The Marietta Square farmer's market is the furthest from where we live, which is why we've only been to it a couple of times and just in the last few weeks. 

In fact, being open during the winter is new for this market. Skye and I braved pretty cold weather to make it to their second showing.
Cindy and I headed over in spite of there being tornado warnings and rain. Apparently the market was more practical than us and decided to not open.


This last weekend was perfect weather and the three of us all went for a lovely family outing.

Here's Looking at You Kid

I only noticed that I was the subject of a photo as I was clicking off a pic myself.

There were several vendors that we knew from the Decatur market who I mentioned in my last post, Johnston Dairy Farm,
Deep South Mushroom Co., and  Besmaid Garden Essentials, that were giving the Marietta Winter market a go.

Pure Bliss-Here There and Everywhere

We have quite a history with Pure Bliss Organics: Artisan Granola, Energy Bites and Nuts .

We first discovered them when we went to our first market here in Atlanta, over at Morningside.

When I was at the Peachtree Road Market, I ended up with a comment and picture on their Facebook page.
"Jon Danniells from Los Angeles says Naughty But Nice Bites are his favorite Pure Bliss Organics product. He likes the bite-size portions and thinks the taste is wonderful! ."
And somehow, I'm not sure of the history exactly they winded up as one of the vendors in the Costco in the movie Cindy was on, Neighborhood Watch.
Once again we crossed paths. I am actually snacking on "Fired Up Nuts" right now.

Jamaican Me Crazy

"Welcome to Mo’ Mint & Thyme, producers of fresh, all-natural mixes and marinades and home of the popular Mo’ Mint Premium Mojito Mix."
They offered me a taste of the mojito mix, delicious. then the Ginger Zinger, incredible, and some Jerk seasoning, amazing. "I'll take one of each", none of which lasted very long at the house.

The goats milk Ancient Awakenings makes their Kefir with they get from the Robinson Family Farm. We already had our milk and eggs, so I opted for the rabbit.
Skye and Cindy protest until I offer them a taste of the finished dish and then their omnivore instincts return.

Jalopy Jelly

A sucker for jalapenos and good labeling, well the Jalopy Jelly Peppers that I got from them has both and is not too hot to chop up and throw on a salad or into a stir-fry, which I've already done on more than one occasion. 

There are of course a bunch more vendors, some which we got some amazing goodies from and others that we have yet to taste, but I have already gone on too long again, or hopefully just long enough.

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I have put off blogging about this topic for far too long. It's felt overwhelming. I don't know where to start or how detailed to be before becoming boring. I suppose that is the writer's constant dilemma.

If Only Sophie Had These Choices

I have discovered in my months living in Atlanta that there are many local farmer's markets to choose from. My "favorite" has changed with the seasons and for a variety of reasons. The first market I went to was the Morningside Farmers Market which was down the street from where we were living at the time and the one Cindy had heard about.

I would end up regularly going to the Peachtree Road Farmers Market, East Atlanta Village Farmers Market, Piedmont Park Green Market and Decatur Farmers Market, just to name a few.

Each trip would be an adventure of one sort or another, meeting new vendors and hearing new stories and trying all sorts of goodies. One huge difference between the farmer's markets of Atlanta and those in LA is the changing of seasons and thus the change of foods. There is a little of that in LA, certainly, but it doesn't compare to what it's like here.

While it has been amazing to see real seasons and its affect on my culinary endeavors, it also highlights another key difference between here and L.A. The farmer's markets themselves are seasonal and one by one, they have almost all closed for the season.

So while there were a dozen vendors with lots of great stuff, it was around a tenth as big with relatively little selection.

If you wanted eggs, you went to the one stand that sold eggs and if he was out, you were out of luck.

This was fine, because at the time I was visiting other farmers markets and so always had more than enough to choose from.

Now it's fine, because I've been learning to do with a lot less and make due with what's at hand. This has "forced" me to experiment with stuff that I used to avoid, like beets and cabbage, which now I love.

A Few Shout Outs

This is the part of the blog where I feel like how people who win Academy Awards must feel, the part where they can't figure out who to thank and in what order, not everything else.

I've had so much good food, shared so many stories. It is impossible to relay them all and would end up being about as interesting as the droning buzz of a beehive.

Johnston Dairy Farm
Most all the vendors at the markets are pretty nice. But the guy we get our milk from is super nice and a real character. Some of his jokes might miss the mark, but he always succeeds in putting a smile on my face.
Skye has been taking a lot of great photos recently, this however is not one of them. Our dairy man is the one in the blue cap.



_

A Fun-gi 

Okay that was a bad pun, but in this case it holds true.

I often get "stuck" at the mushroom guy's stand,Deep South Mushroom Co. because we both have such a passion for mushrooms. When he found out that I had actually had heard of Paul Stamets  and had his book, he knew that he could use more technical terms and such. Talks on foraging and growing methods followed.

We have had so many amazing mushrooms and meals thanks to this guy.

Also, one of my latest facebook friends, so know I actually know his name now. So thanks again Taylor, a.k.a, mushroom guy for all the wonderful goodies from the Third Kingdom.

Give Me Some Chuice

I couldn't not mention Chuice, since I've gotten Cindy addicted to the stuff.
I use it as a meal replacement or when I need a boost.
Chuice is raw food in a bottle! DescriptionMade fresh daily from more than 45 fruits, vegetables, herbs, nuts and seeds, Chuice is packed with proteolytic and fibrinolytic enzymes, which aid both the digestive system and the immune system.

That's my Chuice card. I highly recommend it.

Chia Pets and more

Who knew chia seeds did more than make green sheep. Over at Tia's Chia she bottles and bakes with the magic seeds.

Doug's Wild Alaska Salmon brings to market amazing and delicious sockeye salmon that he and his sons catch up in Alaska.

Produce from The Funny Farm, and Besmaid Garden Essentials have ended up on our table and in our bellies.

And there are so many more, like I said too many to mention and so sorry to those who I may have forgotten.

It's All About Me......Except All the Time When It Isn't

As I looked over my various blog posts of the past, I realized that for a website/blog titled Jon of All Trades, I don't often speak of my main "trade",  that is being the primary "educator" to our 13-year old daughter. Part of this might be because when I first conceived of blogging, back with "Where in the World is Jon" I had made the decision to write about me and where I was geographically, physically and mentally but that I would leave Cindy and Skye out of it. I would respect their privacy. For better or for worse, I regularly expose myself on my blogs and facebook in ways that many others wouldn't. However as time goes on I realize daily how much of my life is informed, guided and influenced by my two girls.

Our Free Range Child

We decided to home-school twice. Once, before Skye started school, and then again after she had been in school for a few years. Again for better of for worse my Jon-of-All Trades style has guided Skye's education. That will be a topic for another post or so.

This is a story of one afternoon, yesterday to be specific.

I had decided the day before which had found us running all over the place both figuratively and literally that we were going to stay home and put our nose to the grindstone. We took a "recovery" yoga class which had me finding all sorts of aches and pains from the week's adventures. I most definitely needed for the day to be a rest day. Until Tony showed up to the no-gi jiujitsu class that followed yoga. The chance to roll with two black belts was too tempting to resist.

Skye and I went back to our condo which is in the same complex as X-3 Sports, the gym that has become our home away from home and will be one of the things I miss most about Atlanta. I quickly changed clothes and gave Skye her "school" work, which included such academics as science and math, some writing and reading, and a little history, but also I asked her to cook up one of the salmon filets we had got from the farmer's market the other day.

When I got home a couple of hours later Skye was busy in the kitchen. The house smelled amazing. She hadn't done much of her other school work but she had put a lot into her passion, her cooking. She had gone to the store,(Savi, a wonderful neighborhood market some hundred yards from our abode, another thing I'll miss). She had done a little research on the internet, looking up Chef Gordon Ramsey for tips and inspiration. And then she came up with her own sauce that she cooked the salmon in but also doubled as an amazing salad dressing.

She did this all with ease and poise, with a sense of self that was full of purpose and creativity. It was one of those occasions that made me feel like I was doing something right, in regards to her "education" .

As she was cleaning up the kitchen after her salmon masterpiece, I told her that I would finish up and to hit the books.  I started doing the dishes and cleaning up the counter, but when I got to the pan she had cooked the salmon in I couldn't bring myself to just wash away all the flavor that was sitting in the oil and juices that remained.

So I decided to saute some of the mushrooms that we got the day before at the farmers market. Before I knew it I was adding beets, carrots, cabbage.

Cindy came home to a wonderful dinner and a very happy family. We ended up all walking back to Savi to treat ourselves to a couple of their home made cookies.

                                                              It was a very good day.

What in the World is a Fitbit and Who Are You Again?

I admittedly live in a bipolar world, literally, figuratively and metaphorically. And the Fitbit is a perfect example of my life of constant dichotomies.

I first heard of Fitbit from Oldtime Strongman Training, a blog/website that I get updates from and I might add introduced me to Indian Clubs and Dinosaur Training. 

As intrigued as I was by the product, I shelved it. I already had too many similar products or apps or on another note was completely opposed philosophically to this TMI/navel-gazing approach to "well being" in spite of my infatuations.

And then a friend of mine, albeit a facebook friend who I knew through my wife, who knew her because she married one of her friends from her college days.....I'm teasing to a degree.

Actually, I "know" this person fairly well even though we have spent little time together, we connect on lots of different levels and I trust her.  She lives in San Francisco and Vermont and as far as I know would have no knowledge or interest in Indian Clubs or Dinosaur Training.

So when she got the Fitbit as a present and posted about it and said it was pretty accurate, I decide to take the plunge.

_Oh Yeah, What's a Fitbit?

Fitbit is-- "The Fitbit Tracker uses a three-dimensional accelerometer, similar to that in the Wii Remote, to sense user movement. The Tracker measures steps taken, distance walked, calories burned, floors climbed, and activity duration and intensity. It uses an OLED display to display this and other information such as the battery level. It also measures sleep quality: how long it takes the wearer to fall asleep, how often they wake up over the course of the night, and how long they are actually asleep"

Not A Review

Like so many other things, Fitbit is great if you use it in the manner it was designed.

When I remember to use it to record my sleep patterns, it is incredibly accurate. Not so much when I fall asleep on the couch for a couple of hours while its recording how many steps I take.

Its amazing in its detail as to how many steps I take and how many stairs I climb and my general movement in the course of the day, if I remember to put in my pocket and take it with me, otherwise, I come across as quite the coach potato while I am engaged in circus acrobatics(literally) and running all over the place(literal and metaphorical).

And I'm sure if I used the multitude of tools it has, and logged in the stats as recommended I would learn a lot of "helpful" information.

But on some levels, I'm pretty lazy, or maybe just overwhelmed or not as fascinated with myself as I thought.

That said, I think these stats are pretty impressive,

18807 steps taken 145 floors climbed

• You have climbed: The Empire State Building

15.28 miles traveled 4213 calories burned

All in a good day's work;

Tangled in Technology
When I woke up yesterday, I had determined that I needed to focus on one goal, I was way too Scattered.
I decided to go for a trail run. After flipping through 60 Hikes within 60 Miles-Atlanta, I opted to go with the only run I'd actually done before, #59 Sweetwater Nongame Wildlife Trails.

I also wanted to test a couple of wearable, point-of--view cameras I have. One is the V.I.O. which I've had for several years now. I've used it once and have been frustrated by its complexities on numerous occasions. I've read great reviews on the product and it does seem to be pretty amazing, if I were to devote the smallest effort to using it, alas I want my gadgets to be super easy and super user friendly, that is my flaw, not the products.

After struggling again with the chest harness for the V.I.O., I gave up and turned to my new toy the GoPro HD Hero 2. It seemed so simple to use, it had to be too good to be true.

I was beginning to get upset that I couldn't get out of the house and out for a run. Finally I collected my techno-gadgets; an Iphone, the GoPro, a Sony Walkman, my Olympus digital camera, the Fitbit, somehow I still managed to forget my Garmin-Forerunner 305, leaving me with only 2 GPS devices to track my mileage. At least I would have 3 digital camera devices and 2 MP3 players with me. (I listened to music for all of 30 seconds, opting for the rain, the forest, and the sound of my footsteps)

I slipped on my Vibram 5 Fingers and headed out to go and be at peace in nature.

_  Transitioning as the Norm


Today is the last day of principal photography on the movie Cindy’s been working on for the last six months. At this point, we have another six weeks give or take a few days before we hit the road and head west. That could change by the end of the day, tomorrow or in a week.  We really don’t know. All we know is that our lease in this particular condo in Atlanta is up in 45 days.

Nomads

So we will be moving, we just don’t know if it’s down the street or across the country. That can make packing up a bit challenging. And since I am the principal packer of the family, I’m beginning to feel a bit under the gun.

Add to that, that the end date of the Personal Trainer accreditation course I signed up for is also coming up quickly and I have been a typical student in putting off my studies until the last minute. You’d think I’d learn by now.  

Did I mention that I bought a Groupon Dive Certification class as well?  It was a deal too good to pass up and I rationalized that it was a work expense as well as something I have been meaning to do forever. No time like the present, unless of course the present schedule is already pretty full.

And of course, there’s this blog, which I was determined to keep current with and now am having a writer’s block of sorts. It’s not that I can’t come up with anything to write about; it’s that I have too much to write about. I have 8 posts that I have started and each of them interests me and well……

Be Careful What You Wish For

X-3, the fitness center that has been a God-send, or whatever the atheist alternative would be, was already wonderful before Helio “Soneca” Moreira, arrived.  He is a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu legend and an incredible instructor. He has torn apart my game and built it back up. I have loved training and learning under him, which doesn’t make leaving any easier.

When we first got to Atlanta, I quickly found a place to continue our aerial arts training. Not only did the Circus Arts Institute teach trapeze and silks, but they added the Spanish Web and rings to our aerial skills as well bringing in juggling, tight-wire, balance boards and best of all hand-balancing, something I’ve always been interested in.  We have had an incredible time there, learned a lot and made some good friends.

In the past week, in large part because of connections through the Circus Arts Institute, we have discovered the Kinetic Hive,  a “space for workshops, classes, and events that is dedicated to community, collaborative learning, physicality, participatory fun, inspiring each other, and play.” The place is literally a 10 minute walk from our condo. So far we’ve played on silks there and started doing acroyoga, very similar to hand-balancing. The energy of the place and its concept are so in line with where my head is at these days.

 

So Why Are You Moving?

Atlanta has been really, really wonderful to us. And we certainly would not regret more time here. That said, the reason why we’ve been able to be here is that we’ve decided that it’s more important for us to be together as a family than to have a more permanent residence.  It is different, one might say radical, but it is the solution that makes the most sense for us right now.

Stuff

I am still sifting through things from our last move. We continue to acquire things, which is normal, especially when you do what we do for a living. 

Figuring out what we might need, or more accurately want, what we won’t miss, what to jettison, what to ship and store, what to haul around with us across the country is an interesting puzzle, to put it in the mildest of terms.

And the physical stuff is really the least of it. We’ve become part of the community here. We’ve become regulars at our favorite restaurant, Barcelona, which is literally a stone’s throw away. The farmers at several markets know us. Skye has made a several friends here; some home-schoolers, some circus, some from the “burner” community.

Cursed

“May you live in interesting times” a supposed Chinese curse, has become our norm.  And though at times it feels like a curse, more often it feels like I’m living up to one of my favorite quotes:

"But then they danced down the street like dingledodies, and I shambled after as I've been doing all my life after people who interest me, because the only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn, like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars and in the middle you see the blue centerlight pop and everybody goes ‘Awww!’ “
Jack Kerouac, On the Road

 

WE ARE DINGLEDODIES

I admit it, on certain levels, I am a label junkie, I do love and appreciate marketing at times.

Although at times I take this to the extreme....


I loved this label so much I missed that it was barley wine ale which I am practically allergic to.

But wow, what a great label.

I love ginger ales and penguins, problem is or isn't, that's a kingfisher, on closer inspection, regardless a great label

Shout out to Tito's

go local or go home

Austin Rocks

again I agree, to a point......

I love labels for the artistic aesthetics,I abhor them for their limitations.

That's why I love farmer's markets.

  Berry Coconut Kefir

Go Local wherever you are

http://ancientawakenings.net/

More farmer's market fair, so yummy

but the kicker is they slide this pint into a paper back and it looks....

you either get it or you don't

100% Juice

That is great, right...?

From concentrate from, Argentina, Austria, Brazil, Chile, China, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Turkey, and the US.

What does that even mean?

Beyond comprehension or common sense

Again I agree to a point, not really go tap/ local or go home.

I still like the marketing bit, kind of

I have saved a bunch of dollars and maybe shrunk my carbon footprint a bit.

Water, I'm afraid will be the next oil.

More fun from the farmer's market, and again, like a broken record,
What's a record?

Never mind,

so  Yummy, sweet and spicy

smokes trout from norther GA

they had salmon, too, but from farmed Atlantic stuff, yucky, danger

one must be careful, “Danger, Will Robinson!”

Of course they're from the farmer's market, at this point doesn't that go without saying?

but where is the label that shows that they are organic, or grass fed or ....hard-boiled...

Sometimes labels do good, a lot times they mess things up, sometimes governments abuse them and sometimes we where them like a badge of honor or shame, labels are what we make of them

A Foot on Each Side of the Fence or Pasture

There are people who only know life with computers, to many the internet is like electricity, it's always been there, at the flip of a switch. There is another group that look at computers as something foreign and incomprehensible, who remember when going from black and white to color was breathtaking. And there are those in-betweeners like myself. I studied computers when I was in 5th grade and MS-DOS and floppy discs were the wave of the future.

I was never a techno-geek, more of a poet-lit geek so I didn't give that class the time of day.

Duty Calls

When I started leading for the set-dec department on movies, TV and such, at the youthful age of 23, I started integrating several things into my repertoire that were considered "excessive" at best, a waste of time, and not at all what we were supposed to be doing. I did tend to ruffle the "old-school" guard regardless of how much respect I tried to bestow on them.

I bought a mobile phone when they were the size of suitcases and the calls were a dollar a minute. I was tracking my budget to keep the accounting office honest, now it is assumed we are tracking it, in fact, a position that didn't exist back in the day, a set-dec co-coordinator manages that now. And the internet, yeah, I was on it when every search would end up being 90% porn, no matter what that search was.

AND though my beginnings were with PC, I bought a Mac because it was so much easier, and I didn't need all the programs PC had to offer. All I wanted were easy, computing and Apple gave that to me.

Shit DOES Happen

Until I went out of the US, on an island literally. I was in St Maarten on a movie, Speed 2, (haha) and there were no Apple Genius' there. People knew and understood PC, Apple was for those Hollywood types.

I ended up throwing my MacBook across the office and vowed never to go back.

Game Changer
I have always wanted music around me, especially when doing something ridiculously mundane, like working out or running. I have purchased practically every personal music playing device from the first Walkman cassettes to the Discman to well, you name it and I either bought it personally and gave it a run through or knew someone who did.

The Ipod basically came to the Monopoly game we were playing, threw the board and all its pieces and tokens and such up in the air and said, "I'm the new Sheriff in town"

Ibullshit!!

I was a convert. This device, this platform was awesome.

I bought the Shuffle which was great until it broke and I bought another one which was great until the Shuffle 2 came out and I bought that and then...

To make a long story short Apples' built-in obsolescence was a little too obvious for me. And I continued to buy-in despite that. That's how much I loved and appreciated the product. I had Shuffles and Shuffle 2's, working and not working, accessories, all over the place.

I Love Music, I Lose Music

I have spent more time and money than one can imagine putting together and keeping a modest library of music.

As I have admitted and stated, I am no technophile. I do okay but...

A Long Way Home

After downloading, backing up, etc, etc. Apple has finally given us the cloud and more importantly, Itunes match, which puts all of your music up there in the "cloud" to grab at your heart's content.

Robin Hood to Myself

I have paid, at least once for every song in my library of around 2000 songs and counting. That is actually a ridiculously modest number because of all the CDs I have in LA that need to be uploaded.

I want to pay artists for their work.

If I can buy the CD from a person and thank that person for selling me their work, their craft, I am a happy camper.

Being able to access something I have rightfully paid for is nice.

So Far So Good

I have been on the Imatch aspect of the cloud for less than 24 hours and so far so good.

Why did it take so long?

Any relation to planned obsolesce?

At this point, I'm caring less and enjoying more.

LOVING LIFE ON THE ICLOUD

I would say that I'm on the verge of obsessing over our family's garbage/waste/refuse, if I wasn't painfully aware of having gone overboard long ago on the subject of waste management.

Particularly when it comes to the matter of wasted food.

When I came across Jonathan Bloom's book, American Wasteland, and website, wastedfood.com, I became even more committed to my goals of less consumption and waste.

_
Now, being in an apartment, where I could conceivably have a worm farm and would if we weren't subject to move every few months, and even then I have contemplated(very briefly) taking it on the road with us, now, I have been forced to be much more careful with my purchasing patterns, which has been a very good and eye-opening practice.

But as careful as you are, there will be food waste and by-product. The "pesto" I made from carrot greens while being again an "interesting" experiment was not a recipe I would pass on or use again, so once more the tops of carrots find there way towards a waste bin.

Notice how I don't say garbage.

What I do these days with the carrot greens, egg shells, moldy bread, apple cores, banana peels, etc. is throw them in a plastic bag in the freezer and when the bag or sometimes bags get filled up, I take them to whole foods and dump them in the bin of compostables, which always gets me an odd look or two.

It's just one of the many transitions and changes in our every day life, since becoming semi-nomadic.

Everything Else

Our house is cluttered, much to Cindy's dismay with "garbage" waiting to be re-used, re-purposed, or disposed of properly.

Egg cartons are lined up on the top of the kitchen cabinet waiting to be returned to our poultry people at the farmer's market.

A variety of jars and plastic containers get rinsed out and reused. We have empty boxes of all shapes and sizes.

We have way more stuff that goes out to recycle than "garbage"

I was inspired by Kamikatsu, a small community in the hills of eastern Japan, that aims for "Zero Waste".  Residents there have to compost all their food waste and sort other rubbish into 34 different categories.

To us that might seem like a pain to them its become their normal.



Don't forget to click on the links if you come across something of interest.

I'm sure I'll do more trash-talking in the future, but I have to run, literally.

How Would You Spend Your Last Days on Earth.....I Mean Atlanta?


Apropos of nothing, besides all that defines me on so many ridiculous levels, I signed up for this very silly race, Run For Your Lives. "an apocalyptic 5K obstacle race. But you’re not just running against the clock — you’re running from brain-hungry, virus-spreading, bloody zombies."

Now this on its on its own would be incredibly irrelevant. However given that it's the weekend before we move out of our condo in Atlanta and then off to who-knows-where gives it relevance.