Pepper Place Visit

We got up early, at 10 am and left by 11 am. I think the produce market closed at noon, not sure. 

 Pepper Place

"Adjacent to the historic Sloss Furnaces National Historic Landmark, Pepper Place is the link between the redevelopment of downtown Birmingham to the west and revitalization of the old “streetcar suburbs” of Avondale and Crestwood."

The other markets that take the SFMNP card sort of faded early. So, I had $35 left on my card and was determined not to lose the benefits left--$35. I researched all the markets, large and small. I decided to go the Pepper Place. 

Oh My Gosh!  

It was like a huge carnival. There were guys playing music, stalls with handmade items. food booths, produce booths, just everything. I sent Tommy out with my card and his walker. I was in an apartment parking lot on the periphery of the Pepper Place. 

I did get the benefit of sights and sounds of a tiny bit. I was lonely when Tommy left. I cracked the window and heard wonderful music. People were out in hordes carrying away just a tiny, decorated pumpkin to huge bags of produce and bunches of flowers. This spurs me on to get a scooter to ride on. I called a friend who lives in Birmingham and had a great visit. 

He came back and he did shop, not just pick up stuff at one booth. He brought 1 lb. raw, unfiltered honey, 1/2 pint blackberry jelly, 1/2 pint pepper jelly, and six beautiful tomatoes. He threw in $1 because my card ran out. As we drove away, he commented that there were a "hell of a lot of persimmons." I would have wanted some of those. Yes, I will get a scooter soon. I had told him get whatever at the booths,, just get tomatoes. So, he did both. 

Next January I will apply again. This program is in almost all 50 states. 

He brought back a brochure with something about disability services from one booth. Tommy said they wanted to talk with him. He told them he was so tired that he just wanted something to take home and read. So, they let him go without further talk. He did bring me the pamphlet. 

We stopped by Publix for milk for both of us, bananas, and something else. I took a nap when we got home. 

About 6 pm, we installed the skeleton into a lawn chair in front of the ramp. I tied skeleton and chair to ramp. Tommy put his hand into the air, waving at passersby. His red glowing eyes are on until we turn them off. I would love a remote! 

He had dinner and now is having pepper jelly spread on bread.  I will have a very small amount on cracker and cream cheese--one cracker only. Tomorrow, I might have some blackberry jelly on toast and butter. 

Overall, it was a great Saturday. I did wake stuffy and hurting in sinuses. One Hall's Mentholyptus took care of all the congestion and pain. It appears I will make it through the worst month of the year for my sinus health. It makes me deliriously happy.

The weather was beautiful, high 80s, sunny, and, of course, dry.

 Edit: Tommy was amazed there were a few thousand people instead of a few dozens. He was amazed there was so much for eating right there--sandwiches, homemade popsicles, pastries, etc.There were even dish tubs with water and ice cubes for dogs. 

Farmer's Market

After the lunch on Tuesday,  I had time to stop by the Farmer's Market at 1 pm before it closes at 2 pm. Most of the people were gone, sold out, or tired. I wanted tomatoes, so I will have to go back Thursday.

However, I did get two Better Boy tomato plants and two cayenne plants for $1 each. Plus, I bought $2 worth of red and white sweet onions. So, I spent $6 and brought home four plants and onions to eat.

I have lots of seeds, but never got them planted. I decided to just buy plants from Lowe's, but they were almost $4 apiece. At Walmart, they were not much cheaper, still almost $4 for two plants.

After trying a taste of the honey, I now want a biscuit to eat with it.

Honey chokes me. A taste of honey, honey on toast, Bit-O-Honey, Baklava or Greek honey cake. I am not sure why. I seem to be the only one choking when I am eating honey or anything containing honey!

The beekeeper said a person only needed to eat 1 tsp honey per day to reap benefits for allergies. So, this will be a test.

Wednesday? I had my hair cut at a beauty shop for the first time since August 2016. It feels good to run my hand through it since it has been butchered. I finally grew out most of the 3" ezbf cut instead of the 1/2" I asked. Yes, I cannot let it go.

Does anyone else choke on honey?

The Birds and the Bees

why can't I center this?

Forgot about the birds. This is all about the bees. BEES! This church has the most interesting programs.

Today was the lunch with a program at a church.  A beekeeper was the program. First the menu:

two butterfly chicken breasts with something delish on them, a blend of spices
largest butter beans I have seen in a while
fried okra
cake squsare, one layer with dab of Cool Whip on top (he gave most of the whip to me)
salad with strawberries
roll
unsweetened tea

Of course, I gave all the fried okra to exbf. He offered me a few butterbeans. Lunch was great. After I took two bites of the salad, my stomach heaved and I almost passed out. I managed not to empty my stomach! A sudden allergic reaction is the only thing I can think of that would have caused this. Since last night I have had a severe case of hives that I cannot explain. I spent the rest of the day dry heaving.

The women who decorate for these meals do a really good job, trying to have a theme for the program. Today, all the paper placemats were bright! yellow. A black napkin was laid catty corner on the yellow placemat.  On top of the black napkin was a yellow bookmark with a black ribbon at the top and a bee stuck on the front.

Every table had flowers and a container, glass or galvanized, with 6 honey sticks and a huge bee and flowers. Our table had a bright yellow and black striped metal container. Another had a yellow watering can, yellow with black polka dots, about six inches tsll. A honey stick is a tiny tube of honey. Strewn on the table around the centerpiece were 6 tiny pieces of candy--Bit-of-Honey.

I thought of Kylie when I saw the decorations. The yellow and black stripes on the centerpieces make my want to paint something with yellow and black stripes.

Do you remember Bit-O-Honey? I ate lots of those today. At the end of the program there were door prizes. All the bookmarks had a bee stuck to the front, the puffy stickers on a sheet. Two of the bookmarks had a bee on the back, also. Those two people were the winners. Their reward was a box of Honey Nut Cheerios. Fun!

Everyone received a 2 0z glass bottle of his honey. Nice.

This guy works a regular job, so he only has about 160 hives.  He eats honey every day, is 85 and looks 60. He says it is the honey.

Do you buy honey from a local beekeeper? Do you like honey? How do you use it? I like it on buttered toast. The price here is $12 quart or $8 pint. What is the price you pay.

This Honey Bear Is NOT Honey

I was given a Honey Bear from Aldi, their brand, Berryhill. I assume all honey bears are not honey.  The label convinced me otherwise. THEN, I saw the honey bear label had an expiration date.  Aha, I was correct. I am positive real, pure honey has no expiration date! Pure honey never spoils. At this point I was absolutely convinced the honey had been filtered of all pollen. If the pollen has been filtered out, it is not really honey.

Naturally, I googled Berryhill and found it mentioned by name as filtered honey. Other companies besides Aldi's have been implicated. This ARTICLE lists other chains than Aldi's that sell honey that has the pollen filtered out.

Some honey has other things less expensive added. So, beware. The reason that honey has the pollen filtered out is that honey is regulated. Foreign honey can be located by the footprint of the pollen. China honey is imported illegally.  It can be traced if the honey is filtered.  Besides, it may have substances you do not want in your food.

(The honey bear pictured actually is empty. I did not want to picture a brand and have to argue with the company.)

Money is the root of the illegal honey trade, the smuggling. Meanwhile, the consumer is cheated and overcharged. The person assuming he or she is eating a food that is healthy is overpaying for a food that is not what it seems.

I wrote this post last week. Today, I was in a store I rarely go into. I happened to go buy the honey displayed and backed up.  Altered honey is clear not murky like honey really appears. This was from  a local honey person, if you can call North Carolina local. However, it was murky and not clear. That made me happy even though I was not going to purchase it.

I buy my honey from a person in the country, someone I know personally. Do you buy honey from the beekeeper? Do you buy it with a store label or from a farmer's market?? Did the article help you, give you any information that will help you to determine what kind of honey to buy?

Busy Tuesday

It started Monday night when I flew down to WM and purchased a pkg. of boneless, skinless chicken breasts, came home, washed out the crock pot, and put on the chicken with seasoning, onion, celery, and bell pepper. I thought he was coming Friday, so I was behind now that he was coming on Tuesday.

Around midnight, I took the breasts out of the refrigerator and turned crockpot on low. It simmered all night. Tuesday morning at 8 am, I scraped and cut 2 lbs. of carrots in the crockpot and ate the onion I had put in with the chicken. An onion was breakfast!

Two red potatoes were eyed and put in with the carrots. I didn't feel like putting in more carrots. About 3:30 I added more potatoes and the squash to the crockpot.

Exbf arrived about 9:30  and I got in his vehicle. He drove me to bank and to Publix to get a2milk. Back home, I put the milk in the refrigerator. Back in the car, I called the Tuesday church and asked if someone could meet us with a wheelchair.

At the church, exbf got into the wheelchair, and I got in driver's seat to park the car. Inside a Fall fair/carnival was set up as a program just for this lunch group. This was the program for the month, celebrating fairs. Several tables had exhibits with handiwork of the church members. Maybe I can remember the displays--wood turning with bowls, sewing with bags for Christmas Child boxes, crocheting, cross stitch, knitting, and other six-foot tables with skills/crafts I cannot remember.

In the middle of the atrium of this church is a round water feature, a pool. Today, it was filled with rubber duckies. Each person could take a turn with a net catching a duck. My duck won me a snack. I wanted socks! Exbf's turn, taken by me, won him a snack, so I got bugles for him. I chose a mini Moon Pie.

Then, there were various games. "How many grandchildren", etc. Exbf won for the person who got in car and drove the furthest distance to come to the lunch. Exbf won by a longshot--65 miles. The next nearest distance was 35 miles. He won a gift bag with goodies as did the other winners. It has a mini metal box with butter cookies and various other candies. He let me have the little bag of chocolate  truffles. Good deal.

While everyone visited the crafts and scooped up ducks, we all had freshly popped popcorn and snow cones...yummy! Delicious!

Lunch was two corn dogs, tater tots covered in cheese with bacon bits on top. Dessert was ice cream with what looked to be fried jelly sticks. He said it was apple something. I am not too sure. This was all fair food.

Someone wheeled him to the car as I drove it up to the curb.

From then on I drove as we went to market where I bought ripe tomatoes, green tomatoes, and yellow squash. I will cut tomatoes for dinner tonight. Written at 3 pm) Green tomatoes will be fried tomorrow and frozen for him next week. I had to cook the squash and more potatoes for tonight's dinner--chicken, potatoes, carrots, cabbage, squash, and sliced tomatoes.

After the market, I headed out to the country to buy honey. A 22 ounce glass jar of fresh honey cost $7. I know it is pure honey. I went ahead and bought two 22 ounce jars for $14. I think that is a good deal. What do you pay for a pint of honey?

Below was written after 6 pm.

We ate dinner in the den to watch the coverage on Las Vegas. I gave him his meal, realized I had forgotten the tomatoes, and brought back two thick slices and put them on his plate. As I walked away, he became apoplectic, spitting and sputtering and a bit of cursing. He was scraping and knocking the tomato around, saying how he did NOT want tomato touching his food. Now, I have known him for 11 years, and have never heard him say he did not want tomato touching his food! I told him just to leave it. NO, it's touching my food! Well, deal with it. He was beside himself. Finally, I hobbled over and did not find tomato on his plate. What did you do with it? I put it in my pocket!

Two slices of tomato in his pocket! How stupid. I demanded the tomato and threw it away. He said I should have known. Then, he said he thought we were having the stuff mixed together. ??? Stew? Yes, he said I told him we would have that. Since I thought we discussed it on Monday, I told him so, but he insisted we talked about it Friday night.  I pointed out that I did not know until Sunday night that he was coming on Tuesday, that  five pounds of ground round takes time to thaw and then cook.

Actually, I told him I was going to make two kinds of meatballs, one kind  in brown gravy and one kind in spaghetti sauce, plus taco casserole, meatloaf, and what else would he like. Then he said stew!

So, he wants to know when I am cooking stew...??? When I have time to thaw the meat and the energy and inclination to cook so many things, that's when.

Seriously, I had the urge to kill. The whole day was perfect until tomato slices touched his food! He  calmed down as fast as he became agitated. Weird. All of it! I will address this behavior later!

Ack! I forgot to cook/steam the cabbage. I was going to add it to the crockpot with the yellow squash. I will put it in the crockpot in a bit and cook it to eat myself.

Today was a beautiful day with the bluest sky and fluffy, snowy white clouds. While I was in Publix, he was cloud watching. He described a tiny cloud that floated along until in a poof it disappeared. I watched out the window and saw another tiny cloud do the same thing. Today was beautiful and peaceful except for the "tomato incident"! I will refer to it as such.

Remember the strawberry incident?

He left a few minutes ago. I put chicken, potatoes, carrots, and yellow squash in the car for him, all cooked. He only wanted a little bit of honey, so he has a large pimiento jar full of honey about 1/3 cup. .He got two chicken breasts and two tomatoes, whole and touching nothing.