Sustainable Ballard

I skipped yoga tonight and instead carted home ten pounds of produce from the Ferry Building market I ran to this morning. As I was carrying back my overstuffed canvas bag, complete with leaking nectarine and flat lettuce I realized I've crossed a threshold as I was also carrying five pounds of tomatoes, a dozen figs and a basket of candy like cherry orange tomatoes in a clear plastic bag as if it were a Sunday morning in Marin and I always shopped in a skirt and high heels. People left and right were checking out my tomatoes. I returned their smiles up California Street loving the day. Come to find out I had a blue stud like sticker on my upper ear. A co-worker said, "I thought you were getting racy on us."

Stocking up today was a relief after visiting the Ballard market in Washington on Sunday and having to restrain from getting anything beyond blueberries, which I couldn't stop eating. I loved the Ballard market with hillbilly musicians, flourless chocolate torte, the sweetest lavender man anywhere, ever, period and mushrooms straight from an episode of a Saturday night thriller. There was salmon jerky, blackberry honey, worm casting soup. There were funny finger radishes, runny cheeses and for the first time ever at a farmer's market, a belly dancer.

I met a woman from Sustainable Ballard and promised her a mention here about their 100 mile eat local challenge starting tomorrow. Her enthusiasm was contagious, we shared a high five, instant sisters and today I checked out the bay area locavore site to make sure I wasn't missing anything for our September 1, start date and then I started to worry and list all the things I won't be able to eat.

Worry aside, I'm going to watch how Ballard does it. They're leading the way!