Vegan Mofo Day 1: Trip to the market

 

Today is day one of the Vegan month of food (vegan mofo)! I participated once before, in 2008. The last few years I've been more of a casual observer, but I can tell you there are lots of awesome posts including reviews, recipes, and more happening all month long. I'm pretty excited about participating this year, although I signed up on a whim, but I hope it will motivate lots of cooking and experimenting this month. And, hey, if not maybe I can just review lots of great vegan and vegan friendly restaurants here in PDX instead.

Saturday was a pretty great day to start vegan mofo, since the Portland State University farmer's market is on Saturdays almost all year long. It just seems appropriate to have the first post be about stocking up. We got a few things, pictured above.  A bag of peppers, Italian prunes, Acorn & Spaghetti Squash, tomatoes, Apple & pear cider, and zucchini. No particular plans just yet, but I'm sure Chuck & will come up with something.

 

We also treated ourselves to some morning snacks for all of our shopping effort. One of our favorites, Petunia's Pies & Pastries, had a fancy pancake sandwich. I was more in the mood for a muffin, so I picked up a marionberry muffin (the marionberry was developed here in Oregon, FYI, and it's one of my favorites) from Blacksheep Bakery. There's definitely no shortage of vegan options here in Portland.

First PSU Market of the Year!

It's nice that we don't have to go very long between markets here, but I missed it while it was gone! It stopped in December and we got a nice Christmas wreath at the last one.

 

Lots and lots of nice root vegetables, radishes, parsnips, you could even just smell the carrots as you walked by one booth with stacks of carrots. Daffodils dominated the flower booths, but I was excited about the booth full of hellebores/lenten roses since I just learned about those recently. Also lots of greens, like this Chard, and potted plants including catnip, mojito mint and rubarb starters.

 

Vegan treats too! Cheesecake and Bundt Cake from Petunia's Pies & Pastries. Her stuff is so irresistible. We picked up brussel sprouts and some Heidi Ho vegan cheeses, which is a new booth at the market this year!  The market is the perfect way to spend Saturday mornings and I'm so glad it's already back!

Finally we have Aquired Cart

We've been on the lookout for one of these since we ditched the car back in September. Not something that's been completely essential, we've certainly gotten by pretty well with our handy fabric bags. But we have jealously watched many many people walking around our neighborhood with these in tow. A few weeks back we checked out the Container Store, where they are avaliable, but rather high priced (which seems to always be the case there.) Finally it was our neighborhood ACE Hardware where we found success. Also purchased: a mop & bucket.

And, oh, this was on the way back from Printer's Row, home of Loopy Yarns. I did make a modest yarn purchase there, nothing very fancy. The "jumbo" shopping cart is the news of the day.

Our Mostly Carless Life

Last night we had our first grocery run enabled by an I-go hauling device (okay, yes a car.) We were lazy and had put off smaller trips to the store for long enough that there was next to nothing in our fridge. So after a nasty rainy weekend spent thinking about the fact that there wasn't any food around the apartment (though Chuck somehow managed to throw some meals together, he's got some skills I don't possess) and receiving the I-go membership information on Monday, it was time to try it out.

Here's a picture of Chuck perfectly coordinated with the car we had for about 1.5 hours. We can see the parking spot from the apartment perfectly, so Chuck took the opportunity to throw on his only blue shirt, which matched the car perfectly. Just kidding, actually the shirt was something Chuck ordered off Woot recently, so the timing just worked out so the first time Chuck wore this shirt was the same day we tried out the I-go, which happened to be bright blue. The exact same shade. It makes me giggle. Next time we plan on using I-go and see that it's the bright blue car out there, I'm going to suggest he wear this shirt!

So overall it was a fine experience. I-go seems to have a better deal than zip car, and there are 3 hours included in the membership each month. That should be enough to cover two large grocery runs if we want it to. Interestingly, I-go is a non-profit company based here in Chicago; perhaps that makes a difference in what they charge. We had to stand around just a few moments to wait for our time window to begin. You scan your card on a device in the front windshield, and it seems to know who can use the car and what time it is. The only complaint I had was that our car was smelly! And a little beat up inside, but that didn't bug me as much. They are pretty clear in the rules that you aren't supposed to smoke in the cars, but someone before us did. A lot. For a quick grocery run that didn't really matter either, but if we ever use I-go for a trip it's probably something to figure out how to avoid.

Lastly, here's our grocery haul, pictured to the left! It's nice to have food again. Next time we won't be waiting for the membership package to show up and we should just be able to go!
It's certainly easier to transport a large package of toilet paper this way. And there are the Totes 2 go in action!

Ecohandmadegoodness

Not much is going on other than I'm trying to make myself work hard toward the job search today. So I thought I would post about the fact that I walked up to my grocery store yesterday and used my handy pink Tote 2 Go Bags. They work amazingly well, and are much more comfortable in my opinion than other bags we have (Yes the ones Chuck uses cause they aren't pink. But hey, it even matched my outfit yesterday!) And it was really handy to have two bags and balance out the load rather than just one!

F.O.s and new items in the shop

I am finally getting some items photographed and listed in my shop. Items that I finished making way back in May but haven't managed to get posted yet. I used the Sky Garden in our new apartment building in Chicago...and um...learned once again why this place is known as the windy city. (The last blue turquoise necklace should be up in the shop later today.)

I also finished a sack this week, which my cat seemed to really want to be photographed with. It's made with Knit 1 Crochet too's 2nd Time cotton, which is a recycled fiber. I figured it be the perfect choice for a market bag, pattern from the purl bee.