The farmer's market by bike

I rode my bike to the South San Francisco farmer's market today. Most of the farmers don't have signs so it can take a bit of looking to figure out what's what. Here's what I bought.

from Calderon Farms in Hollister:

• 3 ears of corn
• 2 zucchini (~18 oz)
• 2 broccoli stalks (~19 oz)

from Berry Licious in Gilroy:

• one small box of raspberries

Both of these farms are certified organic.

Here's a quadruple bottom-line.

• Money - $5.50 total ($3.50 for the vegetables, $2 for the raspberries)
• Food miles - ~85 miles for the vegetables, ~70 miles for the raspberries
• Time - ~35 mins (about ~10min bike ride each way, about ~15min at the market
• Taste - excellent (esp. the raspberries which are one of my favorite foods)

One (or the other) every day

There are two daily habits that I would like to get into. One is riding my bike to and from the train station on my way to work. This involves 9 miles of riding between morning and evening and isn't too difficult, except for the last segment in the evening (about 1.5 miles) which is uphill and always against the wind (sometimes a very strong one). The other is bringing a lunch to work rather than eating at the cafeteria. The cafeteria is fairly healthy since I usually have a salad with only balsamic vinegar as dressing, but still. Bringing food from home would be better since I would have more control over it. If I choose to, I can bring in some (hopefully in the future all or mostly) local and organic food. This is what I would like to be eating. Who knows how far the veggies in the salad bar have traveled in pollution spewing trucks and/or airplanes. Either of these changes would also save me money since the cafeteria food is expensive and the alternative to riding my bike is a trip on the local subway system (BART), and they don't have monthly passes.

Since these are new (at least for this year) and require some extra time, I'm going to do one or the other each work day depending on which is more convenient or desirable that day. For tomorrow, packing a lunch is the obvious choice since I have meetings from 11AM-2:30PM with no lunch break. Tonight I cooked some lentils and spices. Since I couldn't find a matching Tupperware top and bottom, I'm going to transport it in a old pickle jar. We have more used glass jars than we can possibly use as canisters, so why not? My co-workers will probably think I'm weird, sort of like their reaction upon learning that I don't own a car.

I'll let you know how it goes.

Seed collecting

The end of spring really is here. My farewell-to-spring is in bloom. This is the last of the major types of annual wildflowers to bloom in my garden. I've been collecting seed from flowers that came and went earlier in the season especially redmaids and meadowfoam. I've collected hundred of seeds. In a few weeks I'll be able to collect from the California poppies. I have a lot of seed pods, but they are still green. Someday, I may start up a little hobby business selling native plants (I'm frustrated by how few stores sell them). In the meantime, most of the plants will probably go into my garden until all the grass is gone and the plants are as dense as I'd like them to be. It's nice to have time on weekends to do things like this.

Unfortunately, the dandelions are everywhere and I'm so behind on pulling them. I'll try to pull a few each morning and evening on my way in and out, but I'd not know if this will be enough to keep up with this obligation.

Food waste, food miles

We had a celebration at work today with free lunch. I packed up a small fraction of the extra food for afternoon snack and lunch or snack tomorrow. Most of the extra food got thrown away. What a waste.

For those concerned about food miles and how much fuel usage and carbon emissions goes into the food you eat, consider this. The most energy efficient food you'll ever eat is what's already in the building and will otherwise be thrown away.

Oops

Sometimes carelessness is the mother of consumption. Usually I focus my gardening efforts on clearing the weeds around my wildflowers or watering my broccoli seedlings, but this week I've been trying to conform to the expectations of my suburban neighbors by mowing my lawn. I've never used a lawnmower myself, since I'm generally allergic to grass; but I gave it a try and all was going well until suddenly it stopped. I had run the mower over the cord and cut it in two. Fortunately, it just needs a standard outdoor extension cord, not some specialized part that they decide to discontinue in order to force you to replace the whole thing. So today, dear husband brought home a brand new extension cord. Alas, purchases sometimes happen despite my best intensions.

Business clothes and printer cartridges

I made it through both the business trip and printing my taxes without buying "new" stuff.

I went to Cartridge World and got the printer cartridge re-filled for about half the price of buying a new one. The IRS prefers that people file electronically, but most people have to pay extra to e-file. Therefore, I fill out the PDF-based forms on the IRS web-site, print them out, and send them to the IRS where they pay somebody to type the information into their computers. What a waste of paper, time and money.

I managed not to buy any new business clothes either. I noticed before the trip that the VP that I would be traveling with also uses a laptop backpack, so no need to feel self-conscious about that. We would have two days of meetings with the client so I packed the two shirts I own that I feel confident are sufficiently professional (button-down long-sleeved shirts with real collars) and one spare shirt (more causal but good enough for work). Dressing for the first day was no problem. However, in ironing my shirts I discovered that the second collared shirt had a spot on it right in the middle near the buttons. I knew from the first day of meetings that we would be meeting with some of the same people the second day and that people at the client company dress more formally than at our company. So I didn't want to wear the same shirt and the more casual shirt wouldn't be appropriate. I considered buying a new shirt for the second day. I almost justified it by thinking that having only one shirt that I can wear to meet with customers isn't going to work, so I would need to buy another one at some point anyhow. However, if I waited until I got home, I could get one at a re-sale store. If I bought a shirt on short notice I would almost certainly need to buy new. Fortunately, I also had a white cardigan sweater with me and it had been quite cold in the meeting room. I decided that I would wear the shirt with the spot with the sweater over it and I would keep the sweater buttoned. I did this with no problem.

A week later I had a local meeting with a different client. I wore the un-spotted collared shirt, but I noticed a very small spot on it, unlikely to be noticed by anybody else. I had the sweater with me, but it was too hot to wear it. The clip-on visitor badge they gave me to wear covered it up very well. Now that I'm back home I can look for some new-to-me business shirts at a re-sale store, when I find the time.

Too dependent on technology

Our inkjet printer cartridge is out of ink. Yesterday, when my husband and I were in the city we tried to get it re-filled. We went to a Walgreen's that, according to their website re-fills inkjet cartridges. They did have a machine to re-fill cartridges, but after at least 10 minutes, they decided they it couldn't handle ours (an HP #26). We tried a Comp USA about a block away, but the woman at the information desk said that they don't re-fill cartridges or sell re-furbished ones. When I get back from my business trip, I'll try Cartridge World. Hopefully, they can re-fill it.

In the meantime, I have a one-page letter that I need to send. I typed it on my laptop and since I couldn't print it at home, I printed it at the office. Tonight, I tried to prepare it for the mail, but I couldn't find it. I looked around the house for it and I started getting worried. I thought about whether I could wait until after my trip to send it. It took about 15 minutes of searching before the thought occurred to me that I could write the letter by hand.

It’s funny how we forget the basics sometimes. Fortunately I have very readable hand-writing.