Asheville love
This is my shout out for the city of Asheville – a place that has been my home (off and on) for a total of about 7-8 months, more or less. It has been very much my "temporary terminal" if you will – a place I go between huge transitions of my life: post graduation from Bluffton, post-Radical Journey life in Pietermaritzburg South Africa. (I have a North Carolina license plate, but ironically, I've lived in PMB longer than I have lived in North Carolina. Odd). In this short amount of time, I have come to love the mountains (a big step for a Midwesterner who felt "claustrophobic" the first time she came here because the trees were "blocking" the horizon).
There are several reason why I have learned to love Asheville and a main one of those has to do with the general eco-friendly, local-lovin' vibe that this city generates. The other morning, I saw in a coffee shop called The Green Sage who is dedicated to taking care of their carbon footprint by offering a compost and recycling center, organic foods and fair trade coffees, and even has solar panels on the roof that is used to heat the café's hot water. Awesome. That same morning I went down the street and bought a new journal that was made from recycled material right here in Asheville. Awesome again. Better yet, Asheville's mini farmer's markets (known here as tailgate markets since the "farmer's market is an even larger year long venue) are beyond words here, offering practically all your food needs for the entire week – meats, cheese, eggs, and of course, a ton of varieties of in season fruits and vegetables. (One of my favorite findings was these tiny, baby eggplants called "fairytale eggplants." I didn't buy any actually (because as you know I've had enough of eggplant for this season), but they sure where cute and I had no idea that "they" made them that small). Love it.
Even though Asheville is pretty eccentric (and downright weird at times), it has been awesome to call this place my home over these off and on months. It's great to live in a city that has the same environmental and local supporting ethics that I do.
But here is the thing. I am leaving – on Friday. I am making my way out to the Great Plains to live with my sister and her husband for the rest of the year. To a significantly smaller town too where the weekly farmer's market consists of one man selling stuff out of a truck and a lady selling baked goods. Oh man. What am I doing, right? I am not always so sure but despite my love for this place, it's time for something completely new. With this move will and the seasons slowly giving away to winter, will, of course, make my local lifestyle challenging to maintain. I am concerned what will happen to this blog. But, I am deterimed to see that if a girl, with an extremely limited income, living in a different agricultural context, can serious do little things to make her food diet more local, seasonal, and organically sustainable.
We will see.
And I guess in some way this is the "official" launch of this blog – cutting off the parent's farmer's market money and setting out on my own to see if I can live local. Well, here we go…
There are several reason why I have learned to love Asheville and a main one of those has to do with the general eco-friendly, local-lovin' vibe that this city generates. The other morning, I saw in a coffee shop called The Green Sage who is dedicated to taking care of their carbon footprint by offering a compost and recycling center, organic foods and fair trade coffees, and even has solar panels on the roof that is used to heat the café's hot water. Awesome. That same morning I went down the street and bought a new journal that was made from recycled material right here in Asheville. Awesome again. Better yet, Asheville's mini farmer's markets (known here as tailgate markets since the "farmer's market is an even larger year long venue) are beyond words here, offering practically all your food needs for the entire week – meats, cheese, eggs, and of course, a ton of varieties of in season fruits and vegetables. (One of my favorite findings was these tiny, baby eggplants called "fairytale eggplants." I didn't buy any actually (because as you know I've had enough of eggplant for this season), but they sure where cute and I had no idea that "they" made them that small). Love it.
Even though Asheville is pretty eccentric (and downright weird at times), it has been awesome to call this place my home over these off and on months. It's great to live in a city that has the same environmental and local supporting ethics that I do.
But here is the thing. I am leaving – on Friday. I am making my way out to the Great Plains to live with my sister and her husband for the rest of the year. To a significantly smaller town too where the weekly farmer's market consists of one man selling stuff out of a truck and a lady selling baked goods. Oh man. What am I doing, right? I am not always so sure but despite my love for this place, it's time for something completely new. With this move will and the seasons slowly giving away to winter, will, of course, make my local lifestyle challenging to maintain. I am concerned what will happen to this blog. But, I am deterimed to see that if a girl, with an extremely limited income, living in a different agricultural context, can serious do little things to make her food diet more local, seasonal, and organically sustainable.
We will see.
And I guess in some way this is the "official" launch of this blog – cutting off the parent's farmer's market money and setting out on my own to see if I can live local. Well, here we go…
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