Elizabeth's class is finishing their study of nutrition and the study culminated in a trip to a nearby sustainable farmer's market this morning. I volunteered to walk along with her class as visiting the farmer's market is always a fun experience, and who wouldn't want to tackle it with a group of 4th graders in tow.
Watching the kids was a fascinating experience. Some headed straight for the plants, others to more traditional garden foods, still others to the bakery tent, and the strawberry farm saw quite an immediate throng.
Elizabeth's purchases included rolls, goat's milk soap and strawberries, but she weighed all the options before she decided.
I even saw a few kids walking around with clumps of onions and garlic. And I wonder what some of the other parents will think when their child arrives home with tomato and parsley plants.
On a somewhat related note, the opening of our local farmer's markets and the arrival of asparagus and strawberry season led Paul and me to decide to deviate from our usual vegetarian diet and try a month of vegan and wheat-free living. I debated posting about it here since it's just a month-long trial, but since I've spent time in the past talking about our food choices, I thought you might want to see our dinner menu plans for our month of vegan, wheat-free living.
Our menu for this week:
Sunday - Indian Spinach Dip with sliced carrots and peppers and corn tortilla chips
Monday - spelt tortillas rolled up with refried beans, sauteed peppers and onions, salsa and guacamole, Baked Mexican Brown Rice, Strawberry Italian Ice
Tuesday - sprouted lentil "sloppy joes" on spelt buns, with dill pickles and steamed broccoli on the side, Chocolate Fudgy Oatmeal Cookies (in the buns I'm using coconut oil for butter and flaxseed meal for the egg)
Wednesday - tomato-avocado sandwiches on spelt sourdough with green smoothies
Thursday - mixed green salad with carrots, broccoli, cucumber, avocado and sliced tofu
Friday - spelt tortilla rollups with spinach hummus and fresh veggies
Saturday - no plan yet ;)
Farmer's market = success. Vegan+wheat-free = so far so good...I'll keep you posted!
amazing. what an undertaking. I do think, however, we're mainly vegetarians through the summer. how can fresh produce be beat?! (but, as yet I have not discovered a good vegan alternative to cheese...)
ReplyDeleteI hope all is going well!
ReplyDeleteHi, I am an avid reader of your blog, but I don't comment much. But I just wanted to make a little comment about your wheat-free diet. I'm gluten-free for health reasons, and I can't eat spelt anything because it's made from wheat. Going gluten-free you tend to have to depend more on corn, rice, and potato flour and a wide variety of starches and gums. Also, going without wheat robs you of certain vitamins found in wheat. So make you are you getting foods that give you those missing vitamins like B-12, A, and K. I've recently read eating a carrot a day gives you a good amount of B-12. I'm still sorting my way through being gluten-free so I am not expert by any means, but I just wanted to share some of the information I have learned along the way to give you a better idea about going wheat or gluten free. Good luck with this new challenge and I'm already picking up some recipes from you that I will be trying out in the near future. Thank you for sharing this with us.
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