Fabulous News

Out on the porch are two boxes of apple seconds that I bought for only $2 at the market on Saturday. I see a lot of applesauce in my future. I am the Queen of Market Scavenging: apple seconds, cheese ends, ham and bacon ends, day-old bread and rolls, bones, wilted greens.

March is more than halfway gone, and I am so far behind in my blogging. I have half a dozen unfinished posts in the pipeline. I'm gonna catch up with a series of quickie posts about things I don't want to forget.

First, Fabulous News today: DH was selected to be a National Urban Fellow in the 40th Anniversary year of that program. It's an intensive graduate program with two semesters of coursework and a 9-month mentorship that will result in a Master of Public Administration and admission to an incredible network of Fellows. The program runs a total of 14 months, pays a stipend and other expenses, and even includes health insurance. It's a wonderful , exciting opportunity and I am so proud of him for being selected.

But (isn't there always a "but"?), it means he will leave us for most of that time. We've had other times in our long relationship when we did not live together, so we will be okay, but I am not looking forward to his absence, even with all the digital means of staying close.

A huge clock just started ticking. He leaves the last weekend of May, and will be in NYC until August, then I get him back for 3 weeks before he goes to an as-yet-uknown major city for the mentorship. I hope he gets assigned to the Eastern seaboard, so I can visit him. We have a lot of work to do to be ready, and he will barely finish his EMT certification in May. Tick tock!

The Great Clean-up is Under Way. DH and I rented a garage for storage, and today my mother and I had our first clean-up session at her house. I took away two bags of trash and a 'donut' tire to Freecycle. I took photos of an old school desk and a child's bench to sell on Craigslist. That made just a small dent in the front porch junk, but it was a good warm-up. I hope to establish a schedule of working from 8AM-Noon four days per week, with some afternoons reserved for taking her to appointments and such. Now that we know DH is going to grad school, the pressure is really on.

Planning to Move. The current plan is to move to Mom's house in June. I have discovered that makes me really disinterested in doing things in our current house. "Is is worth doing when we will only be here another 3 months?" So far, "no" to new bathroom curtain, rearranging the living room furniture, and planting potatoes.

I've stopped buying for the freezer and pantry, and we will try to eat down our stores to avoid moving heavy canned goods. But I am keeping a list, so we can restock after the move. I'm also working on packing up things I can stash in the rented garage to reduce the size of the move - extra books, the fabric collection, and assorted boxed memorabilia.

I'm not going to plant anything at our house this year. Not even the early peas and lettuce. The clock is ticking too loudly, and I need to stay closely focused. I might try to get stuff in at Mom's if I can get rid of that groundhog, and score some compost to put in large containers.

We are planning an Easter weekend trip to DC. Tentatively, we'll visit DH's family there, visit the Smithsonian on Saturday, and attend at All Souls Unitarian Church on Sunday. We haven't been anywhere as a family since August, so a little road trip will be nice, and we seldom see DH's aunts.

Look for more posts shortly. I have things to tell you about the worm farm, a birthday trip to the Historical Society, and an Independence Challenge Update.

Independence Challenge - Week 36

DH was going to run errands and he asked everyone if they needed
something. The kids needed chapstick. When he came to me, I joked,
"Can I have a pony, Daddy?" And he got me one! Awww!

I went to the PA Farm Show this past Wednesday. Agriculture is the state's biggest business, so it's like the state trade show. I went on a $16 bus trip arranged by the Extension office. It's nice to get dropped off at the entrance instead of parking and driving. I walked around for a solid 6 hours. I checked out the Alternative Energy section, and the various state and federal agencies. People rave about the food, but I was not too impressed. Too bland, too deep-fried, too over-priced. I surveyed all the food purveyors, ate all the free samples, and collected some brochures from associations that might prove useful, like the PA Nut Grower's Association. There was a commercial market, where I kept expecting to see a Sham-WOW guy. Then a horticulture section, and finally the "Family Living" exhibits where the actual canning, sewing, and baking entries were found. I spent some time in there, looking at what gets a blue ribbon. I watched the Sheep-to-Shawl competition for a little while, and saw a really cool $45 knitted alpaca neck warmer I couldn't afford. Oh, and I saw a lot of exceedingly clean animals!


I enjoyed the day away from home with no kids. I could spend as long as I liked looking at things and talking to people. I spent a long time talking to a woman that works at Old Bedford Village near Pittsburgh. She is an educator that can teach 127 old-fashioned skills. She was threading a loom, with her blacksmith daughter, at the Show. I also found some graphics and activities I can use for my youth food workshop.


But overall, this Show was all about Agribusiness. Big machines, big farms, conventional technology. It didn't have much to do with local food or small family farms. I can't wait for my 4-day trip to the PA Sustainable Agriculture convention the first week of February.


Planted: I decided on seed vendors, but didn't place my final orders yet. I will use Baker's Creek, mostlybecause the catalog is so freakin' cool. I will also order from Amishland, a small veggie seed grower in next-door Lancaster County, since her varieties ought to be good for my region. I am up in the air about where to buy potato and onions sets. My favorite local greenhouse orders them from somewhere nonlocal.

Harvested: Nada.

Preserved: DD12 zested lemons, limes, and oranges for me. I dried the zest, and DD15 juiced them all for the freezer.

Cooked: I moved applesauce from the "preserved" to the "cooked" category because I stopped canning it. Why bother? We go through it as fast as I make it. I found a produce stand at the market that keeps a box of apple seconds under the counter. I got a whole lot of bruised apples for $3. DD12 had stopped eating commercial applesauce, but she seems to like the super-smooth kind that I make. I need to buy one of those apple-peeling machines. Next year, I will buy lots more local apples up at the Kutztown auction.

I had another I-feel-like-cooking spell today. I made chicken corn noodle soup, sweet potato biscuits, chocolate chip cookies, hummus, and a pasta bake. All of it came from storage - yay! I also made yogurt that will be ready in the morning. More applesauce will be cooked tomorrow. My Mom is coming over tomorrow to watch the Inaugration with us, so we'll have plenty of food.

Stocked: Curry powder; I bought 3 ounces ($1/oz) at a Farm Show booth, one hot, 2 mild; I mixed them to get moderately-hot. That gave me a half-pint jar for everyday use, and most of a pint in the pantry. I also stocked pickle relish and decaf Earl Grey tea that was on sale.

Prepped: DH got flashlights and a first aid kit. After our recent mini-power outage, we realized we only had 4 small LED flashlights in our purses and backpacks. The solar lantern we bought a few months ago had to be returned when it would not take a charge, and we never replaced it. DH bought a four pack of traditional flashlights with D-cells, which I might ask him to return. I'd rather spend the $20 on LEDs. He did buy one hand-crank LED flashlight that has an alternate charging cord. That will do for short-term emergency lighting and bug-out bags.

We still need to do work on longer-term low-energy lighting, but probably not in this rented house. I do collect free and cheap candles at yard sales in summer, to remelt into votives. We have used votives to cook, wash dishes, and play Scrabble during outages in the past. We also need to get a rechargeable battery station, and replace that solar lantern.

Managed: I got a few more free 4-gal buckets from the Weis bakery. They throw them out on Mondays and Thursdays, so I have to stop on Sundays and Wednesdays. I did better at preventing food waste this week. Did find a tiny shriveled head of cabbage under all the carrots. Worm food, now.

Reduced, Reused, Recycled: I was planning to order more red worms for the compost bin, but when I checked on the little guys this week, they were doing pretty darned good. The level of bedding and food is way down. We added more bedding and a bunch of apple peels. I think maybe they are finding their groove. There were a whole lot of little white egg-like things that don't look like the worm egg case photos on the internet. That bears watching.

Local Food: We shop weekly at our local farmer's market, which is not all local food, but is all local small businesses. We visit a locally-owned grocery liquidator about once a month. We sometimes visit Aldi, which has good prices on case goods, but is owned by a European corporation. We sometimes buy things at BJ's Wholesale Club (Masschusetts company). But I still need a regular grocery store for some items, and I have been trying to decide where to spend those dollars. When I am doing a big stock-up, it is worth shopping the loss leaders of all three local chains. But not worth driving around just to pick up a few things. All of them have similar loss-leader prices. I decided to research and compare the three:

Giant: 148 stores in the Mid-Atlantic. Founded in Central Pennsylvania, they are now owned by a supermarket group HQ'd in the Netherlands. They've opened new suburban upscale stores, recently. They are one of two chains with locations in the City of Reading, on Rockland Street. DH likes their layout, selection, and upscale feel. They have a growing organic section.

Weis: 155 stores in a market area similar to Giant. Founded and still owned by a Pennsylvania corporation, with food processing plants in central PA. Bill themselves as one of the largest buyers of PA produce and dairy. They also have a store in the City, on Rockland Street, but it has not been updated in a long time. They used to have half-off day-old bread that I liked for bread pudding, but they stopped doing that, which annoys me. They have also reportedly stopped donating to food banks, which really annoys me.

Redner's: 39 stores in the Mid-Atlantic. They have a "warehouse" theme, are employee-owned, and are HQ'd here in Berks County. They would seem like the localest, even though they do not have a city location. But, my mother slipped in a puddle of Coke in front of a broken soda machine; her back still hurts. After dragging their feet for 2 years, Redner's finally sent an insuffcient check for her medical expenses, leading us to an attorney and a lawsuit. After another 2 years of foot-dragging, she still got an insufficient settlement. She'd been a customer for 40+ years. So, on one hand, they are the most local use of my food dollar. On the other, there's Mom, and they have no city location.

My Pick: Weis. They employ the most people, buy a lot of PA produce, the money stays in the state, and they have kept their city store. DH notes that I will never find a store that doesn't do something that ticks me off.

I also found a local spring water company, Great Oak, that has fill-your-own kiosks for .25/gallon. The fluoride level is .5mg/L, half the level in the city tap water. I am trying to avoid fluoride for my thryroid.

Learned: We had our first few Tai Chi classes. Turns out, I am also taking Kung Fu. The folks at the studio were glad to see us back, and since I have to wait for DH ad DD15 during Kung Fu, I thought I might give it a try. I suspect they will not let me stop trying. I feel too "breakable" for this, but they are very supportive. Even though I was mostly sparring with teenaged boys, they took my efforts seriously, which was kind of them. If fat middle-aged women ever attack them on the street, they will be well-prepared. The return to Tai Chi feels good - it is coming back to me quickly.

Library: I found a bit of fiction on the church book sale shelf, and a big photography book about the 20th Century. DD12 likes those, and I like them when they are a dollar. But mostly I am reading research materials about Ethical Eating issues and food coop management right now.

Behavior: I found a replacement for that Burger King fish sandwich I liked so much. There is a fish stand at the market that breads their own haddock filet. No seafood is local to me, and I don't know if this is Atlantic hook-and-line caught. It's still deep-fried fish, but it didn't come from a fast food chain. I think it's a good occassional indulgence.

We did well with our fast food challenge this week - I don't think any of us had any at all. DH took leftover lasagna to his class, and DD12 packed lunch nicely. Not as good on the 5x oatmeal challenge. I need to take my thyorid pill before 9 AM (you have to wait an hour before eating), or I get busy and don't remember to eat until lunch.

Autumn Color in the City

We are supposed to have rain for the next few days, which means most of the leaves will fall. As I went places yesterday, I turned on my camera and shot out my car window at stop lights. I've seen a lot of beautiful fall color photos on many garden and homestead blogs, so I though I would show you what it looks like in a city.

Just outside my door, I can (and do) look up the street and watch the mountain change with the seasons. The city owns most of the mountainside as a wildlife preserve, studded with bits of private property here and there.

If we drove up on that mountain, we would be able to look out over the city from several lookouts. It was overcast and misty yesterday. Reading and it's surrounding suburbs are nestled into the nooks of a series of rolling hills. Mt. Penn is the one rising above my house.

There is a scenic road called Skyline Drive, lined with stone walls that were built by CCC workers during the (first) Depression. One end is anchored by the Pagoda, a local landmark that just turned 100 years old, and is being restored. It exhibits its own fall color change in a jacket of yellow scaffolding.

We can see the foot of Neversink Mountain across the little valley below the Pagoda, rising behind East Reading.

OK, now back to where I was going... taking DD15 to work at the coffee shop at the Fairgrounds Mall. The mall is on the site of the old Reading Fair and Racetrack. This huge tree at the edge of the parking lot is one of the few remaining veterans of the Fair.

There is color even in tedious parking lot landscaping, like this convenience store grass.

This field could be anywhere - full of goldenrod, knotweed, and sumac. But just to the left is the convenience store (the Wawa on Rockland, for you locals).

The hillside next to the turning lane on 11th Street.

The other side of the same stretch. (Waiting at a light.)

"Mommy, why is that lady pulled up to that planter?" She's looking at the Sedum 'Angelina' turning colors. It will get darker red as it gets colder.

View of Mt. Penn from the parking lot at the Giant grocery store. Skyline Drive runs along the top of that ridge.

I know it's trash vegetation in a vacant lot between the CVS and the Weis market, but I like it better than the commercial landscaping.

It has more color.

An iron fence near a school. There was a guy in a car just to the right where I shot this out of my car window. I think he thought I was stalking him.

A lovely small tree along 13th St on the way back home.

Autumn Joy Sedum, or what the aphids have left of it, in front of my house.

Time to drive DD12 to soccer. I like this house at the stoplight. It was restored last year. Before that it looked like a classic haunted house. You can't see it in this windshield photo, but I like the purple that they used as an accent color.

Late goldenrod along the roadside.

A view down into City Park, still taken from my car at the red light.

A row of Japanese Bloodgrass next to Central Catholic High School, whose colors are red and white.

I think this tree on Hill Road flowers in the spring. It sure turns nice shades of yellow, apricot and orange in the fall.

My favorite group of trees on the way to soccer. I watch them do things all year.

A little red maple I always notice in the understory along the road.

The soccer field is on top of the mountain, a grass and gravel clearing surrounded by forest. The Rotary Club runs this field for Little League and our rec league, the Reading Soccer Club. We have to leave out snacks for the raccoons to keep them from digging in the trash cans and making a mess. It gets very dark, and you can see the stars, when they turn out the field lights.

Kat, Gillian, Diana, Kiera, DD12, and Precious waiting for a kicking drill. This will go on until long after dark, under lights, so that is the end of the day's photos. But...

I want to throw in some photos from this Sunday's grower market in West Reading. It's part of my fall color, and will also soon be gone for the winter. Stoudt's Orchards is where I get those #10 apples I keep raving about. I like how they offer samples of each variety, and baskets of seconds for those of us that go home and make jam.

Go Fish Seafood had a new stand there this week. They are a vendor at the Fairground's Market, and recently opened a storefront in West Reading. DD15 used to work at the market stand, and now we are spoiled for cheap grocery store seafood. They will only sell at the market on cooler spring and fall Sundays next year.

B&H Produce is one of the stands were I have been stocking up on carrots and celeriac. I will also be buying organic wheat berries from them. I hope they will grow more spelt next year.

So, that's my fall tour. I didn't really get "downtown" yesterday, where there are some nice trees and other plantings. Maybe another post on another day, if the rain doesn't take all the leaves.

Don't Forget to Vote!

I know it would be hard to forget to vote today, with all the media coverage and community excitement, but don't wait for the last minute. Lines may be long in some places.

Workmen started ripping up the street in front of our polling place yesterday. It's the elementary school across the street. The jackhammer started at 8AM this morning, and they blocked the street in front of the polling entrance. The police came by, but I heard the jackhammer again a few minutes ago, so I don't think it was stopped. We are going to vote in about half an hour, and I will check it out. I'm gonna call the local TV station and the Mayor's office if they are blocking the entrance. If it isn't deliberate, it sure sends the message that it might be.

Update: We were able to vote without issue at about 11:30 AM, and the construction does not block foot access to the polling place, but the road in front of it is closed, and that ain't right, on election day. The Poll watcher told me an official protest had been lodged, and they were waiting for a response. It's a UGI crew, a natural gas utility, but it is not an emergency.

A Weekend with SuperMom

I was SuperMom this past weekend. I think I have gotten too old and fat for my Spandex supersuit.

Friday, I took DD15 to cash her paycheck and buy dye to make the ends of her hair bright pink. Then we grocery shopped at Aldi, the grocery liquidator, and the farmer's market. Put away a lot of groceries. Made sure laundry and dishes were caught up. Made curried ham and lentil soup. Baked a loaf of bread that didn't turn out right, for unknown reasons. Cleaned the kitchen.

All because we were leaving DH and DD11 for an overnight trip to Baltimore. DD15 is an elected social-action chair of a 65-church regional youth steering committee - they plan four weekend youth conferences each year, with themes ranging from social justice, to leadership, to worship. The group has monthly meetings all over the mid-Atlantic, so we drive somewhere once a month. I can't stop being conscious of the price of gas, but DD15 pays for it. The deal we made is that I would do the driving and help with chaperoning, if she pays for gas and food out of her barista income. My criminal background check just came through, so now I will be an overnight chaperon. It really is a great leadership development opportunity for her, and we are getting tour a lot of beautiful old (and new) churches, where a group of 18 teens and 5 or 6 adults sleep on the sofas and floors. I also try to explore markets, food co-ops, and ethnic food stores when we travel.

Saturday, I drove her and another youth group member to Baltimore, about 2 hours away. We left early, so we could see something of the city. We parked on a little residential street near Inner Harbor. We could see dragon boat races in the harbor. The kids dragged me up all the steps at Federal Hill Park and down the steep grass on the other side. As I was trudging up the million steps, a woman going down whispered, "One step at a time, hon." That gives me a clue to how bad I must have looked, huffing, red-faced, with my knee audibly popping. I made the kids stop halfway down the other side to identify plantain, dandelion, and purslane - and tell the kids they could be eaten- bahahaha!

But it brought us to the American Visionary Art Museum. Visionary art is produced by people who have no art education - we call it "Outsider Art" at our community art center. The admission was discounted ($5) because they were between main exhibits, but the remaining galleries are very interesting.

There is a scale model of an ocean liner, made of toothpicks. My favorite was a huge multi-panel painting made up of zillions of detailed tiny people: "On an outer wall is a seven-panel trompe l'oeil mural by James Franklin Snodgrass imagining the population of the world materializing into a subtle image of a fertile reclining mother figure--an altogether different, more organic vision of Babel." Snodgrass was a 50's TV game show fraud whistleblower featured in the film Quiz Show. Many of the biographies of these artists talk about mental illness and reclusive behavior, and on the third floor is a whole exhibit devoted to OCD: Obsessive-Compulsive Delight. A gift shop on the first floor is stuffed with weird little objects, ephemera, books and cards. Everything from art books to vintage needle holders to tiny plastic dogs.

The outside of the building is as interesting as the inside. I love mosaic work, and the building is literally covered with it. There is garden full of native plants behind one of the buildings. The entrance fountain has water shooting out of faces carved in native rock.

The garden is a lush, wild mass of native plants and grasses. Wonderful to find tucked into a sheltered city nook. Like suddenly stepping into different world.

There is this fabulous structure in the middle of it all:

Across from it is a covered arcade lined with more mosaic panels.


We started to get hungry, and I wanted to find the Lexington Market, which is advertised at having been in operation since 1782. We didn't have good directions, but we managed to find it after a few loops.

I was disappointed. The market does have a lot of seafood and meat vendors, but few real produce vendors. Prices seem high; a smoked ham shank that costs $1.99/lb in my home market was $2.99 in Baltimore. Most of the produce is non-local fruit, cut-up and sold ready-to-eat. Most of the stands sell sandwiches, assorted ethnic food, and bottled beverages. It's more of a giant urban food court of prepared food. Not much of an emphasis on local food, at least not visible to me. Perhaps locals know what food is really local. I had some "Texas BBQ" that was really just sliced beef in a too-sweet gravy, with soggy macaroni in cheese sauce. The kids had sushi. We bought some fruit and baked goods to take to the meeting for later snacking. It just seems wrong, for the region to be at the height of the harvest season, with no sign of it in the city market - no corn, no tomatoes, no peaches, no green beans.

We found the church, which is a wonderful historic building, celebrating 200 years since the birth of Enoch Pratt, who built the church social hall out of bricks recycled from houses torn down to build the Pratt Free Library. I loved the architecture in Baltimore. I should have taken more photos. Every block has some ridiculously wonderful church or monument or a row of little old houses. Lots of little urban garden patches.


The youth meeting went from 6pm to about 11:30pm, followed by some youth social time. I read the last few chapters of my book club book, and went to sleep about 1am on a sofa. I set my cell phone to wake me at 6am. I wandered through the still-dark church, checking sleeping bodies until I found my daughter. She found the boy that was driving back with us. We gathered our stuff and were on the road by 6:30. The drive up Route I-83 was smooth and pretty. As the sun came up, there was light fog rising from the trees along the highway. We were all still quite groggy and silent - a relief after a day of constant teen chatter.

My goal on Sunday was to get to my own church by 8:45am to attend a book discussion group, and I made it. We were talking about Riding the Bus with My Sister (2002), a true story about a woman who explores her relationship with her mentally handicapped sister. I was particularly interested because the sisters are my age, and scenes from their lives echoes the clothing and popular culture of my life, set in my city. The author lightly disguises the locations and identities, but we recognized the descriptions. The handicapped sister still lives here and still rides the buses.

But the book club was just the start of my day! The club broke up it time for us to go to the annual RE breakfast, where you sign your kids up for the year. (RE stands for Religious Education, what we call Sunday School.) DD15 helped set up the breakfast, and I was starving. They had an assortment of bagels and spreads, several kinds of yogurt, and lots of fruit, nuts, and granola to make yogurt parfaits. I love that kind of breakfast.

One of the nice things about living in the city, is that we are only a few minutes from most of the stuff we do. So, I raced off to swing past our house and pick up DD11, so she could go to RE. We have a new DRE (Director of Religious Education), and had hoped to meet her, but she is still finishing up at her last job.

I tried to stay awake during the sermon, I really did. Not too successful, on only 5 hours of sleep, but I don't think I actually snored. When the service was over, we left to make a mad dash through the Sunday grower's market. I got 2 pecks of #2 peaches, a peck of #2 tomatoes, a large head of cauliflower, some sage, and a quart of plums.

Then we jumped back into the car to pick up DH and go to DD11's first soccer game of the season. She had gone to church in her uniform, and we got to the field by 12:30 for the 1pm game. It had gotten hot. I found out later it hit 90, and the heat index was 105. We made sure the players got hydrated. Most of us start our kids hydrating in advance the night before a game.

DD11's team tied 2-2, a good first game for us. They lost a lot last year. Our urban recreation league usually plays suburban teams with better equipment, soccer camps, and teams that also play together in school leagues. Our city teams tend to have lots of new first-time players every year, so we build a new team every season. We make sure all the girls play, and everyone plays hard. We all felt good about the game - players, parents, coaches. One first-year Soccer Mom was a blast to watch, as she leapt in and out of her chair whenever the ball got near her daughter, a first-time goalie.

We left the game and took DD15 to work - she had to work from 3 to 8. I think she had only an hour of sleep Saturday night. Oh, to be young again. I napped while she was gone, and woke up to realize I had a bad suburn. During the game, I just wasn't thinking about the blasting sun and not having sunscreen on my face and neck. I burned my collarbones in a boat-neck t-shirt. I slept with a damp cloth cooling my chest Sunday night.

I don't know - maybe other families are that active every weekend. But I felt like I did a week's worth of activities in 2 days. DD15 said she was proud of me for "not freaking out." I was tired, but didn't lose my temper, even when a 16-year-old boy was back-seat-driving at me. And I did everything I set out to do, in my madly over-scheduled weekend.

Now I have all week to recover in the kitchen and the garden. Because next weekend, DH and I drive to Washington DC to attend his aunt's 50th birthday party. We get to stay in a hotel, just us grown-ups! Whoo-hoo!

Philly's Weaver's Way Co-op

Last Saturday, I took DD15 to a youth group meeting in Germantown, a neighborhood of urban Philadelphia. I have always wanted to visit the Weaver's Way co-op, so we left home early and made the stop.

Oh, dude. Now I want to live near it. It is on a corner, like any corner store. But it was packed on a Saturday afternoon. No room for carts - people put baskets and bins on a counter and bring their groceries to the bin until they are done shopping, then they move the bin up to the end of the counter to get in the check-out line.

There is a big series of bins with bread and goodies from bakeries all over the city. There is a meat counter, a deli case with lots of store-made goodness. A dairy case full of organic stuff. Loads of bagged bulk grain, beans, pasta, rice, and a wide assortment of organic canned and boxed products. Upstairs is the cosmetic and toiletry department (we didn't go) - and across the street is another room full of pet food and supplies.

The produce is all organic, and much of it comes from the co-op's own Farm, right in the city. When you buy a share in the co-op ($30/year), each adult family member agrees to work 6 hours a year in the store, at the farm, or doing some other service that supports the co-op.

I got some hummus and pita to take to the meeting, and a quart of Seven Star vanilla yogurt for me (mine!). I also bought bags of red lentils, French green lentils, garbanzos, bulgur, black beans, and yellow split peas - all organic. The green lentils were only a few cents more than the non-organic ones I can get close to home at a bulk shop. We paid a 10% visitor's surcharge since we were not members, but I was still happy to shop there.

People talked to me in the check out line! No one chats in the grocery check-out at home. Outside, they have recycling bins for members to bring stuff the city doesn't take. There are plants for home gardeners. A huge community notice board. There is a used book store next door, a massge place, a cafe. Weaver's has been here for 30 years, so they have had plenty of time to build a neighborhood nexus of eco-healthy-coolness.


There were houses for sale right up the street - but I am afraid to price them. I know we can't afford this neighborhood. Most of the houses have gardens - tomatoes in front yards!

DH grew up in this area, so I was also assigned to stop at Golden Crust Pizza on Germantown Ave and bring him a sausage and sweet pepper pizza. (Which he ate cold over two days.) He really misses living there. DD15 badly wants us to move back to the Philly area, where she has a bunch of friends. But we just can't afford the cost of living - rent, car insurance, food prices, gas prices, and local taxes are all higher. Even cable costs more.

I guess I will have to start something here in Reading. Maybe it could one day look like Weaver's. I am going to talk to some neighbors this weekend about starting a little carpooling and bulk food club. It won't be all crunchy and organic and green, but it will be a start.

Vacation Review: Asbury Park, NJ

A vintage HoJo restaurant is now the Salt Water Beach Cafe, featuring fresh ingredients produced in New Jersey. I really enjoyed the Artisinal Cheese plate ($14), and DH loved the Lobster BLT Salad ($12). The hostess was excellent, but the service was poor. The waiter repeatedly forgot things we asked for, and we were left sitting with one and then two of three meals for a long time. We had to ask for flatware. No one cleared when we were finished eating. My lukewarm clam chowder ($8) was delish, but lacked the promised North Country Smoke House bacon, and I suspect the server forgot to garnish with it. It's been open more than year, so it was not a new place working out the bugs. I checked web reviews later, and service seems to be a recurring issue for them. (Photo: Noah Addis/The Star-Ledger)

Asbury Park: B+ overall
Beachfront: A, very clean
Our Hotel: C, but cheap
Food: B, needs breakfast
Parking: D+

We had never been to Asbury Park before. DD15 was going to a youth leadership retreat in Ocean Grove, and we thought to make a family weekend out of driving her there. We couldn't find an available room in Ocean Grove (a historic Tent Revival resort - whole 'nother story). We decided to try next-door Asbury Park, overcoming our vague dread of Bruce Springsteen.

I was prepared to be disappointed. "We have a hotel, a beach, and there is a restaurant. I have a book to read. Everything else is bonus." But I liked it! The beach was very clean and has friendly attendants. It's $5 for a daily beach tag. The short Boardwalk is very walkable, and not numbingly commercial. A few nice shops, good stuff to eat, mini-golf, a cute kids' water park under construction. Lots of empty shops with "Coming Soon" signs. But our focus was relaxing on a beach, and there was plenty of that. Nice beach showers and clean public restrooms. I liked that there were not so many kids that the place seemed frantic. Nice age diversity. Lots of gay and lesbian couples. Saw some cool body art.

I sampled the ocean, but was quickly humiliated by a wave that knocked me over and left me feeling old, fat, and beached by bad knees. I retreated to a bench on the Boardwalk with a book and an iced chai latte. While recovering my dignity, I overheard a lot of chatter among regulars. Apparently, this is the first summer the beach has really started to cook since they re-opened it. It's been rated one of the cleanest in NJ, and I have to agree. Right now, the beach front area consists of two hotels, Convention Hall with a great facade, a few vintage rock-n-roll bars, and some new restaurants and shops on a short Boardwalk to an empty Casino building also being restored. But the overall atmosphere was very relaxing and clean. We saw a Redevelopment Plan in a window, with spots reserved for beach clubs, condos, and a little more commercial development.

I really liked the series of small shops installed in modified shipping containers along the Boardwalk. I read that architect David Rockwell designed them. Great visual texture contrast to the larger and more permanent-looking arcades housing bigger shops. But I am a fan of container structures in general. I should have taken more photos, but I was afraid of getting sand in the camera.

My unsolicited suggestions, as a tourist: the boardwalk area could use a book/news stand, a convenience store with drinks and snacks to take back to rooms, and a place to rent a bike. Desperately needs a breakfast place along the beachfront. Locals directed us to Frank's diner at Main and Sunset, but we didn't go, for fear of losing our free parking space.

There was a concert by pop band Paramore at Convention Hall, which impressed my teen/tween girls. It was fun seeing the tour vehicles line up in the parking area, and the slow assembly of security barriers, t-shirt stands, band catering truck, etc. We could see bits of the stage being set up, through the glass doors of the hall, and DD11 tried in vain to catch a glimpse of a band member. Ticket holders started lining up at the barricades in early afternoon for the 6 PM show. The concert-goers were a show of their own, and more fun than the art show that pushed us off the boardwalk benches on Sunday morning.

Food: We had nothing but good eats, which was very pleasant. We don't go out to eat often at home. Not terribly over-priced, and all within a few minutes walk from the hotel, on the Boardwalk. The beach apparently brings out the fried seafood in us, and the first place we picked was Biggie's Clam Bar in the Convention Hall arcade. Biggie's seems to be a new location for a Hoboken family-owned restaurant. The fried shrimp basket was great with 6 perfectly-breaded shrimp and fries ($7.50). The fried clams ($6.50) were almost too many to eat, and the onions rings ($3) were light and melt-in-your-mouth. DD11 found her hot dog very good.

We had a few good sandwiches - a nice Cuban, a sausage-and-pepper, etc. Very nice Reubens on Challah bread at O'Toole's Irish Pub. Great locavore food, but poor service at the Salt Water Beach Cafe. Good drinks at Eddie Confetti's Ice Cream.

I brought a loaf of zucchini bread with us, to eat in the car. Good thing, since the hotel had only chips and soda. I snacked on zuke bread all weekend, and DH made a convenience store run to find bottled drinks.

Accomodations: We stayed at the 200-room Berkeley Hotel, built in 1923, vacant for a few years, and now renovated and re-opened. Or rather, still under renovated. Trendy black/white/tan interior redecoration, with too many animal prints. Clean pool, good towels, comfy beds. Our Double Queen room was large. It was a good value at $139/night for a hotel across the street from a Boardwalk. Free WiFi in the lobby, but few places to plug a power cord; would be much better extended to the rooms. Could seriously use small fridges in the rooms.

This hotel has a lot of rough edges and is understaffed. No concierge, little bell service, slow housekeeping service, no lifeguard. No one seems to be in charge - no one ventures out from behind the Front Desk, and all of the staff members seem stressed and defensive.

Little things are missing, like robe hooks - there is a painted-over spot on the door, where a hook used to be. A plumbing connection lacked a face plate. The digital flat screen TV has fuzzy analog cable and no pay-per-view. There was a weird little tile shim to level the bathroom vanity, making it easy to stub your toe. Elevators often don't go where they are told, and sometimes go nowhere at all, while the staff pretends to have just heard about it. Odd wires and panels hang from walls and ceilings. A lot of the renovation work looks poorly done, in the rush to open. The lobby lounge was still trashed the Saturday morning after a large family group relaxed around the pool table Friday night. Multiple building entrance doors stand open with no doorman all night, allowing anyone to enter and prowl the halls - a security disaster waiting to happen.

If you look through the crack in the floor in front of the elevator door, you can see a huge trash pile illuminated in the basement. Once DD11 pointed it out to me, we couldn't resist looking down there every time we got on the elevator. It was symbolic of our stay - the dissonance of dysfunction visible beneath a veneer of newness.

The continental breakfast is bagels (and not good ones, especially considering the NYC clientle), coffee, and watery OJ. The toasters were cheap discount-store models and worked poorly. A jar asking for tips seems awfully rude at a self-serve table with plastic flatware and paper cups. The pool railings were wobbly. Most of the landscaping was untended and half-dead. But, if these things are ironed out, it will be a decent hotel, and the price will undoubtedly go up. I have stayed in worse beach hotels, and at higher rates. If I want it to stay cheap, maybe I better quit my bitchin'.

Parking: Street parking is out of the hotel's control, and could become a real problem for them. The weekend we stayed, the city decided to start enforcing the new parking meter system. But the electronic system wasn't working right, and people were getting ticketed after having paid, or were not able to pay at all. I overheard people complaining to cops, who shrugged - city offices are not open on weekends. Bad move for a city trying to revive tourism. The hotel does not have enough of its own parking spaces out back. The semi-circular front drive is the hotel fire lane, and is not supposed to be used for more than drop-off. With a concert hall right across the street, unhappy hotel guests had to park too far away.

The only other hotel is the smaller 100-room Empress, NJ's only "official" gay hotel. Asbury Park has become a popular summer spot for the GLBT crowd, much cheaper and cleaner than Fire Island and other traditional retreats, I overheard. There is also a motel somewhere nearby, but I heard it was really dirty. Funny, Ocean Grove has dozens of B&Bs only 5 minutes away, but there don't seem to be any in Asbury Park. I am always surprised by the dramatic differences between little New Jersey beach towns.

I read somewhere that the old Casino carousel building is slated to become a farmer's market. I would like that, if I was staying for a week or so in a place with a fridge. Food tourism is huge, and the locavore movement is not to be ignored. Vacation travel is way down, but I think that if Asbury Park attracts the right projects, it could again become a popular place to vacation, even with gas prices rising. The NJ Transit train stop is a huge advantage over many other beach areas. But they need jitneys to run from the train to the downtown (a few blocks inland) to the beach-front hotels. If there were taxis, they were invisible, and I didn't see a place to rent a bike. If they focus a bit more on non-automotive tourists, they may be able to jump into a niche market.

Next time: I wouldn't mind having a summer spot we return to each year. I would bring my own supply of snacks, drinks, and a cooler. I would stay longer and visit the large weekend flea market nearby. I would try the Ketchup restaurant at the Empress Hotel, walk around the downtown shops, and spend an afternoon checking out hyper-cute Victorian Ocean Grove (above) or other nearby beach towns.

My worry: Will the crappy economy, the writhing construction industry, and the tight housing credit market kill off this beach revival before it gains enough momentum? They gotta sell some condos to make this work.

Tour: Farmer's Market in West Reading, PA

The photo is our market haul from last week. Local organic spelt flour and pastured beef hot dogs, corn, peaches, nectarines, Swiss chard, Italian zucchini, chives. Not seen: 2 dozen pasture-fed eggs. This stuff is from the Sunday grower's market, where we try to spend $20-30 a week from our food budget. This seems like a good time to talk about what "farmer's market" means around here.

There are variety of farm food markets in Berks County, but only three within a reasonable driving or bud-riding distance for the Reading city resident to patronize on a regular basis.

The Fairgrounds Farmer's Market in Muhlenburg is the largest, open every Thursday, Friday and Saturday. It really bustles on a Saturday morning. There are a mix of vendors. The meat vendors and bakeries tend to be local (or at least no further than Lancaster), but not organic. One of the butchers has an on-site smoker. There is an "organic stand" that sells meat, dry goods, produce, dairy, etc - but it is pricey and mostly not local. There are three large produce vendors who carry some local produce in season, but often just carry the same stuff as a grocery store. There are specialty stands for candy, snacks, ethnic food, seafood, lots of prepared food, etc - but almost none of it is either local or organic. I do buy a lot of food there, because the vendors themselves are local businesses. The bulk product stand is a good place to try a half pound of some new ingredient. Jambalaya Jay's Cajun food stand has an excellent Blue Plate Special: two crab cakes on jambalaya for $7.95. I get nice day-old loaves of bread from a Mennonite bakery for $1, and $0.25/lb pork bones to roast for stock. There are a number of local sources for my favorite cured meat: smoked ham shanks. It's just a better shopping experience than a grocery store. We snack on broasted chicken drumsticks and bottles of locally-made Sarsaparilla. DD15 used to work at a fish stand here, and we see a lot of regulars that we know.

The Shillington Farmer's Market is smaller and the building newer. Same Thursday-to-Saturday schedule. It tends to have somewhat more expensive vendors, and includes a local organic poultry stand where I buy chicken backs for making stock, a 3-4 pound bag for $2. Again, the meat is mostly local, the produce is mostly not, but the stand owners themselves are local businesses I want to support. One of the produce vendors has a half-price clearance of most produce on Saturday afternoons. They also have a bulk vendor, but I noticed the ground flax meal is not refrigerated, so it makes me wonder what else is stored poorly and thus lower in nutrient value. I must admit that part of the draw of this market is the Good Will clearance center down the block, where we like to rummage.

By far, my favorite market is the smallest, the West Reading Farmer's Market on Sundays from 9 to 1 PM, it is set up outside on a sidewalk, across from a handy parking lot. A policeman crosses you to the market side of the street. There areabout a dozen vendors, but every one of them grew or produced the food they sell. I heard someone call this market "a joke," and maybe it is, compared to larger city producer markets. But I prefer to call it "a start." It is the only place I can go and really feel like I know where the food came from. We try not to miss a market day, and to buy something from as many stands as we can within our budget.

We usually start from the east end, at B&H Produce, Erica Bowers' stand (above). She and a partner run an organic farm and CSA in Morgantown. We get their organic beef hot dogs at $3/pound, sold frozen. They have beef, whole chickens, soap, and a lot of nice heirloom produce. She is also my spelt source. Last week, I bought lemon cucumbers to try pickling. The week before I bought a pretty Italian zucchini, which she told me was not woody at a larger size than most other zukes.


Walking down the block there are a few more produce stands. where I often buy corn from Fisher's Farm and peaches from Stoudt's Produce (above). Then we come to my favorite herb lady, Carrie Rose (below). She sells generous 50 cent bundles of herbs, cut flower bunches, herb plants, and bamboo poles and stakes. Last week, she also had fabulous blackberries. I've been drying her nice sage all summer, and I am trying to root a piece of her fine-leaf basil.


There is a musician in the middle of the block, Bob Hassler (below), who sometimes brings other musicians. We usually put a dollar in his guitar case. We always stop at the Faller's Pretzel table. They produce crisp pretzel sticks in a historic brick oven, now fed with biodiesel. We will visit the bakery one day soon and I will post about it. We buy a $3 bag of pretzels every week.

We pass the cookie lady, the dog treat maker, and the cheese maker - not in our budget. Shollenberger is here, the organic chicken man from the Shillington market. Then we come to the Two Ganders Farm stand. I like these two young guys from Oley, who sell produce and honey. They sell interesting veg - garlic scapes, asian melons, bok choy. They plan to offer a winter CSA I will look into. They are another example of why I like this kind of shopping: when I bought a Tiger Melon, the guy could discuss which melons are more susceptible to wilts, which is useful to my gardening self.

Next door is the other herb lady that we like, from Creekside Gardens. She brings her two little red-haired boys (below). They often try out their own sales pitches if their mom is busy selling her herbs, flowers, and handmade soap. I've started to grow so many herbs of my own that I don't always need more, but I try to buy something if it fits into my budget.


At the far end is another favorite stand, run by the Reigel family, who drive from Kempton (25 miles) each week to sell eggs, produce, and jelly. They are another family with kids, which we like to support. I buy two dozen eggs and some produce next week. She has pullets laying small eggs that she feeds to the her dogs as a treat. We plan to visit their farmstand when we go up to County Line Orchard to pick organic apples later in the season.

See? I know these vendors far more intimately than a grocery store clerk. I see them every week, and they remember us. We chat. I *trust* their food. I want to see them succeed, and to see the market attract new customers and vendors. We need these local growers to sell us the Berks County produce that so often ends up in the organic markets of other cities.

Note: I have added a link to this post at the Farmer's Market Report. You might want to look for other market reports there. Philly-area market blogs: Farm to Philly does CSAs and local food reports; Robert's Market Report covers Headhouse, Reading Terminal, Clark Park and other Philly markets.