Saturday Expedition

Perhaps it is another birthday looming; perhaps it was the dire lathering of expensive creams on my neck in the vain hopes of eliminating signs of aging; perhaps it is the perplexity of craving kale and turnips for the first time in my life... perhaps it is these and so much more lately that made me stop outside the Lancaster Farmers Market today and wonder, not quite aloud, if the Amish boy was flirting with me only in the hopes of selling more root vegetables. That thought was only slightly worse than the other thought of whether the Amish boy was even old enough to flirt with me. I'm sure he was at least 16 or 17 even if he looked like he was 12.

Although, I was somewhat reassured that I have not completely lost my cognitive skills because as I was standing at another vendor, looking for kale, a woman walked up and asked about the Boston Lettuce. They guy said that it wasn't Boston lettuce is was bibb. And the woman, nodded and said, she would take the Boston lettuce. The man, ever patient, said, I don't have Boston lettuce. To which, the woman again nodded and asked what kind of lettuce that was, then, if it wasn't Boston. "Bibb" the guy said, again. "I see," said the woman, "So, no Boston lettuce?" I left. They had no kale and I didn't want to be that woman.

One amazing find, however, at the pet stand was a little product called "Pawbreakers" The name a bit ghastly until you realize it is simply a take on Jawbreakers candy. It is a somewhat large, hard ball of catnip. This caused some great bit of excitement around here today--as well as more than one fight as I only bought one of these treats. Ahhh, there were also green-colored chins where white fur once was from the drooling and rubbing of the ball on the face. Of course, Jake, being the super genius cat that he is, couldn't quite figure out where the ball was--or that it was the catnip ball he smelled and was tracking down. Exhaustion finally set in and after the wicked scare of the vacuum, much sleeping and stretching has been accomplished.

As for me, the successful completion of shopping has resulted in a nice Kale and Chicken Sausage soup with white cannelli beans for dinner. Also in the crock pot is a beef stew--complete with all those tasty root vegetables. One thing I learned today, as I paid attention to where my products came from, and worked to choose those that were closer to local (in some instances, that just wasn't an option)--it is very difficult to do. I've also really been trying to avoid sweatshop meat products... i.e. factory farms. Ever since I tried to watch the HBO documentary on Ingrid Newkirk (PETA President), I'm stuck with horrible images in my head. Mostly I have tried to avoid factory farm product, but with fresh reminder of why... it's even easier to do.