Saturday Morning at the Market

So I'm going to immediately start off by saying:  Please excuse my picture overload!  I couldn't help myself!  The Farmer's Market was just so full of good energy, bright colors, and interesting people!  In every corner there was a beautiful selection of strawberries, or a unique angel flower plant that is hard to find at generic commercial super stores.  Everything looked so amazing through the camera's eye I couldn't wait to take them all home and see how the colors and shapes translated into compositions.

Supporting local businesses and producers has become quite trendy with the use of hashtags such as #shoplocal or #eatlocal, and therefore making it more convenient as well.  Greensboro has the amazing Piedmont Triad Farmer's Market that has several buildings, providing ample space for produce, shoppers, and merchants.  My favorite perk of shopping at the market, is that almost everything there is perfectly ripe and picked fresh from the garden that morning or the night before and with everything being organic, you can munch on snow peas as you shop!

At most booths you can actually talk to the person who's devoted their time to growing and harvesting the veggies you're buying.  You can ask them questions about a plant you want to buy or they can suggest their favorite recipes to enhance the tomatoes they're selling.  Having an interaction with the farmers gives a whole new experience to selecting produce and that connection adds a little more excitement for me to take my goodies home and decide what to use them for!

Beyond just fruits and veggies, our market has a vast variety or locally grown herbs, flowers, and unique plants for sale.  You can find homemade bread, jams, and wine.  There is even a honey stand and a carnivorous plant booth!  My favorite stand both in produce selection and visual display was from the Swathmoor Family Farm.  As "committed stewards of the land, animals and plants, all of which sustain us, they are trusted neighbors to our customers who value similar attitudes about sustainable living".   You can check out their great website here.   It's always uplifting to meet friendly people involved in the local community who are striving to make it a better place.  As I've gotten more excited about the local scene and in consuming more local products, it's nice to know there's a refuge like the Triad Farmer's Market that gives back and strengthens the community. 

My goodie bag, which I was so proud of myself at remembering to bring my reusable grocery bag, was filled with tomatoes, snow peas, four new little succulents, a hot pink elephant ear plant that is perfect for my shady porch, and a bouquet of vibrant fresh flowers that I spread out into five vases and spread through my apartment!  I can't wait to go back to the farmer's market next week, since I already have my eye on some homemade banana nut bread! 

80 Years of Family

This weekend I was happy to be an event photographer for Lindley's grandmother's 80th birthday party!  Her family hosted it at Table 16, located in downtown Greensboro, which was a perfect atmosphere for gathering together to celebrate!  

With a handmade stand displaying various flavors of cupcakes and a selection of bite size appetizers, the food and wine added to the casual elegance of the party.  Photographs throughout the decades were scattered on the tables partnered with a "What Happened in 1933" fun fact sheet.  Her grandmother was surrounded by family and friends, including two girlfriends that she has known since the first grade!  Can you imagine being able to stay in touch with someone for almost 75 years?!  

The entire afternoon was full of love and joy, as people reunited with relatives and family friends. With laughter and small talk, I felt so welcomed.  It was so nice to spend time around people who exuded kindness and good karma and who were enjoying the moment with the ones they loved the most. 

Pomegranate

I've always heard how amazing pomegranate is for you, and I've seen it as a smoothie flavor and in different juices, but I've never actually bought a pomegranate and opened one to see what the fruit looked like.  Over Thanksgiving break, Dad had picked up a few from the grocery store for us to enjoy together!  They even came with a brochure on how to cut out the fruit.  I was kind of surprised to see what was inside, even though I've seen pictures, it just never occurred to me how small the edible pieces, or arils, would be since the pomegranate itself is rather large!  Dad and I had a blast sharing our first pomegranate, which is such a great fruit for the holidays with its sweet flavor and vibrant red color!

So here's how to buy & open a pomegranate for the best results!  

-Choose a pomegranate based on weight not color, the heavier the fruit the more juicy the arils will be.

-Serving options include salads, yogurt, oatmeal or just simply by the handful!

-Store in the fridge for up to 10 days of delicious fruit!

Step 1: Cut 1 inch off the top and the bottom.

Step 2:  Score the skin at each section.

Step 3: Separate the sections underwater.

Step 4: Loosen the arils in the water.

Step 5:  Scoop out the floating membrane.

Step 6:  Strain & Enjoy!

Lexington BBQ Festival

          This past Saturday was the 29th annual BBQ festival in Lexington, NC, which is only 30 minutes or so  away from Greensboro.  So Vlad and I decided to venture over and check it out.  I had been once before several years ago but this year's seemed bigger than I remembered.
           The streets of uptown Lexington were stacked with vendors side by side, selling everything from decorated coolers to homemade BBQ sauce.  Face painters filled the streets with kids who had vivid faces of pumpkins and tiger stripes.  Rodney Adkins and Dustin Lynch were just two of the artists who took the stage, playing so the entire festival could hear!
          The food cart menus listed everything imaginable....deep fried.  With more variety than the fair, there was deep fried bacon, deep fried butter, and deep fried cheesecake.  Not including the usual funnel cakes, blooming onions, and the general food that is known for its deep fried qualities.  Of course, how could I forget to mention the BBQ stands!  Hot sandwiches or trays filled to the brim with a combination of sliced BBQ and red slaw, paired with a side of homemade curly fries for a southern treat only found in Lexington.  It's events like these that attract a more than interesting crowd, that reminds me just how southern North Carolina really is.

This year's gigantic sandcastle design

Look who we found!

The Davidson County Beekeeper's Association Booth Display

The Candy Factory

          The Candy Factory, which had a line to get in, is such a fun place to explore!  It's a time machine selling retro candy that can be hard to find now.  It's vintage decor and knick knacks create an atmosphere of times past and it becomes a candy playground with barrels of licorice pieces and cinnamon swirls, walls of jelly bean jars, and windows of chocolate fudge displays. I could have stayed for hours taking pictures, but with it so crowded and out of respect for others waiting to get in, I only got a few!