco-friendly stuff to buy (shoes especially!), it has become so easy now that it would be a much easier decision for people these days. The lifestyle change isn't so drastic these days!

The environmentalist/vegan connection comes about because of my initial reasons for becoming vegan: the environment! 

Being Vegan: Easter Treats!

The flowers were sent from G's parents, vegan dark chocolate, 

and some organic vanilla-infused sugar

Even though the weather is less-than-pleasant this long weekend, I managed to enjoy some small pleasures - like the treats above! As a vegan, I can't eat things that are around this time of year, like Cadbury's Creme Eggs or Peeps Marshmallows, but there are still plenty of non-dairy chocolate treats to enjoy. The vanilla infused sugar was a bit expensive, but seeing as it is organic and I won't be using it very often, I think it is a treat that will last a long time (unlike those flowers we were given)! We will have our dinner tomorrow (just the 2 of us). 

What is/has everyone else been doing/going to do?

Being an Environmentalist: Oxford Heaven Refashioned Shoes

These are "[f]un refashioned & vintage shoes & accessories for your closet!" from etsy store Oxford Heaven. I just found this blog called Cosa Verde, which features sustainably handmade goods. Cosa Verde recently featured some of these 18th Century style shoes, which are made from used and vintage shoes.

Special Edition Marie Antoinette Pink Silver Pumps

Marie Antoinette Lavender Mint Pumps 

The designer also makes custom shoes, and you can find some
 examples on this flickr page. 

All of shoes are pretty affordable and since they are vintage, I think that they would be okay for a vegan like me to wear, no?