Straight to the landfill!

That's what I said to canvas tote bag using co-worker of mine today about the container that his Healthy Choice - Caf´ Steamers came in. This meal, which he did describe as being "pretty good" came with a plastic bowl and a plastic steamer basket along all inside of a cardboard package. Unfortunately, my shame tactics couldn't get him to save his steamer basket to reuse as a colander but I was able to get him to save the bowl! Remember kids, you can help save the environment by shaming your friends into reusing and recycling too!

Lazy Sunday in the Garden

It's been a while since I've taken a nap on the back deck, but today was one of those days. The wife and kiddo and myself ended up working in the yard from the time we got up until close to nightfall today. The time change made it a bit awkward, as I wasn't sure what time it actually was most of the day. A lot of missions were accomplished as a result. The rest of the sun flowers are planted in the ground. Once the dwarf flowers are a bit taller, I'll be able to put the mulch in. We also got some new herbs potted, some old ones re-potted and my wife took over two flower boxes and loaded them up with some of her $1 flowers from the target. Up until this weekend, I've been pretty apprehensive about planting anything in the ground due to the continuing cold fronts.

Now a few months ago, I built a small 4x2 area for my experimental square foot garden. Depending on it's success, the plan is to build a couple of raised planters later this year. Of the 8 squares, 3 are now inhabited. Two are onions, one planted as scallions (green onions - 36/sqft), and the other as dry onions (16/sqft). The last square is lettuce (4/sqft) the seeds were from a mixed pack of seeds (fancy greens, if you will). One of the 4 lettuce seemed like it was dying, the middle of the stem was looking sketchy. I risked it anyway, my wife and I both have a few lettuces started that could end up in that spot, worst case scenario. Thus far with the square foot garden, I'm liking the rigidness of the technique. I took the box from the new compost bin and made 4 planting guides and wrote what plants used that pattern right on the guide. Should make it easier to plant in the future, or at least until I know it all by heart.

On a random note, I've been thinking of planting potatoes across the side fence. A friend made mention that they do great in Florida sand. Well that's my whole backyard except the garden, so it may work out. I have a couple of $25 off a $50 order coupons from a few online nurseries, so that may be on the list for this week!

Fermenting Cabbage - Week 1

A week ago I started a batch of what will hopefully end up becoming yummy sauerkraut. From the get go I had issues with packing the cabbage and the first couple of days I ended up repacking due to various issues (I wasn't happy with the original packing job, and the second packing job overflowed).

Since then, the cabbage has been seemingly happy in it's cool dark location. The cabbage bubbled the first couple of days, but has since stopped (or at least I haven't seen any bubbles). My fear is that something went wrong and the batch will have to be discarded. I plan to check up on it and repack it this evening. Additionally, and I'm not sure if this is a good thing, but there hasn't been any scum floating on the top. From my understanding, scum can happen, but doesn't always happen. When it does happen, the amount can vary... so who knows really.

If nothing else, my last packing job has given me a good understanding of how to properly pack the cabbage for future batches.

New Composting Bin

My garbage can turned compost bin has served me well, but it was time for a larger capacity container to compost in. My garbage can was 32 gallons, and the new bin 410 liters (108 gallons!), so it was definitely one hell of an increase. The plan if to continue to use the garbage can to hold the leaves in the yard. I layer the compost and typically cover the kitchen scraps with a layer of leaves (keeps a lot of the flies away) so having a container of just leaves will be very convenient. Once the garbage can is full of leaves, I plan to start bagging the excess leaves to create leaf molds as per Recycle Now.

The box actually seemed a bit smaller than I expected:


Inside there some documents on composting and a free ounce of compost starter:


The bin arrived unassembled in the box:


But was quick and easy to put together:


And hide in:


Here's a shot of the new bin in the old bin's spot, and the old bin in it's temporary location. I told you I had a lot of leaves in my yard!


Just a shot of the new bin in all it's glory!

So that's why the house has been smelling weird today?

Seems my cabbage packing job last night was a little too good. Moments ago, I discovered that the towel that the crock was sitting on was covered in brine. Yeah, that's why the house has been smelling a bit off today. Note to self, covered the cabbage with two plates was only good in theory, as it didn't allow any gas to escape and thus caused a bubbly mess. On a brighter note, it's still bubbling, sauerkraut here we come!

Packing Cabbage for Dummies

So I repacked my stinky ol' fermenting cabbage last night and now feel like I fully understand the fine art of packing & weighting. When I originally packed it, I experimented with just having a bag on top, laying saran wrap over it and pressing it down to create a seal, and then eventually placing a small saucer in the middle and placing the bag over that. The saucer worked out well except that the crock was oval and the plate didn't cover it fully. Cabbage was floating to the top by the time the fermentation actually started, no good. So that's why I opted to repack it last night.

I made sure to pick up some cheese cloth from the store (my wife had advised earlier on that we didn't have but a foot of cloth at the house). Cheese cloth was the missing piece I needed. The cheese cloth can be laid over the cabbage and pushed down while still letting the brine through. I doubled the number of plates used as well, this covered more surface area and kept everybody right where I wanted them. From there I added the obligatory bag filled with water on top. I'm a dare devil, so I didn't double bag, nor did I fill it with brine in case it leaked! From there I draped the cheese cloth over the bag and then covered the whole thing with plastic wrap. I had read that people leave the cloth hanging outside of the container, but that just seemed like trouble since the cheese cloth can pull and retain moisture. I'd just rather the whole thing contained. After that, I covered it with a tea towel and stuck it under the built-in in the kitchen. And now we wait.

Speaking of waiting, my wife threw out another batch of sour dough starter she made. She keeps claiming that it should be "doing more" even after two weeks. I say it needs fed or it's just going to sit there. She's supposed to be purchasing a starter from King Arthur Flour soon, or as I called it "cheating"

Where's my damn recycle bin?

So I was patient with the city and not only waited the 7 business days they suggested, but also an additional 12 days after that. Still no recycle bin. I've re-opened by request with the county, and I'm hoping that they'll get on the ball and get a bin out to me this week.

Speaking of patience, my new compost bin hasn't arrived yet, and there's no tracking information on the website I ordered it from. Kind of frustrating, my current compost bin (the recycled garbage can) is full, and so is my trash bucket on the porch (no place to dump it until the new bin comes). Hoping it will be here in the next couple of days.

Operation Fermented Cabbage in Full Effect

I didn't want to write about it until I started to get some actual fermentation, but I started a batch of sauerkraut Saturday night. It's pretty easy to get started, the proportions are 5lbs of cabbage to 3-4 Tbsp of non-iodized salt (I also added caraway seeds). I used grocery store bought cabbage so I had to make some additional brine water to make sure the cabbage was fully submerged.

What really amazed me was how much water can be pulled out of the shredded and chopped cabbage by pounding it a bit. Apparently with very fresh cabbage you can pull enough water to full submerge it.

The hardest part for me was actually packing it in. I read multiple ways to do it and tried a few different ways on top of that. The issue is, you need to keep the cabbage under the water. If it's exposed to air it will rot. As of this morning, there are a few pieces of cabbage floating on the surface along with the bubbles. I plan to repack tonight and use cheese cloth to help keep the cabbage under the brine. Right now I simply have a plate in the middle with a baggie full of water on top of that. It keeps it weighted down, but since it's in a crock, there's exposed areas on both sides of the plate.

It's been a pretty exciting process thus far, it was great to wake up to bubbles all over the surface, especially considering I wasn't sure if I was doing it right. Only thing I need to do now is get some additional crocks, so that I can return the one I'm using to my wife's slow cooker (no pot roast until I do).

Florida Strawberry Festival

The weather didn't pan out the way I would have liked. Heavy rain in the AM, dropping temperatures and decent wind gusts (upwards of 16 MPH). It was enough to have me scrambling this morning to pull all the plants up to the house in a frenzy. After the ran passed through, the sun came out and the weather warmed up a bit, so we decided to make it to the Florida Strawberry Festival after all.

It was my second or third time going (first time as an adult) and my wife and daughter's first time. Unfortunately, coming on the heals of the Florida State Fair, the Strawberry Festival didn't have much to offer other than lots of strawberries!

Instead of getting your very typical strawberry shortcake (something we can make ourselves) we ended up finding strawberry cookies. They tastes like Fruity Pebbles cereal and were amazing. Unfortunately, we bought the last 3 from the vendor selling them.

My daughter got another chance to be apprehensive about livestock, and I ended up getting a strawberry plant, so all in all a good day. Oh yeah, we got some shirts from the Geico booth that say "This person is an actual Geico customer and not a paid celebrity". How cool is that?

Suncoast Gun Show Craziness

Well, Barack Obama set out to fix the economy and he's definitely done a good job of stimulating a sector that he'd rather shut down than help out. So much so we had to deviate from our plans today because of it. See, the plan for today was to make it to the Suncoast Gun Show to take the Concealed Weapons Permit course. After talking to my friend that was already up there, he was in line for 45 minutes JUST TO GET IN. He missed the class, and we expected the same to happen to us. Instead we took what may have been our first afternoon without our daughter to enjoy lunch at Lee Roy Selmon's, and do a bit of shopping. Fortunately, we did make it to Knight Shooting Sports in Clearwater and signed up for their all day CWP class. It was a bit costlier than the course at the gun show, but for double the money you get 4 times the course. I'm hoping to do my part to stimulate the economy by buying a handgun (had my eye on a Glock 19 for a while now) in the near future. Class is at the end of the month, wish us luck!

State Moving to Deregulate Development

Originally posted by Mariella on Sticks of Fire: a Tampa blog:

Florida State Legislators (just like some Hillsborough County Commissioners) are working to “streamline” — i.e. deregulate — the development industry. State lawmakers want to make it cheaper & easier for developers to build more subdivisions and strip malls, apparently ignorant of the widely reported fact that Florida has 300,000 vacant homes for sale — a housing glut that is slashing property values for all of us and contributing to the economic crisis. The Times reports:

Florida legislative leaders want to make it easier to get permits to destroy wetlands, tap the water supply and wipe out endangered species habitat, all in the interest of building houses, stores and offices. They say streamlining the permitting process will get the economy moving again.

Affecting several counties & cities, including all the urban & rural areas in Hillsborough County, Senate Bill 360, (euphemistically named the “Community Renewal Act”) would:

• eliminate state review of supersized “Developments of Regional Impact” (DRIs)
• eliminate state review of Comprehensive Plan Amendments
• reduce public hearings for development projects
• lower Level of Service (LOS) standards for roads
• eliminate “Transportation Concurrency” requirements

Transportation Concurrency requires developers to ensure that there is adequate capacity on the roads to accommodate the traffic generated by their developments. If the local roads are already full of traffic, then concurrency requires developers to provide the additional capacity needed for their projects by paying for measures like road-widening or turn lanes and traffic lights. Without concurrency, they wouldn’t pay, so WE would have to pay to bail ourselves out of the traffic-jam-hell their development creates, while they pocket all the profits without any responsibility.

Some argue that eliminating transportation concurrency would reduce sprawl by making it easier for developers to build in the urban area where concurrency requirements are most burdensome because the roads have already reached capacity. Of course, this would allow development to overwhelm those already-full roads with additional traffic, condemning the urban areas to traffic nightmares, which is not an acceptable trade-off even if it could prevent sprawl. However, it cannot prevent sprawl. With or without concurrency, developers will always prefer to build in the rural area because rural land is cheaper, and available in large “clean & green” parcels. The only way to prevent sprawl is for local leaders to stop approving it.

Another bill, Senate Bill 630, would put a moratorium on impact fees — the fees developers pay to partially defray the costs of infrastructure required to support their projects. Even with those fees in place, each new house costs us taxpayers $13,515 for roads, schools and other infrastructure. Without impact fees, our costs would roughly double, while developers would be able to make more money selling cheaper housing, further lowering our home values — enriching developers at our expense.

Meanwhile, developers’ lobbyist Frank Matthews is up to his old tricks, pushing also for the elimination of local environmental protections like our EPC provides. (Sticks readers may remember Matthews’ role in our local battle over wetland regulations.)

Let’s pay attention to which of our elected officials are pushing to shift more of the costs of development from developers to taxpayers, while paving the way for more sprawl that will only destroy more natural resources and worsen our housing glut.

Both bill 360 & 630 were introduced by Sen. Mike Bennett, of Bradenton. These bills are barreling through committees which include all four Hillsborough Senators: Ronda Storms & Arthenia Joyner have both voted “yes” to 360 in committees; Victor Crist, Charlie Justice, and Ronda Storms will soon review 630 in committees. All our lawmakers will eventually weigh in on all this so tell your representatives what you think now. The Lt. Gov. sidestepped Wayne Garcia’s questioning on this topic, so we had better help educate him and our Governor as well.

I’ve drafted a sample letter with contact information you can use to send your thoughts to Tallahassee. You can also ask your county commissioners to lobby the state against deregulation, and let them know we don’t want county growth controls & environmental protections weakened either. 1000 Friends of Florida has posted an informative alert calling on citizens to oppose SB 360.

Unless we can persuade our legislators to work for the public good, we might as well skip these middle-men and pay developers directly. Hey, maybe we could just pay developers NOT to ruin our communities, our economy and our environment.

Instead of passing all this legislation to toss out our development controls, which will end up costing us all a fortune anyway, it might actually be better for each taxpayer to just write a check directly to every Florida developer, bypassing the part where they destroy our natural resources and dump a bunch of cheap housing in our neighborhoods that (if it ever sells) would only clog our roads with too much traffic until we handed over the money to pay for more road lanes.

My Libertarian tendencies are all for privatization and deregulation of businesses and commerce and what have you, but not at the cost of the tax payers. On top of it all, I can't believe that the legislators feel that building more homes is a good thing when we currently have 300,000 vacant homes across the state. I've sent off my letters already, fight the power!

Recovering from drinking around the world at EPCOT on my birthday

Yesterday was my birthday, and I wanted to drink around the world in EPCOT. The challenge was 11 drinks starting at 11 am. Come to find out, there's an additional "outpost" bringing the number up to 12. That's for next year though, I only made it to 10, and I'm attempting to recap from memory, which is fairly fuzzy as of mid-afternoon yesterday:

1. Canada: Skipped, too early for Moosehead
2. United Kingdom: Boddington's on tap, 20oz (this was a mistake later on, as my stomach can only hold so much liquid)
3. France: Kronenbourg 1664 (12oz)
4. Morocco: Casa Beer (12oz) with lunch at Marrakech
5. Japan: Aged Sake, can't remember the name (2-3oz)
6. America: Seasonal Budweiser Brew, draft, not sure of the size
   
7. Italy: Lemon slushie thing
8. Germany: Red Wine (2-3oz) and a picture with the guy in lederhosen (mistake, should have had beer in Germany, but was seriously good wine)
9. Outpost Pavilion (Walt apparently didn't feel that Africa should be properly represented in the World Showcase) I was going to get a drink here, but it was taking too long, I was way too drunk to be waiting in line. On a side note, the entire Sherman tribe rocked out on the drums...
   
10. China: Very full at this point, went for a smaller portion in the Plum wine (2-3oz)
11. Norway: Beer of some sort, not sure what size
    
12. Mexico: Dos Equis, not sure what size.

Needless to say, my birthday rocked. We ended up on a drunken shopping spree in downtown Disney after I tried to sober up with some yummy McDonald's cheese burgers (always better when you're drunk). My wife was very accommodating to say the least. No one was hurt, except my wallet and I'm still surprised that I didn't need to purge at all. Granted I did end up needing to pee at just about every country past Japan.

In hindsight, this attempt at drinking around the world wasn't very planned. I mean, we knew where we were going, but it would have been better served by planning out what to drink along the way and not getting anything too large. There's already talks or trying it again on my wife's birthday (her this time, not me) and I'm already planning for February 23rd, 2010 when I will be drinking around the world, and then some (+1 for the Outpost Pavilion). I'll just have to keep training until then ;)

The Sprout Adventure - 5 days later

It's absolutely astonishing at how fast these little buggers grew. They grew so much that they were pushing the sprouter open after only a few days. I'm not entirely sure I agree with the seed measurements that the Sprout People recommended as the containers were overflowing so early. Perhaps I read the directions wrong, I re-read them a few times because I wasn't so sure about it, live and learn.

After soaking the seeds in water overnight on Monday, the seeds were placed in the sprouter Tuesday morning. Since then I have been punctually rinsing and draining the seeds 3 times a day (morning before work, evening when I get home from work, and night time before bed). It's definitely paid off as of Thursday I was already harvesting a small amount of alfalfa and clover sprouts (perhaps prematurely) and a small amount of the mixed batch of beans (even more-so prematurely). The biggest reason for early harvesting of the alfalfa and clover sprouts is that they were the main offender for pushing the lid off of the sprouter.

Thus far, we've been pretty inventive with integrating the sprouts into most of our meals (mostly as a salad topper), and there have been some epic failures as well (specifically the PB&Sprouts I made for lunch). Unfortunately, we haven't made Phở in a while, so the bean sprouts weren't utilized to their full potential. When I finally detox from all these sprouts and decide to grow some mung beans, I'm planning on making sure Phở is on the menu at least a couple of times.

I'm curious to see how well the sprouts hold in the fridge, I made sure they were dry before packing them (as per the directions). Not sure we'll be able to eat them all up before they go south, worst case scenario the compost bin should be happy with the bit of variety :)

Day 1:

Forgot to take a photo of the seeder

Day 2:


Day 3:


Day 4:


Day 5:

Recipe: Carpaccio with Sprout Salad

Thought I'd share a recipe from Alton Brown's Good Eats for Beef Capaccio. I've made it a few times now and it doesn't disappoint (even though the butcher's mangling of our tenderloin did). The original recipe can be found here.

One thing this recipe doesn't mention is quickly pan searing the roast before placing it in the freezer. Yeah I know, Carpaccio's supposed to be raw, but with the paranoia of today's consumer, it's better safe than sorry. Quickly pan searing all sides helps to kill off any bacteria that may be on the outside of the meat (surface area is typically where all the buggers are). I also find that after pounding it out, the meat has a more dynamic aesthetic with small ring of cooked meat around the edge (it's like the pink ring found on smoked meats). You can omit the searing if you'd like, if not, get out a heavy (preferably cast iron) pan, and heat up a bit of extra virgin olive oil (medium-high). Salt and pepper the meat on all sides (I'm pretty liberal with the salt on this particular dish). Quickly sear all sides (a minute or less on each side, even the ends). It shouldn't take much time to cool, and you proceed with the plastic wrap as per the original recipe.

Because we've had an over abundance of sprouts this week, I opted for a alfalfa salad instead of arugala, and because we had some left over aged provolone that was used instead of Parmesan. In addition to the sprouts, I added some carrots and green beans. I tried something different with the green beans, I used the vegetable peeler to create thin slices (ribbons?). It turned out surprisingly well.

My wife topped hers with a drizzle of olive oil, and I used a drizzle of Balsamic vinegar. We don't make 4 servings the way the recipe suggests, in fact, I just wing it when it comes to the amount of meat. It was about 3-4 inches of the tenderloin this last time. Keep in mind the sliced pre-pounded beef rounds were very small considering the crap cleaning job the "butcher" did. Still bitter, I suppose. From now on we're cleaning the meat at the house, at least if we mess it up we can learn from the experience.

The Great Urban Race and the Value of the Grocery Store

So we decided to hit up the Ybor Farmer's Market up the road from our house instead of driving all the way to St. Petersburg this weekend. Everything was great until we got closer to our destination. People dressed up like it was Halloween. Folks running around with no regard of the fact that folks were trying to commute while they blindly jaywalked. No parking near the market. So after walking 5 blocks from the parking garage I finally took notice to what was going on, the Great Urban Race. It's some sort of urban scavenger hunt it seems. No harm, I suppose, but it did add a level of craziness that I was hoping to avoid by staying local for our produce today.

Speaking of scavenger hunts, I came across something that could have been completely fantastic, but was completely quashed by my wife. So the produce vendor was selling cleaned pineapples, and over by the garbage can was a box full of pineapple tops. I already have one pineapple plant in a pot, and another that is soaking in water until it's root's form (which hasn't been going that well). I thought, "holy crap, that's a lot of free pineapple tops!" My wife's reaction was "I don't think it's right to dig through the trash take them". Well first and foremost, the tops were next to the garbage can in a box. Additionally, they were obviously garbage, and were obviously going to end up in a landfill with the cardboard boxes. Sadly, no free pineapple tops for me. If anyone else out there is looking to start a bunch of pineapple plants, I do recommend hitting up the Ybor Farmer's Market for the hook up.

After the farmer's market we ended up at El International Meat Market on MLK Blvd. Now I've been here a few times before to get beef tenderloins, and I've never been let down. Well until today, I suppose. The tenderloin we purchased was fairly small (15$ at 5.99$ per lb) which was fine, we're not the biggest folks. The sad part was how mangled it was, most of the meat ended up going towards sandwich meat since it was sliced open and not really capable of being used for fillets. I was able to salvage enough for a small carppachio dish and 3 steaks. Again, very disappointed. But hey, we can vote with our wallet and never set foot in that establishment again.

After that we ended up at Publix for what was going to be a short trip for a few staple items. Now here's a testament to the grocery store. Even though we've been shopping at the farmer's markets for produce and specialty markets for just about everything else, we were still able to spend 100$ at the Publix. Granted, part of that was dog food and charcoal, but those are still items that you can't find at the smaller markets. This experience has made me re-think my "no more chain stores" kick I've been on. Perhaps we can start making our own dog food?

Recipe: Cucumber Salad with Alfalfa Sprouts

So we've had more sprouts than we've known what to do with this week, so I've been getting inventive. Peanut butter and sprouts was a pretty significant failure, but I felt my cucumber salad turned out exceptional. It's a take on a recipe that my mother used to make, with the addition of sprouts and some fresh herbs (something I don't remember too much of growing up):

Ingredients:

• 1/5 peeled cucumber, thinly sliced
• 2-3 green onions, chopped
• A small handful (6 or so) of cherry tomatoes, chopped
• A small bunch of alfalfa sprouts (1/4 cup-ish)
• A sprig of fresh basil, rough chopped
• 2-3 sprigs of fresh dill, chopped
• 2-3 Tbsp of sour cream
• Salt & pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Combine ingredients in a bowl
2. Cover and refrigerate
3. Enjoy!

It's a pretty single recipe that packs a lot of fresh / cool flavor.

The Sprout Adventure - Unpacking and Setup

My package from Sprout People arrived yesterday, very exciting times. I documented unpacking it and setting it up with the first 2 batches of seeds. They had to soak overnight, so this is basically day one and day two.

Day 1 - Unpacking:

1. The goods arrived in a cardboard box with a bunch of non-biodegradable packing material, the contents included the Kid's Sprout Kit, 1 pound of mung beans and documentation on growing and care of the sprouts:
   
   


2. The Kid's Sprout Kit contained some kid friendly documentation, 4 pre-measured sprout mixes, a magnifying glass and 2 tiered sprouter.
   
   
   
   


3. After deciding what two packets to start with (Moo Mix and Beanie's Mix) I gathered two bowls and a measuring cup.
   
   


4. Emptied the contents into the bowls
   



5. And added 1 cup of cold water to each bowl and stirred up the mix gently
   
   

The beans soaked over night on the counter...

Day 2 - Setting up the Sprouter:

1. I forgot to mention that I covered the bowls with plastic wrap the night before
   
   


2. The next morning revealed that the larger beans soaked up almost all of the water
   
   


3. I proceeded with washing out the entire sprouter with warm soapy water and hand drying it
   
   


4. Next came loading the trays with the seeds and rinsing them. The seeds need to be rinsed 2-3 times a day and all of the excess water removed by shaking and tilting the tray around
   
   


5. Final step for the initial set up was to assemble the sprouter and wait...
   
   

Milk as a Fungicide?

The ornamental rosemary Christmas tree I bought for my wife last year started to show signs of powdery mildew recently. I did my internet research for both the causes and treatment / cures. I was surprised to read some of the bleak forum posts that the only way to cure it is to remove it from the dirt it's in, wash the roots and plant thoroughly and then replant in fresh dirt. Seemed a bit extreme, or maybe I'm just overreacting. After researching topical treatments, I opted not to use anything with bleach in it, as it's an herb we often use in our cooking. Baking soda was going to be my pick until I came across information about using milk. Seemed interesting enough, so I loaded up a spray bottle with 1 part skim milk and 9 parts water. I read about many different proportions, ranging from 1:3 all the way up to 1:9. Figured is 1:9 doesn't give me any results after 3-4 days I'd try a higher concentration. One ray of hope I read is that often times the plant needs to be dried out and the powdery mildew will simply go away. Considering the amount of rain we received a few weeks back, and the fact that some of my larger pots are still drying out, it made sense. Unfortunately, it looks like it's going to be cold again this week, hopefully the sun will be shining bright.

Florida State Fair and Education System

We ended up going to the Florida State Fair today. We planned to go next weekend, but the Fair ends on Monday. Our sole purpose for going was to see Florida agriculture and livestock as opposed to riding any rides or scarfing down overpriced fried goods. The weather shaped up pretty well, it was expected to rain early afternoon around 2pm but didn't start raining until after nightfall.

One of the highlights of the trip was a young [assistant?] principal of a local magnet school trying to sell us on the benefits of a public Florida education. It was cute, she seemed to really care, but was a bit surprised when we told her we were going to be pursuing home schooling. Luckily it was a family day or I would have laid into her with some Libertarian ideals about the freedom to choose and the dream of a free market education system that thrives on private, not government funds. Again, it was family day and there was no time for that.

To get on my rant about Florida education, we have billboards all over town for the Florida Lottery and their 900+ billion dollars to education. Pretty big number, huh? Now with a number like that, you wouldn't expect teacher's salaries being cut or at best staying the same (no cost of living increases). Couple that with the educational hindrance that is the "No Child Left Behind" act, public education is at it's worst. Even though so many people are anti-free market policies right now because of the current face of the economy, they are still policies that work, if willing to let themselves out. Unfortunately, big government America isn't big on riding out the waxing and waning markets, no one should ever suffer or have it bad (sic).

Not just education, but everything can benefit from healthy competition. Look at private schools, the best ones charge the most money, and have the longest waiting lists. Why? Because they are the best and people know it. The government intervention contributes to a form of "trickle-up poverty" when they try leveling the playing field so that the best stuff is available to the worst candidates. Quality decreases because there is no reason to do better than the next guy. Take universal health care in England or Canada. Google the horror stories, there are plenty of them to read.

Kinda went on a tangent there, back on topic: no public education for my child, not until conditions improve (if they ever do).

Valentines Day Craziness

Even though it was Valentine's Day, our Saturday routine didn't deviate much. Farmer's market first, then Mazzaro's Italian market, and finally the Great American Natural Products for some dried spices. Even though the routine didn't change, the company and clientele did. My wife's aunt was in town so her and my mother-in-law met us out at the farmer's market. What was astounding was that my mother-in-law knew very little about the largest farmer's market in the south east, even though she lived in the vicinity. We live all the way in Tampa, so it's a 20 mile hike to get there (worth it for the selection). The other thing that astounded me was that she treated it more like a carnival than a place to get vegetables. Nothing wrong with that, but now my sister-in-law wants to make it out as well, and I'm assuming she's going to treat it the same way. It's just astonishing that people can have a great place to get produce right in their backyard, and they opt to be taken in by arts and crafts and not even pick up a couple of carrots or onions or something. Just seems like the whole point was lost.

Next came Mazzaro's Italian market. I love this place, but every week I find myself growing less and less in love with it based on the crowd. The crowd is beyond insane on Saturday's (and apparently Friday's as well). Valentine's day was a bit more over the top considering everybody that doesn't celebrate love all year round had decided to make a meal with "fancy" ingredients. Speaking of the Hallmark holiday, I did get my wife flowers delivered a day early on Friday the 13th. A conversation with a co-worker about the matter really put the holiday into perspective for me. He said, "I don't do the whole getting flowers thing, because it's so cliché. We're going to celebrate the holiday the way it's supposed to be treated by making a nice meal together and enjoying each other's company." Just peachy if you ask me, except there's a slip in that story. So you're only cooking the meal together because it's Valentine's day? The Hallmark holiday will continue to have relevance while people still have the desire to do something that they usually wouldn't do on that day. Albeit getting flowers, or spending time with a loved one, or what not. I do that year round for the most part, maybe not the flowers part, but we cook meals together and spend time with each other and as a family. So back around, the Italian market was a bit too hectic and started me thinking that we should try out the Tampa Bay Steak Company or one of the Italian / Spanish / Organic food store's in Tampa instead of Mazzaro's in St. Pete. The other alternative would be to have my wife hit Mazzaro's during the week, but that's an extra trip over the bridge I'd rather us not be making. Come summer time the Saturday Morning Market will be closed, so setting up an alternative now would be smart, and save some gas!