You know when you really want something and have been thinking about it for a few days and when the time comes- no dice? Well, that is exactly how I felt on Friday at the farmers market. I was down to the last few cucumbers on Thursday, so I just threw them in my juicer and thought “tomorrow I will get so many fresh ones.” I was sadly mistaken. No cucumbers for this cucumber junkie. They did, however, have English cucumbers from a neighboring farm, but they were wrapped in plastic. I so wanted to just close my eyes, pick one up and pretend I did not see that plastic. I came home cucumberless- until next week, I hope.

On a brighter note, the weather has been gorgeous here in Texas all week long. Little E and I spent lots of time outside together. On the week-end we headed to the Botanical Gardens in Fort Worth. We walked through the rose garden and the Japanese Garden. Every time we go to the Botanical Gardens, I wish I had the slightest green thumb because I would love to grow a garden. I can’t even keep a poinsettia that I saved form the trash alive. How will I care for multiple flowers? Perhaps I could start with a cucumber plant?

1-PURCHASES

Farmers market (all grown in Texas)

• 6 small cartons of strawberries
• 2 cartons of small tomatoes
• 12-14 large tomatoes
• 8 red peppers
• 4 red onions
• 15 super large carrots- I mean gigantic
• 1 bunch of fresh basil
• 1 large bag of collard greens
• 10 oranges
• 15 apples
• 1 carton of eggs

Sub-Total: 77.00

Whole Foods

Bulk

• cashews (3.47 lbs)
• almonds (3.49 lbs)
• Brown rice (2.73 lbs)
• Black dry beans (2.71 lbs)

Non-Bulk

• 5 glass bottles of Kombucha
• 1 loaf of bread in a paper bag
• 2 x baking soda in cardboard container
• Apple cider Vinegear in glass jar
• Tortillas chips in paper bag

Sub-Total: 108.58

Non-food items

• Naturalpath appointment 175.00
• Organic summer clothing for little E because Texas is HOT 80.01

Sub-total: 255.01

Restaurants

• Wednesday: J.P had his weekly lunch at Chipotle 10.07
• Thursday: J.P went to a hockey game and got some grub with a friend 20.00
• Saturday: We went to Chipotle for lunch 15.48
• Sunday: I went to lunch at Chipotle alone 6.75

Sub-Total: 52.30

Total: 384.31

2-COMPOSTING

We had crazy amounts of composting this past week. I do try to use as much juice pulp as possible, but since I juice so often I can’t seem to keep up with. I figure at least half ends up being composted and not sitting in a landfill.

The total weight of our compost was 15.5 lbs.

3-RECYCLING

I feel as though our recycling bin is emptier this week- finally. I am not sure if it is because I began reading Plastic-Free by Beth Terry this week or if it is just a coincidence. We are consciously trying to reduce the amount of plastic we purchase, and hopefully our recycling will decrease even more over the next few weeks.

4-TRASH

Our trash basket this week was pretty much empty once again Yay to us. I am happy with our efforts so far and believe that we can reduce our waste weekly even more. I honestly never would have thought 7 months ago that we would be able to pull this off. I am so looking forward to what the next 5 months will bring.

Our garbage this week comprised of the usual suspects: receipts, pieces of plastic from my Kombucha bottles, 1 piece of plastic wrap from tempeh, and a few random pieces of plastic. Oh, and no stupid plastic stickers this week because we are solely purchasing our produce from the farmers market. Little E’s sticker album project will have to be put on hold for the time being.

5-TRAVEL

This week J.P drove to work one day. I travelled to the Little Gym, the the farmers market and Whole Foods. We also did some local driving to Chipotle and the Botanical gardens. Oh yes- we also had to drive around on two different nights because a certain someone did not want to go to sleep.

The total distance traveled on the TDI was  348.1 km ( 216 mi) and we did not have to fill up the tank.