Fun On The Streets

Reason number 271 that New Orleans is awesome: Greenness. It's not a word, but it should be. There are ever so many more environmentally minded awesome people here. I'm sure that's due to the fact that there are substantially more people in the immediate area than in any other place I've live, but I'm glad that with so many people around, those that are "aware" (not just specifically about the health of the planet, but of other good-doing issues as well) stand out and shine through.

Saturday Shelby and I went to our first Crescent City Farmer's Market Downtown at the corner of Girod and Magazine, which happens every first Saturday. It was inside a warehouse, and would benefit from having some fans or something to tamp down the heat that comes from being in a sun-drenched metal building surrounded by other people, but it was great nonetheless. People were selling salad & cooking greens and vegetables of many varieties, jars and jars of homemade preserves and jellies, Smith's Creamery was there selling cow's milk (the same dairy that we buy our butter from, both of which can be picked up at Rouses), fresh goat milk and cheese (the tastiest chevre I've ever had- especially drizzled with olive oil and sprinkled with sea salt, garlic and thyme!), organic juices and popcicles, bakery fresh breads and desserts. You can also buy your own herb plants, tomato plants and other plants. There were even a few people selling fresh meat, mostly lamb and goat. A guy was selling home grown mushrooms of the wild varieties and mushroom starter kits, which I'd like to look further into, and since I'm the only one in the house that eats mushrooms, they'd be all mine! Mwaha! A woman and her children were selling tamales, of which we bought two, and someone was selling home made Greek food. And I've never seen so many fresh strawberries. Being the day before Easter, one of the coordinators had boiled eggs to give to children in little "nests" (Shelby was really disappointed when she realized the egg she'd been given wasn't going to hatch), and we got to pet a baby chicken who was there promoting hatchling sales. They sell all types of yard birds, including turkeys and guineas. I may just have to work on Dustin a bit more to let me get some chickens. We got there late, so a lot of the stuff was gone or dwindling, but we'll know better next time.

After making the rounds, buying a few things and getting surveyed by the woman at the door, Shelby and I walked back down the street with our goat cheese, cheese tamales and Cherokee heirloom tomato plant to our car a few blocks away. If there's one thing, other than my love of green chiles, that I learned living in New Mexico, it's an appreciation for scratch-made tamales sold by someone's mama. We stopped halfway to sit on a concrete block on the sidewalk and have our snack. There was a nice breeze blowing, and it was great to eat street food on the street and relax.

Snack finished, goodies loaded and seat belts fastened, we drove to Napoleon where we parked to attend the Freret Street Fair. The deceptively sized event was just absolutely fantastic. So much so that I had to will the goofy smile off my face. It really didn't look like much from the street, but looks can be deceiving. Inside that chain link fence was a cross section of all things New Orleans. A live band, featuring my favorite of all instruments, the washboard, played for the crowd, where dogs from the Humane Society wearing "Adopt Me" vests made the rounds with their young volunteers and the smell of food wafted through the air.

Having been volunteers with the ASPCA back home, Shelby and I signed up for our local branch. I also signed up with the Sula foundation, a local Pitbull rescue (that happens to share my grandmother's unique name). We signed the petition provided by the Gulf Restoration Network asking Wal-Mart to stop selling cyprus mulch, which I found out is taken from our natural hurricane barriers rather than made from wood manufacturing scraps, like I thought. Fight the Blight was there handing out neighborhood information and listings of homes for sale in the area that are being offered (mostly) at decent prices to those that are willing to get their hands dirty and do some renovating. I was pleased to meet the friendly folks from Hands On New Orleans, an organization that offers opportunities to volunteer in the community through their e-mail list. They send periodic updates of things going on in the community that you can choose to participate in, or not. There's no pressure (because if I'm going to volunteer, it's not really volunteering if I do it because someone guilted me into it!), which I love, and you can search their calender for specific projects you're interested in. I'm looking forward to my first event!

There was booth after booth of eclectic goodness. Art, crafts, books, clothing, found objects-turned-jewelry, unique utilizations of beer caps and magazine ads, glass decorations, comic books, too many things to name. We're going to start giving our used wine bottles, great quantities that we produce, to a woman that kilns them into submission and makes serving boards out of them. A man was selling hand blown glass works that he and his wife make downtown at the New Orleans Glassworks studio. The studio offers classes for a decent fee, and I've been dying for Dustin and I to go. Across the way from him was a very nice man and his daughter selling stone coasters with iconic New Orleans signage on them. I just love those things. Dustin has a large one on his chair table, as he usually has more than one drink with him at any given time. The man making them uses one as a mouse pad. There are standard sized ones as well, of course. Theirs is a family production, even getting the kids involved, who affix the cork to the bottoms of the tiles. The Big Easy Rollergirls were in attendance promoting their sport and hawking their shirts and stickers. They were friendlier than I expected, I admit, and tried to recruit Shelby early, to which she just blushed and spurted "I love roller skates!" before hiding her face in my skirt. I really look forward to going to my first match (or game, or whatever they call it) and reporting back to you all the guts and glory details. There were several people selling clothes, among them Fleurty Girl (highly recommended by Laura), a shop called Skull De Lys with edgy, urban-style NOLA gear, and a woman selling Nepalese cotton shirts and wraps. I wish I could find the e-mail address she wrote down for me, because the children's clothes were perfect for Summer and only $10 each.

And the food! I should have brought more money and had lunch. I only brought a few bucks because I didn't intend to spend any. I'm still kicking myself. I had my first official New Orleans Sno Ball (still hard for me not to say "snow cone"), coconut, just like the necklace Dustin got for my birthday from Mignon Faget. The stand was a trailer made to look like a streetcar, which, of course, made the sno balls taste better. They came in a Chinese takeout box, just like the fries someone else was selling, fried with whole heads of garlic, fresh rosemary or dusted liberally with parmesean cheese. Fish tacos, gumbo, BBQ, pasta made from vegetables (Shelby Approved uncooked pasta, which will soon be available for home delivery). The mingling aromas of all the mouthwatering choices provided a high that can only come from the combined stimuli of an outdoor event.

I'm sure I've missed a few things, there was just so much to see and smell and talk about. I don't know when the next one is, or if it's a monthly or yearling thing, bit I hope the former, as this was something I want to experience again and again. Luckily, in New Orleans, there's always something happening right around the corner.

Yesterday before the in-laws returned to Texas, we took them to do a little wandering on Magazine street. We took them by the Occassional Housewife and, of course, ended up buying a few things ourselves- an old copy of The Dreamer inscribed "Albert S. Hurley, Yale 1929" (I collect pre-1955 vintage books, I'm obsessed!) and a butterfly-shaped hamper for Shelby. We also stopped into an art gallery and antique store called Berta's and Mina's Antiquities. Inside was a plethora of huge, folk-artsy paintings in New Orleans style. Lots of dancing and music, and a lot of religious scenes like nativities and Madonna & Child portraits, many with comments or titles painted around the edges. Created on doors, shutters and all kinds of other seemingly found canvases, it made for quite the colorful collection. I didn't really notice much furniture or many antiques, but we were starving so didn't make it to the back room of the shop. There were some other pieces by other people near the door, as well as some prints, and Dustin spotted a framed print of a cat he liked for his mother. After she went outside he inquired about the price: $4,000. For a print. Of a cat with a chair. I get that art is super-duper expensive, and a lot is well worth it. But that wasn't a $4,000 cat. I'm just sayin'.

It was raining, so we hurried back to the car, past St. Henry's and their cute little nativity scene made of 2x4's. Momee wanted a po-boy, so we took her over to Guy's. Two po-boys was morethan enough to feed all five of us. The shrimp was grand as always. Last time we had Guy's, Dustin had gone to pick it up and brought it home, so it was the first time I had been inside. Space is limited, to say the least, and you order at the counter, next to the giant chess piece (what is it, the one that looks like a horse?). Some of the menu is posted on the chalk board, as well as the Saint's current win/loss ratio (which has had a minor slip in the last two weeks, unfortunatly, but hey, all streaks come to an end at some point... they're still in the play-offs, though! Who Dat!). And did I mention that on the sides section of the menu, they also have fried pork chops listed? So they have poboys, potatoes, and pork chops. Sounds good to me.