05/11/13

We had a busy day today away from the property. There was an event in Lancaster that Andrea wanted to join, which fortunately coincided with the Spring Owner Discount Days at the Good Foods Market.

The event Andrea wanted to attend in Lancaster was the annual Herb & Craft Festival. It was a small event, with maybe ten vendors setup, selling various items. We actually knew two of the vendors, and stopped to chat with them. Maria, from Wonder of Life Farm was there, and she gave us an update on some of the things happening at their place. Deborah, from Halcomb's Knob, who is the organizer of the Field to Fork Festival, was also there. We chatted with her about the upcoming F2F festival, and tried a couple of the cinnamon rolls she was selling. The only other item that we bought was a eucalyptus plant.

After leaving the festival we headed to the Marksbury Farm market. Our original plan was to go to Pike Valley Farm after leaving there, but we were running so early we would have had to kill nearly an hour before their farm store was open. Instead we decided to buy ground beef from Marksbury Farm, and hope that Good Foods had Pike Valley chicken breast in stock.

Since we were running early, and skipped Pike Valley Farm completely, we made it to Lexington much earlier than expected. This allowed us to add an unplanned stop, at Fayette Seed Company. We picked up a bag of bone meal there, although later found that we could have just waited and bought it at Good Foods. I also went into the tractor dealership next door and looked at a pto driven wood chipper, which is similar to a used one I'm considering calling about sometime.

Our next stop was the Good Foods Market, where we did some serious grocery shopping. We really didn't have that many  items on the shopping list, but much of what we did buy were items that we like to stock up on while there. Andrea also picked up a few items for us to try, including couscous, quinoa, and some celtic sea salt.

Since we were in the area, we stopped by the nearby fabric store so Andrea could look for fabric for an upcoming project. We then went in search of food, since it was getting late and we hadn't eaten anything since the cinnamon rolls this morning. Andrea was in the mood for a burger, and I wanted somewhere we could sit and relax, so we ended up at Ted's Montana Grill. I normally don't talk about specific restaurants on the blog, but I thought Ted's was worth a mention. While their food is expensive, it is very high quality. I really like the fact that they offer bison, which I get, in addition to ground beef. I also appreciate the fact that Ted's uses environmentally friendly products such as paper straws and efficient lighting. There aren't many restaurants whose website has a link labeled Sustainability right next to Menu and Locations. Even if I didn't love the food, I'd still want to support a place like this, in hopes that other restaurants would follow their lead.

After eating we went in search of some wine which, as I've mentioned before, we have started cooking with. I had thought that we'd have to visit a local winery to find Kentucky made wine, but we found a store with a wide selection from Kentucky wineries, so was able to pick up a couple of bottles from different ones to try.

After a couple of other small stops we headed home. It was getting late by the time we made it, so after carrying in the groceries we spent the remainder of the day relaxing.