I was right…. I got enough veggies to last me beyond the week for only $8.50 at the Farmer’s Market. With the addition of some bread, pasta, and rice from the supermarket, and all the canned soup I have… I could easily be living on less than $50 a month in terms of food. And eating much more healthily than I have been lately.

I went to the North Side Farmer’s Market today. North Side isn’t the best part of town, and the Farmer’s Market was pretty small- but there was that same atmosphere- around me, people were greeting friends they hadn’t seen in some time, telling them about weddings and other community events.

Being raised with kosher, which is very cautious about the possibility of insects in vegetables, I have to admit I was nervous about buying cauliflower and a head of lettuce at the Market. But I have to wash it the same anyways, and so far so good.

Then I had the problem of how to store the extra food… eventually I want to stock the freezer for the winter (at least for a few weeks… I don’t expect to make it til April, even frugally), but I really have limited space and I haven’t bought large ziplock bags yet. I improvised with a combination of tupperware, small ziplocks, and grocery bags.

I bought this non-meat beef flavoring at the store. I love that stuff. I need to buy garlic powder and that’ll make it complete (hmm, maybe rosemary too…). Next week I need to buy more variety at the Market, I didn’t buy any zucchini or squash this week- just green beans, cauliflower, lettuce, and cucumber. Not much color variety there, but I still have frozen blueberries, blackberries, and mango, and some fresh apples. They didn’t have broccoli. Ironically, my friend made me start craving mushrooms after I was well gone from the Market… so now I really want rissoto with mushrooms, broccoli, and spinach, in a white sauce. I don’t remember seeing mushrooms at the Market…. no carrots, either, maybe at the larger ones, unless they aren’t in season yet… might be too early… I’m debating getting a small freezer to stock it all, cause landlord’s freezer really has no room… but I haven’t looked at prices yet and I really just thought of it right now, so I can’t say. I’m used to so much storage space!

I’m doing a few social things this weekend, but I mainly want to use it to rest. My room is a wreck (big surprise- but I DO always keep my desks neat at work!), and I want to work on cleaning it and maintaining it as a restful place. And I want to go to this stream in the woods I know of at Schenley Park, just to sit and be in a quiet place for awhile.

Work is going well… I feel like my first draft of the curriculum materials I’ve been working on is almost done. I have to start studying the school tours intensely soon- shadowing school groups, etc- on the one hand, I’m looking forward to being away from the computer and to exploring the museum, on the other I have this need to be achieving projects so I’m hoping I can space out/balance the shadowing so that I’m also feeling like I’m accomplishing things. I know I’ll benefit from the shadowing, and my work will benefit- I just need the balance. I’m a little too tapped in sometimes… I have the urge every weekend to look at my work, and I don’t let myself.