Holy Hot Pepper Batman!

The Arcata farmer's market is a shit show of humanity. The Juggling guy on a unicycle, Brazilian drums lines, “art” peddlers, farmers in their stalls, and always some dude in a trance doing a trace dance without a shirt. Someone give that man a crystal for christ sake! The farmers try to take the spotlight with their fruits, vegetables, starts, and cut flowers, but we're all their for the same thing. Beautiful Women. Its best not to arrive until after noon. That's when the crowd gets there, and if you're lucky, the sun will be kind enough to burn off the fog and the before mentioned beautiful women will take off their sweaters and leggings.

I managed to acquire some smiles and looks from many in the crowd, old college friends included, for my dazzling cowboy hat and radiant smile. The smile I can no doubt thank the juice for since all day I have glowed to the reflection of my inner-self outward. Not only does Juice make you feel great, it makes you write sentences like that last one. With my trusted Juice in hand, an apple lemon ginger concoction, I made my rounds past the numerous farmer's stalls looking for deals on bulk grade B produce.

My big score of the day was a bunch of apples for a buck a pound from an old woman. I bought her out! I like buying my produce from the smaller farmers who have the least to sell. She was glad to sell them and even gladder to hear I was juicing. My next big score were some hot peppers, mostly jalapeno, with a few spicier ones to round out the flavor of this evenings virgin bloody mary. Quite good by the way, and a delicious addition to last nights already smash hit. I believe, and will stand by this statement at least until I deal with the fire dragon that might visit me later, that drinking spicy pepper juice while juicing makes the whole experience worth it. Who on earth would juice a jalapeno? This guy. 

Some of the apples, a large honeydew, more tomatoes to keep this mock-tail train moving, and some of my spicy peppers!

Juicing requires a huge input of vegetables to keep the feelings of starvation at bay.  If you don't believe me you should see the pulp in my compost pile.  The farmer's market is a great way to get a ton of produce directly from the farmer while paying a reasonable price.  An even better option would be getting involved in a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture), where you pick up a box of produce every week from the farm.  Some CSA's are paid for in advance of the season and others are week to week.  Either way you provide the farmer with steady income from contracted buyers.  The best way of course is to grow all your produce yourself.  Its free, easy, and can be done in any small space.  And you can always pick up something you didn't grow at the farmer's market as an excuse to check out the Beautiful Women.