If you’re local (and maybe even if you’re not), you might be interested in following the progress of one Michelle Ryan, a local dee jay who decided she wanted to go as locavore as possible (that is, eat food mostly procured at Market at the Square and the other stuff from local-as-possible sources) for the month of September. She’s on from 9-2 weekday mornings at 94.5, and she also blogs about it at The Farmer and Michelle. It’s been a solid project, plus it’s cool to see Michelle out at the Market with her friend/shopping assistant, figuring out how much they can spend and stay within budget.

Market season is winding down a bit (only 9 Saturdays left), but there’ll be a lot of programming for kids in October. I’ve been really busy trying to finish off this year, but also with planning for next year. I dream in site maps and fancy Word docs at night.

I’m sorry, I just can’t stop looking at it.

It’s gorgeous outside and the kids are still asleep and I’m thinking school starting this week is going to be rough going in terms of rising cheerfully to greet the day. I’m going to roust them out of bed right now.

Really, though, I want you guys to look at the photos I’ve been taking at work these last few months. Not because they’re awesome, but because it’s been a really intense learning experience for me, and fun, and Cody’s been letting me use his camera so some of the photos actually ARE pretty nice:

The Market at the Square blog is up and running. Please broadcast and let people know? Pretty please?



Thanks! More soon.

This waking-up nonsense seems early for the weekend, anyway, but I got my 7.5 hours. So. Here I am.


Yesterday was excellent. After some wicked thunderstorm action Friday night and thick, heavy clouds greeting me at 5 AM Saturday morning as I “dressed” (crazy floral skort, T-shirt, kicks) for “work” (I still can’t believe I get to do what I do), the skies parted and the sun burned everything off by 7:05 AM. I saw friends, took photos, Jim and Lilly stopped by to pick up money for shopping, Cody showed up for a bit, my fears of disaster were unfounded, etc. It was extra-bonus, actually, because I spotted the The Sandwich Life and her family, plus Mrs. Chicken and her lovely Poo, neither of whom I’ve met IRL but recognized from their blogs. Of course I accosted them and probably freaked them out! It is my way!


I eventually ran into N the Future Blogger and we talked C-U blogging. My conversation with her gave me the idea to just start a blog for Market at the Square and transfer the content over if the Market’s page eventually gets some blogging capability, so I did. There’s no content yet. There will be tomorrow, I think. Maybe today. I don’t know.


Saturdays at work are the fastest work days I’ve ever had in my work life, which is extensive. It seems like we’ve just set up when it’s time to tear down. I am very lucky, indeed.


For Veganlinda: The only certified organic strawberries at the Market, as far as I know, are from Tomahnous Farm, and theirs will be more ready for the June 7 Market than they were for this past Market. I recommend arriving early.


I’ve been asked to speak at this series of events:

Continental Drift is an invitation to look at our collective existence on all the relevant scales: the intimate, the local, the national, the continental and the global. Continental Drift is a mobile assemblage of people presenting their projects, observations, experiments, discoveries and questions, and producing value through social exchange. Continental Drift through the Midwest Radical Cultural Corridor is a self-educating tour through our concrete world and its abstract representations, discovering distant lives in familiar situations, and embracing the interdependency that links what is usually treated as separate. Continental Drift is intended for anyone seeking to locate global economies, pressures and possibilities in daily life and to reorient aesthetic invention in response to an ethics of equality.

I’m excited, though it dawned on me yesterday that I’ll be leading a discussion in my neighbor’s backyard about food and localism and DIY food gardens, which means my backyard will be not just visible, but a possible focal point. There are some SERIOUS weeds that need pulling, the tomatoes need some mulch, arugula needs to be replanted, the beets and chard should have been thinned awhile ago, the beans need replanting because something is eating them, I keep forgetting to soak moonflower and cardinal flower seeds and - holy crap - all my squashes and cucumbers germinated. I can’t believe I’m trying to grow them again. I’m such a sucker. Anyway, I’ll be in the yard, and maybe I’ll get some snaps of how things are growing.


There is more - the Blue House of Sustainability and Gardening as Responsibility! - but it can wait until tomorrow.

So - yesterday I set out at about 8:20 AM in search of some whole bean coffee, as we were fresh out. It was lovely outside, and where we live is quite walkable to most things, so I decided I’d take a half hour or so - maybe a bit more if I stopped to smell the flowers - and take a brisk, invigoratingwalk to the local independently-owned cafe and then a local convenience store for the aforementioned coffee and a copy of Cody’s Favorite Reading Material - the Sunday NYT. Because, you know, I am all about supporting the local scene. Easy, right? As I approached the cafe after a delightful walk through my old neighborhood, it dawned on me that the possibility of there being no beans for retail sale was a distinct one, especially since I’d walked and not called first. A weird dry spell regarding beans at this particular establishment had happened before, and it wasn’t pretty when it did (I still don’t understand how a cafe could think it was OK to be entirely out of decaffeinated coffee for over a week). Since I was after fully-leaded beans, however - you know, the stuff regular people drink - there was no way this was going to be an issue. Right? However, I really wasn’t surprised when I walked in and discovered the only whole bean coffee they had for sale was a single pound of decaf. Swiss water-processed decaf, but… decaf. Onward to the next place - the Hippie Health Food Store! Surely they’d be open by my ETA, which was 9 AM as I was on foot and had already stopped to pick up the NYT. The smell of lilacs (which I stopped for several times) was overpowering along the way, bringing my last spring in MPLS (1991) to the front of my brain’s Memory Line. I admired some local architecture as I walked, and cursed myself for not wearing sneakers. It was with little surprise as I approached the HHFS and discovered they did not open until 10 AM. Drat. I strolled through downtown, on my way to the (regionally owned/operated) grocery store to procure doughnuts and some bananas and maybe, just maybe, some coffee. I looked at some excellent shoes in the window of the local high-end shoe store, checked out some Irish pottery in the window of another establishment, and lamented the fact that the Fancy French Bakery was not open on Sundays (it never has been, but I still lamented). Construction has begun on the county courthouse, I noticed, and the excellent maples near one of the busier intersections in town had finally leafed out. I crossed the street and walked past the Giant Coffee Conglomerate, which would have made everything easier, and on to the grocery store. Turns out the cafe in the store actually has better-than-passable beans. I waved to a co-worker who was there, buying orange juice and a newspaper. As I walked toward home, I saw a City Council member, a lot of rabbits, some interesting yard sculpture, my favorite flower garden, and the Blue House of Self-Sufficiency (more on that in a minute). I took a slightly different route at the end of my trip, the better to check out another one of my favorite gardens, hoping to catch its caretaker so I could ask about the yearly bamboo harvest. I heard a great many House Wrens, a bird I haven’t been hearing much over the last few summers, but seems to have settled in my neighborhood in force this year. Mogul Geoff and Hooey Jill were out in their enviably space-efficient front yard with their dogs, so I went over to say hello. After a lengthy conversation about rock n roll reunions, coffee roasting, container gardening, and heirloom seeds, I left their place with 3 packages of seeds (melons and pole beans) and three tomato seedlings (2 of them Black From Tula). Home was less than a block away; I arrived and delivered the coffee, bananas, and doughnuts. It had taken me two hours, but in that time - which went by really fast - I’d done something I used to do all the time but have had little time to do this spring - I observed. I took notice. Most of those places are places I’ve been walking past every day, but haven’t been noticing beyond a perfunctory registering. ****** Fun news from Chank - Wordier Diva and Li’l Diva will soon be available to font nerds/freaks/devotees everywhere. Wordier Diva is a twelve-years-in-the-making re-draw of Wordy Diva, and Li’l Diva is, of course, Lilly’s contribution to the Wordy Diva family. Lilly is hoping to get Li’l Diva into the Artemis Fowl series. Could be an excellent case of like mother, like daughter. ***** Obligatory Market at the Square photo, taken Saturday, May 24: Note especially for locals: the Market now has a Facebook fan page, a Flickr photostream, and a weekly preview page that gets updated the Thursday before the Market. Also for locals: would love to see you at the Illinois Local and Organic Food and Farm Task Force Listening Session in Urbana this Wednesday, May 28, from 7-9 PM at the Urbana Civic Center in downtown Urbana. The Facebook page is here, a link to the (PDF) flyer is here, and I really hope some of you can come and contribute to the dialogue. I’ll be there, too! ***** I was going to keep going, but this is plenty long enough for today. More soon, this time on Motorpsycho, the Blue House of Self-Sufficiency, and gardening-as-responsibility, plus whatever else…

Fresh strawberries, that is: We’re a few weeks out from the true beginning of strawberry season here, but they’ve got them in southern Illinois, and that means one of the Market’s vendors does, too. Today was glorious at the Market - at close it was about 75 degrees and sunny, sunny, sunny. In my own garden: salad mix, spinach, arugula, peas, beets, chard, broccoli raab, pole beans, peppers, tomatoes, onions, and a shit-ton of herbs and flowers. Cucumbers to follow. I made a salad from my own greens last night, but I bought greens today to supplement. In my neighbors’ yard, uneaten and we’re welcome to it: asparagus. I eat it at least once a day. In my DVD player: Season two of Friday Night Lights, which I adore with the force of a million blazing suns. On the docket for my weekend, which started today at 2 PM: some Red Stripe, some FNL, some weed-pulling, some grocery-shopping, some work, some thrifting, some catching up on sleep, and whatever else I feel like doing. I’m only in my interior work space 4 days a week now - Tuesday through Friday - and my office is the great outdoors on Saturday. It’s not a bad gig, I must admit. OK, I love it. Learning to drive: Cody. Ohmygodohmygodohmygod. I know, I know, I need to play it cool. Shyeah. Talk to me when YOUR kid is learning in YOUR car. He is an awesome child, o yes, but the car is somewhat beyond his current ken. He seems to be fine biking everywhere which, with gas being $3.89/gallon where I live, is a good thing. We all biked to work/school last week because it was National Bike to Work week AND because we’re lucky enough to be able to do it. Owner of a new IKEA loft bed: Lilly. Somehow her “new” room is bringing home to me, hard, the fact that she’ll be in double digits this year. For dinner tonight: Jimmy’s Gyros. My husband is grilling the lamb right now, the yogurt sauce is made, the pita are warming, and it looks like we’re roasting asparagus, too. Off to see the dentist next week: me. Good times! What are you all up to? Why is it so hot in Oregon right now? Can I get a situation report?

Thanks to the weather and the plant sales around town, the first Market of 2008 just POPPED. Thousands of people, people. Vendors sold out of stuff, the vibes were good, the teevee news was there (I was not interviewed, thankfully), almost no one complained, and I can’t believe the only crisis I had to deal with was as minor as it was. I felt completely comfortable and like I belonged there. One Saturday down, 26 to go.

I am very swamped these days and won’t be writing much. However, I just wanted to let you locals know that one of C-U’s favorite institutions will be up and running on Saturday (and for the following 26 Saturdays): Click the image for more information. In season now: asparagus, salad greens, rhubarb, early herbs like cilantro, radishes, and maybe a few surprises. You can also pick up meat, eggs, and cheese from vendors at the Market, plus baked goods, arts and crafts, and a musical performer or two. We go from 7-noon! Bring yr mom!

I have a big pile of work on my desk at work, because ‘TIS THE SEASON and all that, but getting any done today was hard. I was consumed with worry for my daughter, who has been sporting a pretty decent fever for most of the last three days, plus juicy cough, plus general malaise (but a decent appetite). I got home from work today and decided to just haul her in to the doctor’s office (fondly known as “Inconvenient Care” at our house) because, well, she had pneumonia when she was a babe and she’s always had some restrictive airway action as a result, and while no one has diagnosed her officially with asthma, I worry about it when she gets sick. I have to be pretty worried about my kids to take them to the doctor, and even more so to accept the doctors’ prescriptions, if any. To actually purchase the drugs… ! So my daughter is on a couple of drugs and is doing better, which means that I might be able to sleep tonight. Which means that I might be able to get some work done tomorrow. Whee! In other news, I really want this Democratic primary season to be over. Let’s get this show on the road.

It was a weekend filled with spectacular misfires (involving, among other things, an altercation with a dog, pampering a feverish child, and a busted water pump) and even more spectacular weather. I got to spend some time in the yard - we cleaned up last year’s unholy mess, moved a literal truckload of compost into the garden beds, and I planted a few things. People, I salivate (I know, ew) at the thought of truly fresh food. The neighbors’ asparagus is up, my greens have sprouted, etc, and after a conversation with one of the Market growers, I think it’s going to be a decent start to the season even though he is, by his estimation, at least a week behind. It’s going to be awhile before I eat anything out of my own garden, so BRING IT, market vendors. So then I went in to work for a half day (when the kids are sick, Jim and I split the days) and everyone wanted me, just like the Billy Squier song says. I guess it IS that time of year, but heavens. I got home and was fretting about my girl child, grocery shopping, and general WHATEVER. I think I ate something for dinner with MSG in it because this is exactly how I feel afterward - crabby, puffy and needing everyone to do my bidding (with ensuing crabbiness when they do not). Farewell, endless Monday.