18 Pounds of Cherries!

There's just something about getting a lot of fresh fruit and spending hours prepping it to be cooked or canned. It was a big part of my childhood, and it made a big impression. I have dreams all the time about Gram's house- the heat of the kitchen and the endlessness of the back yard with all of its fruit trees & vines, turning the gardens in the spring or picking fruit and veggies in the summer with Uncle Joe. It was the biggest yard in the neighborhood, and it was paradise. I'm sure when I die it's we're I'll be.

Back to Oakland, where yards are few and far between but fruit and veggies are plentiful at the markets... In Chinatown yesterday, cherries were about 89 cents a pound. One of our favorite shops was selling them by the case even cheaper! Knowing what was going through my head, Jess wasn't too thrilled about the idea, but 18 pounds of fresh Washington cherries for 12 bucks?! Even though she was refusing to help with getting them canned, I couldn't help myself...

Last night I pitted a few quarts worth, then prepped them in syrup made from honey from my hives and a bottle Steve and Angie McDaniel gave us as a going away present (Steve was our wedding photographer and is also the Maryland State Beekeeping Association's President... he and his wife Angie are dear friends of ours... and he's partly to blame for my getting into beekeeping).

It took all night, and there were still about 6 quarts left to be pitted and jarred! This morning, even though she didn' t help, I made Jess some french toast with preserved cherries on top. TASTY STUFF!!!

So after we got home this afternoon from our friend Susan's granddaughter Daisy's birthday party (she's three!)...

...I recruited Steve from upstairs to assist with the task. It was a sly move - I gave him a jar of cherries first, and then asked if he'd be interested in helping out! We chatted a bit and got them done within about 20 minutes (not without some splattering, which I'd warned him against).

The fruits of our labor...

So, since I gave away most of my canning jars before heading West, I'm now trying to find new jars through Freecycle. If that doesn't pan out I might be heading to the store tomorrow. Meanwhile, while enjoying some chocolate ice cream with cherry preserves on top, I put ads on Craigslist and Freecycle asking for jars in return for a jar of cherries! A great way to finish off a great weekend...

Why China ain't all bad...

Now we all know that James is the more frugal of this pair (except when it comes to percussion instruments and aquatic enclosure paraphernalia), but since we've moved here and everything from rent to gas to eating out is twice as expensive- I've jumped on the cheapo bandwagon a bit more. If I am ever going to get the chance to stay home with our yet-to-exist offspring, I've got to start living on half of our income. So when James suggested we check out the Chinatown district in downtown Oakland on Saturday morning a couple of weeks ago, I decided to give it a try. I know what you are envisioning: fish heads,knarly old-dead finger-looking ginseng roots and veggies from half-way across the world whose names are written in Chinese and whose purpose is uncertain.

Well........there is a guy selling fish parts out of a cooler, and the delivery guys with their live moray eels in garbage cans, and all of the eastern medicine shop owners do sit outside with huge boxes of ginseng that can be bought in bulk (why? what for?) and there are some things there that I have no idea how to prepare.

Mostly, however, there are farm-to-table fruits and vegetables that come right off the trucks double-parked in the street. You can buy perfectly ripe produce for about 30cents per pound cheaper than at any grocery store, fish fresh from the morning catch, and try new things that you'd pay a premium for anywhere else (like lychees!). Nothing is "presented" to you on market shelves with packets of dip and other culinary "suggestions" nearby, but if that means I don't have to pay more- I'm willing to use my imagination!

I was hesitant at first, but now I get an absolute high wandering through the shops, amidst a mass of bustling Asian folks, getting anything I want with only $20. Now, while I am perfectly happy shopping in the Whole Foods (known here fondly as "Whole Paycheck") buying my fig-stuffed salmon pancakes and chipotle dingleberry sauce, and while I adore walking through the organic farmer's market down by the Lake buying $8 organic, hydroponic, chilled-water-washed, heirloom tomatoes, nothing can hold a candle to the pure joy of having purchasing power when it comes to food! Check out our $10 and $20 bounties from the past two weeks!

The Wacky T'backy

Forgive me if my typing's a little off- I still have a headache from last night. It's not exactly a hangover (I only had one beer), and I didn't miss my caffeine. No, we're thinking it's from something a little more potent. Last night we went to a concert in San Francisco. And what a cultural experience it was to observe... Scratch the photo on your screen to the right and take a whiff. Yup, that's the smell of a crap-ton of marijuana.

Now, we're not perfectly straight-laced people- we've been to Ben Harper and Ziggy Marley concerts. Heck, in 10th grade James came home one night reeking from the fumes of an ocean of people and drugs on the floor level at a Red Hot Chili Peppers concert.

Back East you might go to a venue where thousands of people are jammed shoulder to shoulder, pods of whom you might observe sneaking hits from a joint once in a while. You'd have to look really hard to figure out where that funky smell of BO and dog shit was coming from... the BO usually gave a hint as to what kind of person to look for.

Here though, it's a big g-dam hippie-puff-n-pass fest. You'd think they were selling the stuff in cartons from behind the counter at Walmart.

And that's probably not to0 far down the road... Only in California can you legally get yourself "prescribed psychedelics" from the back of a street paper. "Bunyons bothering you? Toke a bowl! Having trouble breathing? Get high! Call a therapeutic consultant! Over 80 varieties! Operators are standing by!"

Not that there's anything wrong with it, but some people who go to concerts aren't into veggie shakes, tofurkey, and weed, and they don't necessarily want to have an ethereal experience while getting their cancer.

We prefer to get our cancer from good, old-fashioned char-broiled beef and pork. At least BBQ doesn't smell like poo. And, last I checked there was a public smoking ban in this state. So, to all you tofurkey-tokers, save it for the commune.

This is why I like my job...

Not only do I get to drive a Prius at my job, I also get to work with people like Michael Charnofsky. Michael was one of the first Naturalists I met at East Bay. It happened by chance just before I hopped my plane back to Baltimore the week of my interview- Michael was leading a group of kids in removing ice plant, an invasive succulent, from the dunes at Crown Beach. I happened to be walking through the park after checking out an apartment nearby when I saw a bunch of kids ripping the plants out of the ground and gleefully tossing them into huge piles (I quickly recognized the behavior from my own work removing water chestnuts with kids on kayaks in the Gunpowder River basin, and stopped by to see what they were up to).

Jess y James headed down to Crown Beach this afternoon after the 4th of July parade in Alameda. Michael was there with the rest of his Crab Cove crew, and parked out front was my Prius, which Michael had borrowed to make a float for the parade.

It's got lots of trinkets of historical significance (like the roof-top model of the rollercoaster that once stood where the Crab Cove visitor center is today, and a popsicle and a snow cone- both of which are claimed to have been invented there in Alameda).

Jess and I spent the remainder of the afternoon navigating the bus system and exploring by foot. At the end of the day, tired and ready to board the bus that was coming up the block, we were pleasantly surprised when a little white Prius stopped in front of us to offer us a ride... it was Michael, who drove us home in style!... Check out the license plate and the decal!



(It was just serendipitous that I had my Lorax t-shirt on too)

We're Official!

With a day off in observance of the Fourth of July, we headed to the DMV. We find it odd that in a state whose governator is threatening to close its parks to balance its budget, the DMV was actually open and fully operational on a day that most businesses were closed.

Based on the short lines, it was pretty apparent that most other folks in need of paying their driving privilege taxes didn't know they could take care of their civic duties today either. We were in and out pretty fast, but not before taking our License Exams! Yes, in order to get a license here, even if you've had one in another state, you have to pass a 40 question multiple choice exam, which while it would seem easy for those of us who have been driving since our teens, was actually more challenging that you'd think...

For example:
- Do you know the legal blood alcohol limit in California?

- Do you know under what circumstances it is OK to smoke in your car?

- What is the proper thing to do when you see an emergency vehicle coming up behind you?

- Under what circumstances should you dim your high beams? It's all pretty straight forward, right?

James schmoozed with the workers, bragging about our DMV Supervisor Dad. And in the end, we both passed the test and got our new licenses and plates... And Dad, you can be proud knowing your son officially got fewer wrong answers than his wife

Off the record, whern we got home we discovered that the test examiner neglected to count one of James' wrong answers, so we actually tied at 90%. We didn't get any of the same questions wrong though, which (aside from demoralizing DMV workers nation-wide) has two scary implications to consider:

Either 1...
Our combined knowledge of road safety makes us invincible drivers- canceling out each other's faults, so long as we're in the car together we can do no wrong.

...Or 2:
We are going to continue the long genealogical line of back seat drivers in our families...

SCARY THOUGHT!!!